What does 70 inches of snowfall look like?

Hi. Yes, we got some snow. A bit. Just a few feet. Logan Airport is reporting 70 inches to date, and after some periods of settling/melting/refreezing, we have 3-4 feet at any given spot in the yard. Our piles are much higher than that, of course, since my big manly muscles excel in hurling snow vertically to allow vehicles and persons to pass unhampered. Perhaps today is the day, and this post is the post for collecting our annual official Snowpile Contest entries.

I'll post additional pictures later. For now, let these give a glimpse of the Jackson Household during the Winter 2011. Here we see the back porch. Should you be interested, notice that I haven't disturbed the table behind the recycle bin, and the snow has accumulated about twice as tall as the bin right next to the house.



And here we see the external view. You can tell which side of the house keeps the thermostat up a little higher than the other. Can you tell, left or right? I'll give you a hint: We live on the left, and we keep the house chilly at night. Shoot, I spoiled it.



Yes, we have icicles. Real ones. Not those stringy light ones. I'm hoping our little ice dam doesn't turn into a little roof leak which could lead to a little water in the bedroom. That would be a little bit of a hassle. For now, I am assuming that the ice along the walls are just evidence of the house that our house "breathes" and that our warmer 70% humidity indoors is leaking out to the chilly dry outdoor air.



The neighbors minibarn serves as a decent snow-gauge for the location of the official snowpile. BUT, and this is a BIG BUT, since the winter is only half over and there is a ton of snow in piles on all sides around the culdesac, it remains to be seen if the town will send a front end loader again to combine the piles into one solid mass of snow at the edge of the forest, or whether they will deploy dump trucks to haul snow away like they did that one year. If I had my way, we'd get all the snow in one pile and wait to see if it lasts until June. I'll be sure to send an update when some action is taken as far as further clean-up.



Ian really likes to lick the snow, but I remind him that unless it is fresh-fallen and on the top of the old snow, it's probably not very healthy to eat. Snow gets tainted with "foreign substances." (What? Canadian snow?) For example, here we see our poopy-looking icicles on our house because the handyman didn't get around to clearing our gutters before winter. Ick. Not a pretty sight.


I have really enjoyed driving the Outback through the winter, and have seen days where I am the only one in the office on a blustery day. Weird. Though, I live the closest to the office of all my coworkers and the roads have always had at least a cursory plowing before I've gone out.
The Outback isn't really that small of a car, but it sure seems puny compared to what we've accumulated next to our sidewalk and driveway!


This year's snowfall makes the previous years' accumulation look like a layer of frost.
Snowpile Contest anyone? Here's the traditional view from the front porch. Again, it'll be tough to gauge at this point, since who knows what the city will do to clean up the culdesac between now and spring. I highly doubt they'll remove the pile from next to the minibarn, though.



So have at it, give your best guess. But beware, Molly has a knack for snow-melt-estimation, so if your guess comes in after hers, you'll probably want to stick close to her guess.
For your review here are some links to previous years piles.
2010 pictures (March 30 Joy, with Molly & Shara close behind) were from Feb 2 with St. Patrick's review.
2009 pictures (April 7, Molly & Valerie) were from Jan 31.
2008 pictures (April 18, Molly) first came Dec 14, 2007, but were updated Jan 15, 2008.