It started to snow this morning. It started to snow REALLY HARD, with flakes the size of quarters. It 's just above freezing outside, so the snow is an extremely wet and heavy snow.
Heavy snow has its good points ( It packs well for snowballs and snowmen! ) and bad points ( It breaks your back when you shovel it. ), but today it's simply dangerous. Well, I don't know if the snow itself is dangerous, but the trees being covered with it certainly are.
Most snowstorms arrive when the trees are already bare of leaves. However, today is only October 29th. While some leaves have certainly fallen already this Fall, the vast majority of leaves are still on the trees, and about half of those leaves are still green. These leaves are collecting a huge amount of wet snow, so the branches are bearing far more weigh than they normally would in a snow storm. You can imagine what that might lead to, but seeing it for yourself can be really scaring, especially if you happen to the close to the trees.
As soon as it started to snow this morning, the boys were itching to get outside. However, the last thing I wanted was for them to get soaked in all that wet snow and slush, so I convinced them to stay inside for a while. However, as it became clear that the snow was sticking and there wasn't much slush, I decided to cede to Peter's request to go outside. I let him go out in our backyard, while I watched from the glass sliding door that connects our kitchen to our deck ( Michael was still inside, and I wasn't actually looking forward to going outside in this weather ). As I watched Peter play outside, I began to notice all the snow on the branches. I also noticed a fairly large branch on the ground in our neighbor's backyard. I called out to Peter and asked him to come back to the deck. When he got to the deck, I told him that he was only allowed to play in the part of the yard that was not under the trees.
A minute or so after that, the first branch came down in our yard. There was a large cracking sound, and it looked like there was a small avalanche happening in the trees in the back our yard and a relatively small branch hit the ground. A few minutes later, I head another large crack but I didn't see a branch ( I later noticed a second branch on the ground in our neighbor's yard. ). While Peter was safe in the treeless part of the yard, I was still relieved when he came in a few minutes later.
However, as soon as Peter got inside, Michael decided that he wanted to play in the snow. I decide to let Michael out, but before I sent him outside, I sat him down and set very script parameters for where he could go in the yard. He would need to stay in one small treeless corner of the yard, and he would have to stay in my sight at all times.
While Michael was having fun, the branches continued to crack.
Crack! A branch fell in the back left corner of the backyard.
Crack! A branch fell in the right side of the backyard.
Crack! Crack! Crack! I could hear branches falling all over the neighborhood.
CRACK! This last crack sounded like a gunshot. I watched as a HUGE branch fell to the ground in middle of the backyard ( The thing is about 12 feet long and 10 feet wide. Perhaps I'll post a photo later, but Ruth is out and has our camera with her ). About a split second after that thing hit the ground, I called out "Michael! Inside Now!"
Anyway, the boys are now both safe inside, as I sit here thinking about how I'm going to manage to dispose of these 4 ( and counting! ) branches in the backyard.
Rich
