NOTE: Groundhog image is by GuilaneNachez and is available via morgueFile.

It’s been very cold here.  How cold?  Well, I thought it was cold on Tuesday when it was 11 degrees outside.

Then, on Wednesday, I was sure it was cold when it was 0 degrees.

But on Thursday, it definitely was cold.  My car reported that it was -4 degrees.  Yes, that’s four degrees BELOW zero!

With all this cold weather, a nice hot cup of hot chocolate would be nice.  Especially if it was in a Pickle Weasel mug.

(NOTE: Pickle Weasel is a creation of JC Little from The Animated Woman.  She’s also got a Pickle Weasel app that I can’t wait to try.)

My Aloha Friday question for today is: How cold is it by you?

P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #174

On Thursday, I was cleaning off my car when I slipped on some ice.  My legs went down under my car while the rest of me fell into the snowbank.  I was unhurt (or so I thought at the time) but had trouble getting up due to the slick surface under my feet.  I finally got out from under my car, dusted off my pants, and headed into work.  Unfortunately, my “unhurt” status changed over the course of the day as my neck/back began to hurt.  I realized that I must have wrenched it on the way down.

On Friday, we got at least nine additional inches of snow.  The following morning, I took some photos of the beautiful landscape.

Then, we went to B’s parents’ house.  Their driveway had been plowed and they had a mountain of snow in their backyard.  The boys and I had fun playing in the snow for a couple of hours.

While this was fun, we’ve also had our gutters fall down from the weight of the ice on them and our seasonal snowfall totals are over 77 inches.  (Normal snowfall for the entire season is under 49 inches.)  The sea of white makes for driving difficulties (narrowed roads, trouble getting out of our driveway, blocked views when going around turns) and blinding reflections.  I’m ready for these piles to melt (even though I know we’ll have a flooding/muddy mess for awhile) and for the warmth to begin.  It’s March now.  Is it Spring yet?

I’ve written before about our snow problems.  Chief among them are ice dams.  Basically, due to poor insulation in our upstairs room, heat warms our upper roof and snow on that roof melts.  The dripping water refreezes on the lower roof.  Over time, the ice gets very thick and very heavy.  We tried various methods of removing the ice, but had only limited success.

With the recent warm weather, we noticed two things.  First of all, the ice was melting and thus was separating from the roof.  Secondly, the gutter on one side of our house was bending.  Obviously, the ice was shifting.  Instead of putting its considerable weight on our roof, it was placing the weight on the gutter.  I decided to remove the ice dams before any serious damage was done.

I positioned a ladder and carefully scaled it.  Once at the top, I used a hammer to chip away at the ice.  Small chunks flew from the giant ice block.  (Fast moving, but small chunks of ice really hurt when they hit your face, by the way.)  Then some big chunks fell off.  I descended the ladder to reposition it so I could reach more of the ice.  As I stepped off the ladder, there was a creaking/ripping sound.  Suddenly, the ice came crashing down, bringing our gutters with it.

Here are some photos of the aftermath.  That hunk of ice was *heavy*!

With the ice down, inspiration struck.  Here’s my own little creation.  I call it Ice Henge.  I shall pray to it in the hopes that Spring arrives quickly and gets rid of all of this snow and ice.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Has your house ever been damaged by the winter (or other seasonal) weather?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #75