[flu189]

We are due to get into the more seasonable temps soon and then we will get to play in the mud. This winter for some reason has just been a drag on everybody I know, even many of the outdoors type folks I work with. Maybe it's just the general crappy feeling of all the other external factors which are omnipresent. Statistically by heating degree days we actually are right around average for the season, but zero and below which it has been the past few nights around my way is quite a bit below normal.

[reindeerlady]

Originally Posted by pabear

Bring it on! If it isn't going to snow anymore it might as well be warm Enter the fifth season...mud and more mud. My father made syrup for most of my childhood so this time of the year brings back a lot of memories. The smell of sap in the evaporater and daffodils popping up (in the grocery store)....it's Spring (or at least it is to me).

Me too! I love the maple sugaring season - and daffodils are one of my favorite flowers. They are outside early against South facing foundations, too. I also love the smell the air gets when the snow is melting and the sun is warm - ahhhh, Spring! But, then comes Summer and that dreaded heat and I find myself itching for Fall and Winter again. I am so grateful we have the four seasons here. Mud season, the "fifth" season, used to be so bad cars would constantly get stuck on the back roads where I lived. Farmers with tractors and chains, mud on your boots- the look that if you came one step further into the kitchen you were toast from your mother - good memories, all.

[Former_Yankee]

Originally Posted by Sherylcatmom

That's so funny! If you replace "Vermont" with "South Florida" and "winters" with "summers," that's my life story. Even as a young child I knew I'd move to a cold climate ASAP. And here I will stay. Good thing there are lots of climates for all of us to choose from.

That is true. I am definitely a warm weather person. I talk to my parents everyday who still live in Vermont. The conversation usually goes something like this:

Me: "How is the weather up there in Vermont?"

My Parents: "We got three feet of snow yesterday and we spent the whole day shoveling snow. The guy who plows our driveway has already been here three times. It is freezing cold outside. The temperature is only 10 degrees right now. How is the weather in North Carolina?"

Me: "It has been chilly down here also. It was only 50 degrees here today with brilliant sunshine."

My Parents: "Shut up!"

For what it's worth, my parents swore that this would be the last winter that they would ever spend in Vermont. I think they have their eyes on Florida.

[chaz longue]

The ski season is just beginning. For the next 6 weeks or so, as often as possible, we'll be leaving green grass in our yards, driving to the mountains, and skiing on soft snow in ballcaps and sunglasses. The question will be "did you bring your sunscreen"? Not "are you warm enough?".

The trick first thing in the morning, is to make sure - for the first run, when you may be dressed more like a skier typically dresses - not to attach your ticket to your parka. Because by lunch time, you may want to start shedding those heavy layers and ski in a fleece jacket, a sweater, or a windbreaker, and you don't want to have your ticket on your parka which is much too warm to wear.

Days like this, I often end up skiing in a cotton turtleneck with the sleeves pushed up, and light gloves on, not for warmth but just because skiing bare handed feels funny.

People eating barbeque and drinking red wine on the deck...pond skimming...goofy Easter costumes...soft easy bump skiing...corn snow... Million dollar views from the top, with hoar frost on the trees in the morning, blinding sunshine, white in the foreground, and then green fields on the dairy farms in the middle distance, and the blue of the lakes in the distance.

From one of my favorite places to eat lunch at the summit - a few footsteps up above the lift - you can see Mt Mansfield, Mt Washington (and the rest of The Presidential Range), Southern Quebec if not quite to Montreal, Whiteface and the rest of The Adirondacks, and if you know where to look, even Killington and Pico. There's a collection of radio transmitters (including that of WDEV, "Radio Vermont") and a wooden observation deck nestled in the pines, and seldom another soul around.

It's my favorite time of year...

[quickdraw]

Well it was a pretty easy winter for us until this week. Our driveway is shielded by pine trees, so while everyone else got a pretty good thaw last week, our driveway half melted and then froze again. Then with the snow we had a couple of days ago, the snowplow guy tried to get up the driveway and couldn't- too icy.

So we went down the hill in our 4wd vehicle in rollercoaster fashion, luckily stopping before we got in the road. Parked the car at the bottom of the hill in the evening and walked up because driveway was too icy. Only had to do that for a day, although the 2wd vehicle is grounded for a couple of days til we get more sun.

We would have been in a real jam if we got a lot of snow and the plow couldn't make it up. Like many people in Vermont with the uphill driveway, ice is the main concern. Ours at least dumps us on a road that gets one car every half hour. I look at some of those steep driveways that go directly into Rt 2 or RT 2A and wonder how the heck they do it.

We had thick thick ice for about a week with nothing to grip. This was the first year I got snowtires for the 4wd vehicle and I'm lucky I did. The all season tires we had been using wouldn't have had a chance and we'd end up sliding off the driveway into the pine trees yet again. I popped for the top of the line Bridgestone Blizzaks-expensive but they seem to defy physics on uphill ice.

[LisaMc46]

Originally Posted by quickdraw

Well it was a pretty easy winter for us until this week. Our driveway is shielded by pine trees, so while everyone else got a pretty good thaw last week, our driveway half melted and then froze again. Then with the snow we had a couple of days ago, the snowplow guy tried to get up the driveway and couldn't- too icy.

So we went down the hill in our 4wd vehicle in rollercoaster fashion, luckily stopping before we got in the road. Parked the car at the bottom of the hill in the evening and walked up because driveway was too icy. Only had to do that for a day, although the 2wd vehicle is grounded for a couple of days til we get more sun.

We would have been in a real jam if we got a lot of snow and the plow couldn't make it up. Like many people in Vermont with the uphill driveway, ice is the main concern. Ours at least dumps us on a road that gets one car every half hour. I look at some of those steep driveways that go directly into Rt 2 or RT 2A and wonder how the heck they do it.

We had thick thick ice for about a week with nothing to grip. This was the first year I got snowtires for the 4wd vehicle and I'm lucky I did. The all season tires we had been using wouldn't have had a chance and we'd end up sliding off the driveway into the pine trees yet again. I popped for the top of the line Bridgestone Blizzaks-expensive but they seem to defy physics on uphill ice.

We have a similar driveway. It's shaped like a snake which makes it that much harder to navigate. Luckily, we don't have any trees along it but it still gets icy when the temperature goes up and down. I used to get stuck constantly while driving my minivan up it. The propane truck driver can't even get up it if it's icy.

This year I've been using traction sand (you can get a 50 pound tube of it at the hardware store for about $6). It makes a huge difference when I sprinkle it on the curvy parts of the driveway. I've also gotten studded tires, which have helped. Of course, we bought the house in the summer when we were impressed with the mountain views and not even thinking about how we'd navigate the driveway in the winter.

[Summerz]

Originally Posted by LisaMc46

We have a similar driveway. It's shaped like a snake which makes it that much harder to navigate. Luckily, we don't have any trees along it but it still gets icy when the temperature goes up and down. I used to get stuck constantly while driving my minivan up it. The propane truck driver can't even get up it if it's icy.

This year I've been using traction sand (you can get a 50 pound tube of it at the hardware store for about $6). It makes a huge difference when I sprinkle it on the curvy parts of the driveway. I've also gotten studded tires, which have helped. Of course, we bought the house in the summer when we were impressed with the mountain views and not even thinking about how we'd navigate the driveway in the winter.

Makes sense though lol at the time.
Ya Learn with experience.
Have thought about it over time.....
I know I would not want a house on a corner/stop sign with all the traffic stopping and going or headlights in your windows all night.

[quickdraw]

Originally Posted by LisaMc46

We have a similar driveway. It's shaped like a snake which makes it that much harder to navigate. Luckily, we don't have any trees along it but it still gets icy when the temperature goes up and down. I used to get stuck constantly while driving my minivan up it. The propane truck driver can't even get up it if it's icy.

This year I've been using traction sand (you can get a 50 pound tube of it at the hardware store for about $6). It makes a huge difference when I sprinkle it on the curvy parts of the driveway. I've also gotten studded tires, which have helped. Of course, we bought the house in the summer when we were impressed with the mountain views and not even thinking about how we'd navigate the driveway in the winter.

Oh yeah, we've got "the curve" too. Not to mention one side of the curve is lower than the other. All the action starts at the curve. Fasten your seatbelts.

[flu189]

Quite a few of us seem to have long driveways with requisite inclines and curves to qualify for scenic road status. I too experience icing issues and have placed six Rubbermaid Brute trash bins (green or gray) along the drive. In the summer I fill them with sand and that amount is plenty to last the winter as you only need to lightly spread it for traction and then it actually works it's way into ice anyway. To keep the sand from freezing into a chunk of granite I mix it with a bit of salt and then load the drums on the sunniest and driest day possible. Also, the new coffee can style, plastic with the handle, works great as a spreader and you leave one in each can.

[quickdraw]

Originally Posted by flu189

Quite a few of us seem to have long driveways with requisite inclines and curves to qualify for scenic road status. I too experience icing issues and have placed six Rubbermaid Brute trash bins (green or gray) along the drive. In the summer I fill them with sand and that amount is plenty to last the winter as you only need to lightly spread it for traction and then it actually works it's way into ice anyway. To keep the sand from freezing into a chunk of granite I mix it with a bit of salt and then load the drums on the sunniest and driest day possible. Also, the new coffee can style, plastic with the handle, works great as a spreader and you leave one in each can.

Every year is different. Last year we had one day in Feb or March that got up into the sixties and below freezing next day. That screwed up my driveway for a solid month.

Last week, we had the thickest slab of ice, like frozen waves, that we ever had. I was walking down the center of the driveway,because the frozen part doesn't have room on either side, throwing gravel down when I started sliding. There was nothing I could do. I was squatting down and to my amazement, I wasn't falling. Very coordinated. I slid about 12 or 15 feet
and made it to the snowside of the driveway. I just had to put one foot in the snow. Choked though and muffed the landing. Fell over like a kid on a tricycle.Would have been a perfect 10 too.