pictures

Snow banks!

March 13, 2008 - pano
The grader went by on Tuesday night - good thing because Freda and I both got stuck on the way home. As a result, we now have snow banks that are about six feet high. I took this photo from the normal place where I take the panorama photos. As you can seem you can't see too much!

This is Tawny and Taz, sitting on the snow banks. You can see where the grader's blade pushed the snow up into the snow bank.

The official snowfall this weekend: 51cm

The official snowfall for this weekend was 51cm. That puts the total snowfall for this winter at 406 cm (depending on which source I use for the 'before' snowfall total). The snowfall record is held by the winter of 1970-71, when Ottawa received a massive 444.1 cm.

First snowfall: Nov. 20, 2007
Number of days since first snow: 111
Number of days with snow: 86 (77%)
Number of days without snow: 25
Number of days with snow cover: 111
Number of events with 10 or more centimetres: 11
Average number of 10-plus-centimetre events: 4

Tawny is walking on the snowbank built by the snowblower. This snowbank is so dense that the dogs can walk on top of it without sinking in.

And it also makes a handy bench.

Tawny loves the Frisbee as well as the Kong.

This is the bend in the road. The guy who plows the road has made (at least) six passes here already, but the snow is so deep it hardly looks like anything has been done.

After 45cm or 50 cm of snow...

We received at least 45cm of snow since Friday night. It was so deep, that I had to shovel the top 18 inches off the snow bank before I could use the snowblower.


I shovelled the steps off only about two feet wide, which is the width of the snowblower.


It took me about 3 1/2 hours to clear off the driveway. There was a pretty strong wind blowing too, so I could only blow the snow in one direction.


This is the back yard. The fence is 5 feet how, and the snow is about 3 1/2 feet up the fence.

Still snowing!

Photo taken about 11pm on Saturday March 8th.

This photo is taken out of the laundry room door. There are four steps down from the porch to ground level. On the left of the photo, you can see the arm of a cedar bench sticking up. This makes the snow drift on the porch at least 2 feet deep. The amazing thing (that you can't really see in the photo) is it looks like the level of snow is about the same as you go out beyond the steps so that means the snow is very very deep there.

As of Thursday morning we had received 355 cm of snow. From the Ottawa Citizen (Thursday March 6th):

About 355 centimetres of snow have fallen in the region this year, second only
to the winter of 1970-71, when we got 444.1 centimetres of snow.

As of 9am today (Saturday), we had received almost 20 cm of snow, and the worst was expected this afternoon. Well, it started snowing about 12:30 and hasn't stopped yet. It would not surprise me if we did receive 50 cm of snow (that's about 20 inches, or almost 2 feet.)

Say 'Hello' to Taz

This is Taz. Please say hello to him. He is very happy to see you. Taz is part Coon Hound, and part something else - we think it is either German Shepherd or perhaps Great Dane. In any case, he is a very friendly dog. He is tall and slender -- that's the hound in him -- and his tail is a coffee table weapon of mug destruction (just like Tawny).

We are currently fostering Taz for BARK -- Bytown Association for Rescued Kanines -- although we may adopt him.


Taz came to us on Friday evening, and spent most of the evening (and night!) trotting around the house and whimpering, looking for the previous foster mum. Of course, because Taz has such long legs, his trotting sounded like running.


Taz obviously came from someone who treated him well and trained him well. When you let Taz in from outside, he will sit and let you wipe his paws without any complaints. It is quite unfortunate that his nails are so long that one of them has actually broken. Freda tried to clip his nails (she clips Tawny's nails every week) but he didn't like it. So we called one of our neighbour's who daughter does dog grooming, and she will come over some day next week and do them for us.

Tawny was the last one to settle down for a nap today.

Weather warning: 30-50 cm more snow

Snow & weather

March 6, 2008 - This photo is of the skylights at work - there is so much snow that the skylights are covered. It made it quite dark inside.


We have a weather warning. 30-50 cm of snow coming in the next 36-48 hours. Ottawa has received so much snow that this 2007-2008 winter is now the #2 in the record books for the all time snowfall record.

A Dog's Life

Sitting pretty - waiting patiently for us to get our boots on and go outside.


Looking at something in the distance - perhaps a deer?


What happens after the walk, and most of the day...

Snow, snow, and more snow, and still more snow!

March 6, 2008 - the massive piles of snow in the parking lot at work

March 6, 2008 - this is the small pile of snow...

March 5, 2008 - 22cm of snow had fallen overnight, and I got stuck leaving the garage...

March 1, 2008 - Wild Turkeys near Elgin, Ontario. We must have seen over 100 turkeys in a couple of flocks (if you can call them that).