First Snow - winter '08 - '09

Although most of you, as of this writing are still experiencing summer weather, I am starting to feel fall in the air in the mornings. The days are getting shorter too even though the sky is still light at 9:30 pm up here. With the onset of Autumn I feel like putting in a few posts of the winters past.
The winters of 08-09 and 09-10 have been a couple of the most severe winters that the Northern Plains have experienced in many many year. Some of the "old timers" have called them, "the winters like we used to have!"
In fact, we had so much snow during the last two winters that I was not able to go ice fishing except for maybe the very early season once or twice. There was so much snow that we were not able to get to the lakes because they were unable to plow the roads to them. Even if we could get to them, there was up to 2-3 feet of snow on the lakes which kept us from driving on the lakes. Both winters I was hoping that the snow would let up enough to get onto the lakes but it never did happen.
The first snow of 08 was on November 6. It wasn't just a dusting either like most first snows are but it just hammered us. I got out early to use the snow blower on the driveway.
The snow bank at least was high enough that I could take a break and sit for a spell.

The city's plow came by but we had such a big drift on our street that it got high centered and stuck. They had to call in the big guns to get unstuck.

And this is the way it was for the rest of the winter. The snow kept coming and the plows kept pushing.