Friday, January 15, 2010

That's awfully weird to the Southerner in me...

We're entering day three of the melt now, and the temperature last night didn't dip below thirty. It was weird taking the trash out front, with the yard covered by melting slush with patches of wet green grass showing through.

I'd think the yard would be a morass by looking at it, but then I'd step on it and it would feel like astroturf over concrete. Ground frozen hard for two or three weeks apparently doesn't thaw very quickly.

9 comments:

Joanna said...

I once had to dig up some bulbs for my mother after the ground had frozen.

Never. Again. I refuse to touch a shovel to frozen ground unless I'm being paid or there's a body that needs burying. (And for the sake of whoever's asking, it had better be both.)

Frank W. James said...

Yeah, and then there's idiots like me who want that frost to go down 30 or more inches and THAT is going to take awhile to thaw out.

All The Best,
Frank W. James

John Peddie (Toronto) said...

Just to add to your happiness, this means that

(a) The frost has gone deep enough to make a hard, flat surface which will now collect rain in any low spots because the rain can't filter down through the frost layer. Can we spell "mid-winter flood"?

(b) Mud is in the long-range forecast.

wv: bleses

Well, I suppose you have those too.

Rob K said...

This is when it's fun to drive across a bean field! It's like a couple of inches of grease in a non-stick skillet.

Weer'd Beard said...

Up in Northern Maine where my Dad comes from all the Cemeteries have some pretty impressive crypts. Neat looking usually two huge steel barn-style doors going into the side of a hill.

Necessary, after a certain time of the year even the beefiest of earth movers aren't getting you below the sod. Not so sure how they handle funeral arrangements. Do they have the funeral/wake right then and there, then wait till spring for the burial ceremony, or do they just toss the body into the crypt for a nice deep freeze and save their pennies for a big hoot come thaw.

I'll have to ask Dad...

Kristophr said...

Look up "permafrost".

Heh.

Anonymous said...

Where I grew up the "safe from feeeze" in on the order of 36" down in normal soil and the building code says go down 4ft (at least) for foundations.

Yeah, they have those crypts there too, traditional no one actually got buried between Nov and early May. OK , ok, maybe they'd cut it on eoither side, but spring time was always busy.

Still is, at some point no one WANTs to go out, bulldoze a couple of feet of snow, pound through the frozen layer, have a nice hole that fills with blowing snow, or water that freezes, and then have the the whole family stand around and get frost bite and die of cold.

They are dead, and frozen, they can wait 'til spring like the plants.

A nice warm cremation starts looking pretty good, frankly.

alath said...

Typical Indiana phenomenon.

The first Spring rains will just sit on the surface, creating a spongy morass until the ground thaws. Then the water all disappears overnight.

MedicMatthew said...

The ground over here in Little Canadia will stay frozen for months. If it isn't in or out of the ground by mid November then it is staying there. Then again, most of the ground is buried under a few feet of snow right now so it's not big deal.

Weer'd,
Up in these parts we hold a wake & funeral, the casket then goes to the crypt and a burial service is held in the spring after the ground thaws, usually in April, sometimes they've got to wait until May.