More House Mountain Snow! (published 1-31-2010)

Yes! We had real snow for a change! This Appalachian Irishman measured four inches of snow in the yard early yesterday afternoon, before his hike. Freezing rain that fell in the late morning yesterday may have diminished the total. Is there hope for global cooling?

The two snows this month (albeit, the first snow on January 9 was light) bring back childhood memories of several good snows every winter.

Enjoy the following nine photographs. They are mostly of mountain streams and trails. With heavy snow falling, a cloud covered House Mountain. That prevented me from photographing scenic shots from the bluffs.

Snow Day? (published 1-31-2010)

Life is not fair! This Appalachian Irishman worked too hard and too many hours last week, even last Sunday afternoon, all to get ready for the ever-loving, annual state (socialist bureaucrat) QA survey. (Now, the surveyors are friendly enough, mind you, but the survey can still yet be grueling.) He needed a snow day off. Did he get it? No. Heck, no! Mrs. Appalachian Irishman, however, who works in the socialist “edukashun” system, was off on a snow day last Friday! That was the sixth vacation, pardon me, snow day this month!

Well, I would not have minded, for we must keep the little kiddies safe, but there was no snow! I asked Mrs. Appalachian Irishman to take the following photograph from the deck, since she was home, and I was working, as proof. (The date should be 1/29/2010, not 2009. I had not yet set the date to the correct year.)

The snow started at about 3:00 PM as light flurries. All the counties in the area except my beloved Hawkins County took a full snow day, however. Hawkins County officials had the genital fortitude to hold school until noon, at least.

What does this say about our society? It says that Americans have become timid, lazy, and easily frightened! Did the socialist “edukators” just want a long weekend? That’s laziness. Were they afraid that little Johnny might be hit by a snowflake just as the final bell rang? That’s cowardice!

You know. Actually, it might be the lawyers. What if little Johnny slipped on a snowflake, hit the ground, and bumped his little head? The parents might sue the school system!

Wake up, America! Toughen up! Do not be controlled by trumped-up mass hysteria! If not, we might become snowed under by another nation. Has anyone heard of the Roman Empire?

House Mountain Snow! (published 1-10-2010)

We have winter around here, and sometimes it falls on a weekend! Could those global warming fanatics be right? The Appalachian Irishman longs for the cold, snowy winters of his youth, when, getting out of school for days, friends and I would ride sleds, slide on frozen ponds, hike, and even camp in the snow!

We have had about a week of winter around here, with a generous estimate of a whole two inches of snow and below-freezing highs. The usual havoc reigned: unnecessary school closings, raids on grocery stores, vehicles in ditches, accidents, radio road condition reports (from “brave” souls who drove in it), etc.

Yesterday, the Appalachian Irishman took his sixty-fifth hike, for three hours, on his beloved House Mountain. It was 25 degrees in the valley. How cold was it on the mountain? Who knows? The water in my canteen started to freeze. The snow started falling heavily on the ridge, with the wind blowing and the temperature dropping. On the north bluff, the updraft blew the snow upward. On the trail down, I slipped, for the first time ever hiking up there, on an ice patch, landing on my butt and tapping the back of my head against a rock. I hiked out the last part in the dark with no flashlight. What fun! I wish we had more than one week of winter here. I need to go ice fishing!

At any rate, for your viewing pleasure, what follows next are seven photographs from yesterday. (I forgot to change the year on my camera from 2009 to 2010. That's why the photograph dates are 1/9/2009, not 1/9/2010 correctly.)

I wish someone would give me a job hiking, taking photographs, and writing about my adventures! The first photograph, of course, is sheer self-promotion!