The only real problem is taking out the trash. Normally, I put 30-gallon bags in the back of the car and drive them the 100' feet to the gate and the other 150' feet to road. We all do this. The trash company trucks only serve the main road, and those who live on private roads have much longer stretches than I. Some use this as an excuse to start up their rider mowers or ATVs.
Without the car, I looked over the trash on Monday and decided what absolutely had to go (paper plates and food containers) and what could wait (packing materials from Amazon). Then, I put in as many empty bottles as I could carry easily as I navigated the snow covered 250'. The box of Russian thistles remains for another week.
Unlike most snowfalls, the one from last week lingered. Morning temperatures were below 10, but afternoon ones rose up to 49. When I went into town on Tuesday to buy groceries, it remained on any north facing incline, no matter how slight, and in areas where buildings or trees cast shadows. It was not that the shadows were there long, but apparently just long enough to keep the ground colder.
There actually was more snow in my area than in town. The road I live on goes south into less good lands, and perhaps the different soil type was colder. The lingering snow started about a 1.25 miles from my house. In my yard, the only place that melted was on the east side of the house, where the grasses and narrow bed in front of the retaining wall both were covered.
That day the Weather Service was forecasting “the biggest winter storm event of the season” with very cold temperatures and 100% chance of snow. [1] Unlike last week, this turned out to be accurate in the narrow sense, but not in the broader one. We got the winds and cold, but not the moisture. Maybe 3/4" fell early Wednesday morning, enough to qualify for 100%, but Los Alamos and Santa Fé had snow all day. The winds were so strong, the rooms on the south side of the house were 65 F degrees, while the ones on the more sheltered north side were 74.
By late day, I could see moisture in the air, but nothing seemed to be sticking. By evening I was not sure if snow was falling, or if the wind was moving already fallen snow. In the night, the amount of snow near the house went from 1/4" to 2.5" in an uneven, drifting pattern. In the morning, snow had recovered the area east of the house.
Climates have ways of perpetuating themselves. When temperatures remain cold, the air does not absorb melting snow. Instead, it sinks into the ground. Since there is no new moisture in the air, there are no clouds to trap heat in the night, and temperatures drop and refreeze the day’s melt at the boundary with the ground. The gravel in the drive alternates between being hard and slightly springy to tread upon.
I did not get some bills that need to be paid by the fifth until Tuesday, so had to go into town again on Friday. This time, snow was everywhere. The lawns and scraped fields that were bare on Tuesday were smooth expanses of snow; the fields had grasses poking through.
By yesterday, the snow had melted from the grasses on the east side of the house where the plants continue low levels of photosynthesis in winter. The areas under trees were more likely to have less snow than others. But, on the east side, there was a line. Snow remained in the bed
What’s green in the area: One-seeded junipers, and most cultivated evergreens; Japanese honeysuckles and all the cultivated yuccas.
What’s green in my yard: One-seeded juniper and cultivated yuccas; anything shorter is under snow.
Animal sightings: When I was walking along my fence with the trash on Monday, I saw the rabbit had come into the yard through the section of wire farm fence, and something else, probably the ground squirrel, had wandered around my neighbor’s truck. He also had left his vehicle outside his gate.
During breaks in the snow at higher elevations, I saw some robins near the house late Wednesday afternoon.
When I was out Friday, the rabbit or rabbits had made two trips into the yard. One entered under the gate, and the other under the wooden fence. I did not see anymore tracks on Saturday.
Tasks: Confined to the house, I did some work on the annual records, but only got from columbines through Siberian elms. I can only tolerate so much of this at a time.
Weekly update: Something seems to be attacking the cottonwoods and globe willows. A couple years ago, in 2015, mine died back at the top. I thought it had simply put down roots when it was wet, and now was retrenching. The man I called to cut down the branches in 2020 said it was infected with borers, and showed me the holes where the woodpecker had gone after them.
He told me cultivars like my cottonless Siouxland were more vulnerable to insects than natives (Populus deltoides wislizeni). In addition to cutting out all the damaged wood he could find, he sprayed the tree with an insecticide. Two years ago, it put up some suckers. This past summer, it abandoned more branches, but put outs lots of new growth lower to the ground. It also sent up suckers everywhere.
The problem is not just mine. Last summer, one man down the road cut down a large tree. Again, it is hard to know if it is insects, drought, or both.
Cottonwoods are in the same family as globe willows (Salix matsudana umbraculifera). Mine as become a nuisance because it always has dead branches, which drop in the wind. In the past few weeks I noticed two people living closer to the river who had magnificent trees had cut them down. Both were close enough to houses to cause problems if they, like mine, were beginning to molt.
The Douglass Spruce (Pseudotsuga menziesii) are all but gone, the victim of drought drying up water deep in the ground where their roots feed. This winter someone cut the tree at a vacant house after it died. I suspect the owners had died, and the heirs had not yet settled the estate. Anyway, they not only cut down that tree, but every tree and large yucca in the yard, even though they were all surviving benign neglect.
Notes on photographs:
1. East side taken 31 January 2022.
2. Same area on 2 February 2022.
3. Same area on 5 February 2022.
End notes:
1. NOAA weather forecast for Los Alamos and Santa Fé areas, 30 January 2022.
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