Tag: Winter

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A record snow fall

In a five day period, La Pine, Oregon received 48 inches of snowfall. 12.5 of those inches fell in one 12 hour period.. This closed schools, shut down airports, blocked roads and generally inconvenienced everyone in Central Oregon for the past five days.

Being retired made a huge difference in how we felt about the current blanket of white.

It’s beautiful.

It did mean shoveling out walks and driveways about three times a day, for three days. However, even that was done at our own pace.

Growing up in Montana shoveling, driving and living with chest high banks of snow was normal. It was also 30 years ago and we’d not seen this much snow since.

 

But this is not to curse the winter weather, quite the opposite. This winter dressing is great. Like most of the other things we enjoy about living in Central Oregon, the snow is on that list.

Shoveling isn’t my favorite thing, but it’s done in bursts. It presents time to chat with neighbors, and as stated, is done on our time with a hot cup of tea waiting on the other end.

The other and perhaps bigger issue with this MUCH snow is that poor Tip can’t really get into the woods to do his duty. But even he seems to love racing through the powdery cover, that is until it comes up to his chest.

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A week for weather

It’s been one of those weeks. By that I mean, we have had weather patterns that make it difficult to get out and do much more than just a daily walk.

Snow and rain, alternating with cold snaps, mean roads are difficult to navigate or should I say, passable only if you need to be somewhere. So why bother.

However, we can’t just sit, read, and do the crossword. Well, we can…but for a change we drive north 15 minutes to Sunriver. At the height of the season, Sunriver’s network of trails is clogged with families on bikes, making walking with Tip problematic.

Once late fall comes, Sunriver presents a nearly ideal walking location, with it’s paved walk ways (except immediately after a snowfall) which are plowed and mostly free of ice.

There are 40 miles of paths in the resort, and while most of that is around and through housing units, apartments, and condos, there is a great loop of trails branching out from the Nature Center. A nearly 4 mile loop takes you across marsh land and fields, eventually dropping down to the Deschutes River.

We also have been spending time watching the water fowl that winter over on the pond beside the Nature Center. A Trumpeter Swan, Canada geese and a heron are regulars here. So on weeks like this one, we do our walking in the relative comfort of paved paths.

 

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Summer Lake on a winter’s day

In 1843, John Freemont discovered a valley with an alkali lake. On a December day, Freemont’s survey team clammered down a snow-covered cliff they would name Winter Ridge, into a temperate green valley.

Fed by a small spring, Summer Lake has been as long as 15 miles and 5 miles wide.  However, demands from irrigators and dry Oregon winters have left a much smaller lake and large stretches of muddy shoreline.

Like the Klamath basin 80 miles west, Summer Lake valley is home to a wide variety of migratory birds. This was one of the reasons we drove down Highway 31 past Fort Rock, Silver Lake, Summer Lake and finally to Paisley, Oregon. That day there wasn’t an abundance of birds but we were treated to awesome views of the valley. It was a gorgeous day, kind of summer-like.

 

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Shoveling

Winter in Central Oregon requires you to shovel. The average snowfall in our area is two feet. Although, we got a fraction of that in 2017, the year before saw a roof-bowing four feet of the white stuff.

The previous owners of our house left us a snow shovel, which was nice of them, as it has come in handy.

So far this year, we’ve had a half dozen winter storms. One dropped nearly six inches in one day.  Currently, there is about four inches on the ground, and this morning we had a couple of new inches added. The forecast fluctuates between rain/snow mix up to a foot of accumulation.  It’s been a strange week for weather forecasters in Oregon.

Predictions for this week’s weather… looks like I’ll be using the snow shovel. It’s not as bad as I remember from the Montana winters of my youth.

That said, it is the most shoveling I’ve done in many years.  All in all, we are enjoying the snowy winter weather of Central Oregon.

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Better than boots

Tip has a set of ‘dog booties’ that were supposed to offer protection from sharp rocks along the stream. The trouble is, while he’ll tolerate wearing boots, it’s not easy getting them on. It’s more of a problem in the winter, where it’s difficult to find a dropped boot in snow if they fall off.

 

Not sure how we discovered Musher’s Secret. We were looking for a winter solution to paw protection and found it’s easily applied. A couple of times a week we gently rub it into his pads, letting the warmth of hand and paw effect the absorption. It is a ‘tolerated’ process, but goes on quickly and is trouble-free protection. Effective both winter and summer, I think we’ll still use booties when traversing lava and obsidian lined trails.