Enough Snow Already!

NYC is getting a bit of rain today. For them, Spring has sprung. But just 80 miles north, winter has reared its ugly head once again.

Here it is, the first week of spring 2011, and the forecast is calling for 4 to 9 inches of snow today. In the time I took to write this, our backyard went from green to white. The NOAA winter weather warning prophesied snowfall starting at 10 am, but it actually began at 8:30 this morning. My guess is that this means that the higher estimate -- 9" -- is going to prove to be more accurate.

Perhaps this is to make up for that 70º day we had back in February; that was the day I thought marked the end of Winter 2011. Silly me -- don't I ever learn that a freak warm day does not a season make? In fact, the day after that warm day, the temperature plunged back into the 30s and stayed there for weeks. It warmed up again recently, and once again I thought we were in for nice weather and an early spring, but apparently winter had one more trick up its sleeve.

School was just dismissed early; the big kids are getting sent home at 10:35 after a half day, and Maeve will be let out at noon. I'm just hoping that the fluffy white stuff doesn't really stick; I have to drive into Manhattan around 1 pm today.

Squirrel problems

We've had rodents in the cottage before, but for some reason they weren't a big problem last time. I know we've had a little vole and maybe even a squirrel, but somehow the problem just seemed to go away on its own. Then a few days ago, while cleaning up the lower level, I heard scuttling above me. Shirra was upstairs, but as I expected, she wasn't scuttling. Sure enough, the rodent man who came by today confirmed that we have a squirrel or even a squirrel family. I went to check on the cottage later, and as I walked in, I spotted a puffy tail scurrying up the stairs. There wasn't much I could do, so I left the windows and door open and hoped that the little creature would skeedaddle on its own. There were many scuff marks by the windows in the lower level, and clearly the squirrel was trying to burrow out of the house, so perhaps it will clear out on its own.

If not, there's option B: Pay the rodent folks. They offered, for $700, to close up the chimney vent with mesh covers top and bottom and to bait some live traps that they'd check on for four days straight. Sounds like that might do the trick. Option C is to allow the squirrels to chew thru some wires and burn the cottage down. I'm hoping we can avoid that option.