Snow in brasstown jan 2014

Friday morning we awoke to bitter cold weather and a skiff of snow. The temps never climbed out of the 20s. I’ve been wanting a BIG snow. But for now I’ll settle for the small amount we got-you can see it barely covered the grass.

Thinking of the difference between a big snow-and the snow we actually got reminded me of something John Parris wrote in his book My Mountains My People. The name of the article is “Now Talk About Freezin’ Weather”. The piece is basically quoting an elderly man (from Sylva, NC) talking about how the weather isn’t near as snowy nor as cold as it was when he was a boy. There is a line of humor throughout the article-with the man claiming frozen creeks didn’t stop them from Baptizing when he was a boy-they just chopped out the ice and proceeded with the process.

The exact quote which came to mind was:

“We had some big snows as well as ice. Not these little old flour-siftin’ kind nowadays. Back then we’d have snow flakes a big as goose feathers. And it’d get three and four feet deep and just make everything all covered up. Why you wouldn’t know where the roads was and the fences would all be covered over.”

Chickens don't like the snow

 

As much as I loved the small snowfall-the chickens hated it. They totally refused to come out of their coop for the entire day. We enticed them with chopped apples and other goodies-but they were having none of the snow. Silly birds. But I can’t complain about them too much-they still came through with their pretty green eggs for me-even with the cold and their great fear of the white stuff.

Skiff of snow

So now I’ve told you about the flour-siftin’ of snow that fell at my house-tell me what the weather was like at your place.

Tipper

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33 Comments

  1. It was rainy with a bit of a chill in the NC sand hills, but being from NW PA, I remember those BIG BIG snows of our childhood well.
    God bless.
    RB
    <><

  2. Here in Pensacola,Fla I moved plants all day as Monday night it should be 17.It gets cold here one year it went to 8.I just wish we had snow to go with the cold.My chickens just stay in the coop when it is cold or rainy.

  3. About an inch here in south central Ky. My chickens wouldn’t go out either. We have 8 ducks who had never seen snow. They like to hike about 200 feet to the pond and swim all day, but they would walk a few steps then sit down and pull their feet up into their downy bellies to warm up! They finally made it to the pond at some point, then didn’t come in at dark cause they didn’t want to walk back across the snow. Thought we would have to go drive them in tonight, but they were waiting for us at the barn. I bet that was a dang rough night compared to a straw lined box stall! Beth in Ky

  4. We got about 1 inch or so, I guess that would be a skiff…when we woke Friday it was 8.6F degrees, now that was cold! Looks like we’re in for even colder in the next few days, stay bundled up!

  5. Pretty much flour-siftin’ here too so far (tho’ we could sure use some additional moisture). The next couple of days are supposed to be below zero, and it’s sure headed that way.

  6. Very SNOWY and COLD here! We already have close to 5 inches of snow and we have a winter storm watch until 4 a.m. Monday. Our high on Monday believe it or not will be 5 below zero! Monday night will be 9 below and the high on Tuesday will be 4 degrees., Brrrrrrr. Depending on the way the winds blow, we may see another 5 inches of snow. Like the chickens and Miss Cindy, we’re not going out!

  7. Here in Broadview Heights OH, we have 10.5″ of snow on the ground and more coming Sunday night into Monday. It’s about 30* now but minus 2* expected on Tuesday and schools may be closed. I only go out if absolutely necessary, to get the mail and newspaper. Takes me 45 minutes to get to church in good weather; don’t know about tomorrow. I think the good Lord will forgive a 79-year-old for staying home!

  8. We got 10″ of snow, most of it Thursday, a little Friday. I spent two hours with the snowblower Thursday, and my knees & feet have hurt since. Went for groceries yesterday, that didn’t help. Cold doesn’t help, either. THey say the windchill today is like a temp of minus 40 degrees. Warning everyone to stay in if possible, and cover all exposed skin if you have to go out. I won’t clear the newest snow till the wind gets quiet, or temps go up. It may be several weeks before all this melts, depends what sort of fronts come in, and more snow may come before it melts.Glad I don’t live in the far north, but I’m long past ready for spring!

  9. Tipper,
    I don’t mind the cold weather as long
    as the power don’t go off. Friday, I
    woke up to 9 degrees and would have had
    much more than 3″ inches. The wind blew
    some of it into Bryson City, if it even
    stopped there. But Monday or Tuesday I think it will be below zero at my house.
    We’ll see! I still have to use 4-wheel
    drive to get home…Ken

  10. OH it’s fixin to get nasty cold here. Are those Aracunas? (Our chickens hate the snow/cold/rain, too.)
    So I’ll tell you a little chicken story–our daughter-in-law is a preschool teacher, and they hatch eggs and keep the chicks for a while, so the little children can see how the whole egg thing works. She brought us the chickens after they were feathered out, and let me tell you, they are the biggest, dumbest birds I’ve ever seen–they don’t do any of the “normal” things you think of chickens doing, like roosting or chasing/eating insects.
    ANYWAY, what I was really coming by to say was I hope you and yours had a lovely Christmas, and a very Happy New Year to you!
    🙂

  11. Sounds like you have some smart chickens!!
    The wind around here would have turned them into kites. We have a blustery south wind blowing us around but it always does this before a norther blows in. The more the bluster, the stronger (colder) the norther – and this one is supposed to take us into the teens by Monday night – a rarity here in Central Texas (perhaps I should say North Central Texas since I’ve noticed you have another “Central Texas” reader; and “Central Texas” covers a fair patch of land!).

  12. Mornin’ Tipper,
    I would call the snow in your picture more than a skiff! LOL
    We had a “dusting” Thursday night. Friday morning all we could see were a few white places, almost as though someone dusted the tops of the grass with powdered sugar!
    I am dreading the weather coming in for the first of the week! We are supposed to get more than a skiff of snow…maybe two or three inches!
    Mercy, 2 degrees predicted here and wind chill way below freezing after the warm-up snow on Sunday!
    I think it will be “too cold for snow” on Monday and Tuesday!
    I have heard that all my life. It will have to warm up to snow! Have you ever heard that from your area folks?
    I guess it means that warmer air will bring moisture and if it warms up, but still stays below 32 degrees, it will snow??
    I am very sad today!! Our precious Phil Everly died of the Everly Brothers fame!…”All I Have To Do Is DREAAAM, Dream, Dream, Dream! One of my favorite songs by the Everly Brothers!
    I think it was the statement in the song, “dreaming your or my life away!”…but, that’s another story! Yep, in my youth I was a dreamer! LOL
    I remember when the brothers went to West Knox High School and how the young crowd loved to hear them sing! Their music really took a major leap during that time! I guess I was a junior or senior in high school! I remember “wishing and hoping”
    (remember that song?) that they went to the high school that I was going to. I thought then about “how cool” it was to have a growing famous Rock and Roll Duo going to the same school that you were going to and be able to see them everyday! Oh, those youthful, dream-filled days!
    Stay warm, bring in the chickens to the basement…afterall they spent their youth there!..LOL
    I am sure the temperatures will fall below 2 degrees (very dangerous) in the mountains…
    Thanks Tipper,
    PS…The Jays are screaming “thief, thief” this mornin’, must be a hawk (Peregrine Falcon) hunting my sweet snowbirds…

  13. Actually, the weather in Hawaii is so nice that I just wear a t-shirt outside……well, I wear pants sometime….

  14. Even in Middle Georgia where the winters are usually moderate, the “cold snap” hit us, too. No snow–plenty of rain in advance of the cold front. Saturday from 30 in the early morning up to 50 at the peak warmth and still cloudy and overcast means a shivering time outside. Furnace is running overtime!

  15. 69° here this morning but with the wind chill it feels like 67°. Had to get out a heavier t-shirt and my winter shorts and flip flops. Hawaiian winter!

  16. Tipper: From your photo that looks like a fair amount of snow you got there. Our fall was much less – lots of green grass still showing when the Sun came out. BUT our Rhododendron leaves indicate that the temperature is below 20 degrees! I use the Rhododendron leaves instead of the ‘Tea Leaves” to tell me about my world.
    I have found John Paris’s book “My Mountains, My People” to be among my favorite readings. I MUST TELL YOU I STRUCK GOLD TWO DAYS AGO – AND NOW I HAVE ONE OF UNCLE JOHNNY’s RECORDS (1952) in the mail to me. I may get it today!!! And I have a contact down in Dalton, GA where I can get the 45rpm restored.
    I ask you, “AM I LIVING RIGHT OR WHAT?”
    Eva Nell
    Author: “Fiddler of the Mountains” 2013 which is available on AMAZON.COM

  17. Yesterday was windy and cold. It didn’t get out of the 20s all day. The sun did melt some of the 1″ or so of snow. It was strange how the snow fell heavy 25 miles to the north, very little around here and then heavy again 25 miles to the south.
    The weather channel is saying the big one is coming, starting tomorrow. They are also predicting the coldest weather we have seen in 20 years with Monday’s high in the single digits and nighttime low at -4.
    Looking forward to the snow but not the cold.

  18. In Brevard, NC, We have escaped the snow this time around. Cold with lows below 20, but no snow so far. Weather for Monday is for snow showers with a low Monday night of 4 degrees F, but we will see if that happens. This is not the first time we have had predictions of snow that never happened.

  19. It was 14 here on Oglethorpe Mountain yesterday morning with a “flour sifting” of snow. I like that description! The weatherman says Tuesday morning will be the coldest temps in a decade. Bundle up, snuggle up and stay warm!
    By the way, I’m with the chickens, if I didn’t have to go out I wouldn’t.

  20. Today in Greenville, Wisconsin it is in the 20s. Tomorrow and Monday we will have a low temperature of 20 below zero. The HIGH temperature for Monday is predicted to be 14 below zero. A week from now it will be back into the 20s…..a heat wave! The schools will most likely be closed on Monday as wind chills could be as low as 40 to 50 below zero. This makes me want to think of moving South. We have a lot of snow on the ground and we may get some more today.

  21. Although I am in North FL for a little while, we had 32 yesterday morning, no snow but we had had a couple of days of rain, probably about two inches which probably would have been about 18 inches of snow. We had very chilling winds, not ones I would have liked to be driving a large RV or truck along a super highway. I love the look of snow, but I’m glad not to have to shovel it. I remember big snows from my childhood and lots of shoveling.

  22. No snow here but cooler than normal weather. I dare not complain. Our daughter is in Milwaukee with its negative temperatures, yet more snow, and howling wind. Son in Indianapolis has 12 inches of snow along with the cold. We’re just fine here compared to them.

  23. Tipper–Let me preface what follows by stating that I think Al Gore is a bloated buffoon and a pantywaist poltroon (and that’s the nicest things I have to say about him). With that out of the way, along with the strongest statement I can make to the effect I consider global warming a scam and pure hogwash, there are tales passed down to us by Daddy and Grandpa Joe about more bitter cold and deeper snow than we have today. For that matter, there seemed to be much more snow when I was a boy than there is today.
    That leads to two favorite stories about cold and ice in the high country. Grandpa Joe loved to tell about a time when there was a really deep, soft snow one night. It caught rabbits unaware (something that doesn’t often happen, but I saw something similar three times as a boy) and they were in effect trapped in their hides because the snow was so soft and deep they couldn’t run. Grandpa said they caught a tow sack full of them and had a lively time indeed when they turned them loose in a little one-room shack.He said they would get a short run and jump almost to the ceiling trying to escape.
    The second story came from Daddy. Sometime during his teens or possibly early twenties the Tuckasegee River froze over so solid in downtown Bryson City (below what is now the upper bridge–there was only the one bridge then)that someone drove a T-model Ford on it. I remember seeing it frozen over bank-to-bank in that area a couple of times when I was a boy in the 1950s, but never anywhere near solid enough to carry a car.
    Jim Casada
    http://www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com

  24. We went from 83 one Tuesday to a whole lot of rain Wednesday to a chilly 51 on Thursday. they are calling for 40 by Tuesday next though

  25. We had about the same thing throughout eastern KY. I work for a program that handles abandoned mines in the region and I traveled through several counties. It started out at about 8 degrees and only warmed to about 18.

  26. Here in Gibsonville, no snow, just lots of wind and cold temps. The birds greatly appreciated our keeping the feeders full. Even had a woodpecker at the dining room window feeder. In the teens this morning, but the sun is out!
    Stay warm!

  27. I vote for the chickens, I don’t like the snow either, we didn’t get any, but it was cold all day, it may have gotten up to 32deg yesterday, but when I got up it was 18deg on the temp. gauge, 24deg this morning…

  28. Tipper,
    It has been down around 0° here in Nebraska and we have had enough snow(6-8″)for snow ice cream 2 times.

  29. We got maybe 1 -1/2 inch of snow and temps in the teens but looking worse in the temp department for Sunday and Monday well below zero next 2 days, I am ready for spring especially because I have hot pepper plants already up.

  30. My weather was the same. There was rain, then freezing temperatures then snow. It was a small amount of snow but very slick roads because of the rain and freezing temps that came before the snow.
    I was like your chickens, I didn’t go out at all, but I have no pretty green eggs to show for it.

  31. Yesterday started out at 32 degrees, warming up in the 50’s but the wind was cold. Today has started in the low 40’s with a chance of rain this evening. I do not like wintertime and am anxiously waiting for spring to arrive. Have a good day and stay warm.

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