snow

Wolfeboro Project: 5 Winter Wonders in Wolfeboro
by

Wolfeboro Project: 5 Winter Wonders in Wolfeboro

IMG_2824Our ‘what’s next’ journey at our Happy Place is its second winter season; and as with most home ownership, it’s all about the big bucks. (If I didn’t laugh about it, I’d cry.) These five winter wonders are a mix of fantastic and homeowner dilemmas which I know will make many smile or cringe – or both.

  1. Best Plowing Ever

n the Philadelphia area, the whining, road-preparation and bread-and-milk-runs, begin days in advance of a predicted storm. In New England =- and specifically in the Lakes Region area, winter weather is taken in stride. Most often we hear, “What do you expect? It’s New England!”

There’s no salt-solution spray on the roads in advance of a storm; little road salt used (probably because of extreme cold); and sanding is common. Now, the plowing, local, state and community – is absolutely incredible, For example, in the midst of the March 2017 blizzard, our community plow team (shout-out to #CommunityLandscapeCompany, Wolfeboro) plowed our two neighborhood streets four times – in white-out conditions. This recent January storm, the plows hit our streets numerous times before the storm (to clean up and widen snow-clearing area); during the storm to keep up with the foot or so that fell; and several times after to take care of drifting snow, icing, etc. Fantastic!

2. Mailboxes be Damned

On the flip side of great plowing, mailboxes and the posts they’re on are casualties . Ofttimes, plow trucks will back into or clip the mailboxes that are nearly covered with plowed snow.

3. Schools are Open

 

During extreme weather, yes, schools are closed here since buses, teachers and staff do have trouble getting out for various reasons. Once the storm passes and roads are clear, the next day, these students are back at the bus stop and schools are open (Perhaps with a delay).

It seems schools do NOT close in advance of a storm as they often do in the Philadelphia area. And a little ice and an inch or two of snow will NOT close schools here. It’s great to see kids skipping to the bus stop.

4. Timing is Everything

When it comes to home improvement, timing can be everything. In the midst of the ferociously cold weather here in late December and during the New Year holiday, we noticed a gash in our driveway birch tree. I dug up a business card of a local tree business, Billy’s Best Deal Tree Service. Bill called us back the same day; came out and took a look on a Sunday afternoon; gave us a fair price for  tree removal; called us the night before he was coming; and showed up EARLY the next day with a bucket truck, chipper truck and a crew of three. In just over an hour, the tree was safely taken down and the remaining wood cut into manageable pieces for our use as firewood in a year. Yay, Bill! Thank you!

5. Things Happen in Threes

For Christmas, Doug got me a new sofa for the Happy Place living room. Yay! No more 1984 flowered couch with a $2 yard sale (but new) slipcover over it. The couch made my neck hurt. Our gorgeous LazBoy sofa just warms up our living room – which some day will be renovated along with the kitchen.

One evening, Doug was bopping around in the dark and bumped into the end table by the new sofa. A glass thermometer, filled with some sort of alcohol shattered. Yes, all over the new sofa. Fortunately with rapid cleanup and luck, there is no stain. All is well.

The birch tree happened next and that is all good.

Now, the 1980s harvest gold refrigerator has died. Dead – no cold, no freezing. So we are in the midst of dealing with that. We have a mini-fridge and a chest freezer, plus some coolers all in action in the meantime. We’ll survive.

Ya Gotta Laugh

The funniest thing that happened in Wolfeboro was during a stop at the Harvest Market. Everyone talks and says, “hi” at the grocery store – even if you don’t know anyone. On my way out with my two reusable bags – one from #RavitzShoprite, a woman coming in remarked,” Shoprite! You must be from New Jersey!.” I responded,”Yes, I’m from New Jersey and it’s time for the “Can-Can Sale.” She said she really misses Shoprite. Funny!

So, what’s next? It’d be great to get through the next couple of months with nothing to worry about. Hold your breath! Long live Happy Place!

by

Nemo Snowmageddon – Really?

Now that the national weather service has started to name storms outside of the hurricane season, storm-naming is really out of control. It’s not enough that this weekend storm is called Nemo – which conjures up images of the sweet orange clown fish in the Disney-Pixar film from 2003 – but the media/weather folks have gone ahead and added Snowmageddon to the mix.

Right after my workout astorm nemot the gym, I headed to the supermarket; NOT because I HAD to get bread and milk, but because I needed a few ingredients for a new recipe. I ended up stopping at three different stores to find the ingredients; that gave me a great overview of the people who were out at 9 this morning. There was the mom with her three year-old strapped in a stroller while she pushed the stroller and two weeks worth of groceries to her car; the elderly woman who was leisurely shopping for a bag of rice and a few apples; an elderly couple without a cart – walking back and forth across the front of the store trying to remember why they were there and what they were there to buy.

The interesting site was the deli counter. At BJ’s in Maple Shade it seemed there were just a few people wastormsnowndering around the store shopping and back at the deli counter THERE were the people who absolutely positively needed a pound of honey ham, two pounds of American and a quarter pound of salami. You know you can’t get through Nemo without your over-salted, fatty lunch meat. OK, I am a sucker for my favorite comfort food lunch: grilled cheese and tomato soup. I go the healthier route: 2% American cheese on Arnold’s Thin Rounds with either Progresso Reduced Sodium Tomato Soup or any other low salt tomato. I suppose the families who needed that lunch meat will be happy they can enjoy their favorite sandwich in the next couple of days.

I will go out on a limb here (this just in) and say that the Philadelphia and South Jersey region will be spared the brunt of this storm. That won’t stop the media from crawling all over the little bit of snow that we’ll get in these parts. I just hope none of the local TV stations make the ridiculous move of sending a local reporter into the mess that will hit Boston and the rest of New England. (Please – I hope that does not happen.)

I saw a TV news report on CBS that included frantic people trying to travel via train or plane today. There was a mom who was trying to travel home with her three small children. She looked so unbelievably stressed because she was having no luck finding transportation home. I hope she finds a hotel room, orders a pizza, rents a Disney movie and has a ball with her kids. Sometimes it’s just not worth getting excited or stressed. You can’t change the weather and you sure can’t control it; ride out the storm; enjoy your family and friends as you stay close to home and we’ll see you on the other side.

 

 

by

We See the Light

We’re getting close to turning the corner in this ferocious winter. I feel it in my bones. Daylight is still hanging on after 5:45 p.m. Woo-hoo!  Pitchers and catchers reported last week (there was definitely some extra pep in my step) and full squad practices are getting underway in Clearwater.

The more than 30 inches of snow from the past few weeks is melting away. Isn’t that huge, gray glob of mess at every corner and in every parking lot disgusting? My son said he wants to start a pool – choose a mound of snow and choose a date when you think the last of that stuff will be gone. I suggested if he does start a pool, any proceeds should go to charity (never say I promoted gambling). Now, the highways are opening up with those craters we un-affectionately call potholes. The contracting and expanding of the roadway, plus the plowing, the salt and sand and pooling of water all leads to these craters that shake our vehicles down to the frame. Why is it that we have a hard time spotting those things before our tire mercilessly goes “splat” into oblivion? Part of the problem is staying out of the way of every other driver who is trying to avoid hitting the pothole that you will hit while you stay out of their way.

Meantime, a brilliant site is blooming on our kitchen window sill. An Amaryllis given to us a couple of years ago sprouted from a seemingly barren pot of soil into this gorgeous, off-pink bloom. Today, we have three blooms on the plant. I know the blooms won’t last a week, but it sure is lovely to see. What actually worked with getting this plant to bloom started last fall. I read somewhere to lay the plant on its side outside and don’t water it. I brought the plant in a few weeks later. It clearly didn’t bloom in time for Christmas, but at this point in winter, I’m appreciating the effort this plant needs!

The cardinals around our house have been foraging for food. I was on the phone in my home office this afternoon and saw another gorgeous sight. A bright, red cardinal landed at the top of the pear tree outside my window and was pecking away at the buds that sprouted in the past few days. The contrast between the grayness of the area and this scarlet bird was stunning.

For now, we cope with whatever winter has left for us. We can dream of spring and vegetable gardens, the far off summer vacation being planned and, yes, ladies and gentleman, for me, baseball.

by

The Frozen Tundra

I haven’t seen great snowman snow like this since I was a kid. Remember when we were in school and the school closings were by name: Woodrow Wilson, Camden, Woodrow Wilson Junior High, Northeast High, Rhawnhurst. Of course they were in alphabetical order, perhaps by county, but we would hunker down by the AM radio, for me usually the old WFIL and listen for that school name. Whoo-hoo! Wilson Junior high CLOSED! I don’t remember makeup days for the snow days. What I do remember is Burholme Park. It has got to be THE best sledding hill in the entire region. I remember at least once, my cousins who lived in Olney, meeting us at that awesome slope. Even today, it is one of the greatest sledding, tubing, “saucering” hill EVER.

I had a red, plastic saucer; sort of a precursor to today’s snow tubes only without the puffy comfort.   I’d get a running start at the tippy-top of the hill just below where the gorgeous Ryerss Estate library still stands today. My feet would leave the ground as I plopped down on my saucer and go speeding and twirling down that glorious hill, savoring every bump and slide. The hill flattens out on what are softball fields in the warmth of spring, summer and fall. After gliding as far as I could on the flat section, I’d jump up and scurry back up that steep slope to do another run on my saucer or mix it up using the wooden sled we had.

My cousin Paul once  sent himself flying down that snowy slope at what seemed like the speed of light. He was much taller and stronger than me. Somehow, he wavered off to the right instead of heading straight down the normal route. He went, “SPLAT” into a tree way over on the side of the large, hilly area. Blood seemed to be everywhere. Thank goodness, it looked worse than it really was. Paul just had a bloody nose. I seem to remember him laughing the whole time. I’m sure our moms were freaking out just a bit.

On a day like this, during a winter like this, I really miss the Burholme Park slope. It was and still is, pure, free, outdoorsy fun. Long live that grand hill and may many more generations of kids on their sleds enjoy that slope as much as I remember enjoying that white monster!