Days are getting Longer

Solar Gain is taking over during the day and I have been letting the fire die after a morning load.

Summer is coming, That is all.

Here in the state of Maine we've gained over an hour of daylight since Dec. , we'll gain another hour by the end of Feb . & in a little over 4 weeks on March 10th, we will turn the clocks ahead & gain another hour of daylight ! We have some winter to go yet but we are heading in the right direction ..............

For sure it is noticeable now as the days are getting longer. It is also very welcome. Today was really beautiful out there. Looks like the forecasters think we have some big snow coming at us. I'll wait and see before putting the snow blade on. Haven't had to yet this year.

Just listened to the local weather forecast up this way ................ 16" to 24" before all is said & done by Sat. !! Mother Nature is in charge for sure !

Dennis - I bought my Griz 3 years ago towards the end of February to get the year end model and that was the last winter we had real snow. At the time I bought the whole package deal with winch and plow thinking how nice the plow would be. Ha - have never had it on the bike since I got home. There is probably 10mils of dust on it sitting in the basement. I thought for sure after our mild winter last year I would be plowing every week but so far so good!! If the snow comes I am ready but not necessarily looking for it. Fortunately there is more than one good use for a Griz.

And yes - today was a gem. with all the sunshine I let the fire go out and the house stayed above 70 until the sun went down.

Yep i have been letting the fire go out in this weather. I wish i could skip summer i don't like it.

Summer is indeed on the way.
But....so too is next winter.

So i spent the day splitting wood.

(i hope the storm we are supposed to get here in Michigan is a good one. I love snowstorms!)

Thought I was the only one that noticed a longer day as I split and stacked a cord and even had time to rake up my split debris. Even though I cleaned up all the loose bark and the area looked nice and neat in 48 hrs it'll be buried under anywhere between 16 to 20 inches of snow.

That's crazy talk! After 8-9 months of winter/almost winter the few weeks of summer are a god send!

I have a friend that lives in the upper part of Michigan, Marquette and told me they had one year they got 23 ft of snow and sent some pics that were over the top. Like driving in snow tunnels not sure if is pulling my leg or not but does not sound like fun to me. i asked him 'if summer is on wednesday do the kids get school off that day?'.. Way too cold for me.. My daughter on the other hand goes swimming every weekend of the year in Long Island Sound including January and February way tougher than her dad..LOL..I am ready for summer...

ddahlgren - Here is a sign in Keweenaw county(Michigans UP) and that is my best friends 7yr old. The top of the tall one is 390 and the record but the low one is the least snow ever so, yes, the UP gets a little lake effect off the great lakes and ole Gichigumi can create a lot of moisture!!

I have spent a lot of time in the UP and we have a hunting cabin on the west end near Bruce Crossing. It sits in a valley at the confluence of the Onion creek and Ontenogan river and gets a lot of snow. It has been many years since there has been huge snow fall up there but two winters in a row in the mid 90's the cabin was completely burried - as in - you ride into the valley on snowmachines and cannot find it!!

I spent a lot of time in Marquette both of those winters and I will say that snow removal becomes engineered snow management as it needs to be trucked out of town with gravel trains and the like or they just have no place to plow it. 8' tall tunnels to doorways etc. The county snow piles don't finish melting until July or later after a winter like that.

regardless of snow depth, winter starts early and lasts late in the northern UP and my cord usage would be close to double I believe.

I guess he was not kidding about the snow..LOL I did not register the 390 inches until I divided it by 12 yikes 32 1/2 ft of snow..around here it might be 5 ft on an average year and a bad one 10 ft.. so far this year where I am maybe 3 inches but do have to say the cold air off the water can chill to the bone.. That has to a bit crazy going to a cabin and know you are there but it is under you..

It's nice to get home from work these days at 4:45 or so and still have a few minutes of daylight . . . it certainly beats driving to work and coming home from work in the dark.

I'm adjusting my walk way lights timer every other week or so...and loving it!

Sun angle increasing too, soon we'll feel solar heat again

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=18

Bob, we've had the Grizzly for 2 years now and not a whole lot of snow plowed with it so far. Used to have a smaller machine and blade. No winch on that but it got too much for the arm so we went with the winch and heavier blade. So far we like it but haven't had to push a lot of snow.

Funny though. The first big snow came when I was in the hospital and my wife had to plow the driveway. Her first time. Fortunately I had taken her in back and showed her what to do and how to do it. She did a wonderful job.

The thing I find cool about longer daylight this time of year (in northern hemisphere) is that all of a sudden, the hours will accelerate. A science minded friend explained that it a sinusoid function (sine wave) and we are going into that steep climb of the wave. That is, every day will increase more minutes of daylight than the day before.