Beating the Winter Blahs

We’re nearly half way into January and the Granite State is practically free of snow cover. Well, south of the Notches anyhow. It’s been so ‘warm’ this winter, that the 30’s and low 40’s they’re calling for this week would normally be our January thaw. This year however, you can’t technically have a thaw if you haven’t had a freeze. Just when our irrigation pond was freezing over enough to skate on, the relative heat is back this way. Crazy, and where it goes from here nobody knows. Certainly not the talking heads whose words we hang on each evening at 6:15.

I have a love/hate relationship with winter. I hate its unpredictability. I love the ‘break’ we get from the non-stop action, 100 hour work weeks of the landscape season. I hate the bitter cold, I love skiing. I hate not having baseball to watch, but I love it when the NFL, NBA, and NHL are all rolling at once. I hate plowing for a 36 hour stretch, I love hanging around the house in my sweatpants for the next 2 days drinking coffee and recovering.

This year is a bit different though, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. Without the snow, things aren’t the same. There’s a bit more time to pick away at our winter list; equipment maintenance, shop activity, and organizing and streamlining some of our administrative processes for next year – without being interrupted by snow. All of our marketing, sales and advertising plans are also made during the winter, because let’s face it – the time isn’t there in the summer for that stuff (well, hopefully there isn’t).

But I’ve got a minor case of the winter blahs this year. I’m not positive as to why, but here’s my theory: My least favorite time of the year is late Fall before snow blankets the ground. Everything is just so brown and blah. Aside from a few early snowstorms, we’ve been looking at that brown and blah for 3 months or so. What we need is some snow to cover all that up and makes things a bit more picturesque.

In the meantime, what’s a guy to do? Well, while the conditions aren’t exactly perfect, they’re suitable enough to work on a few landscape projects around the house. That should cheer me up, right? I have a waterfall I've been wanting to build for a long time now, it will get me out of the office and away from my computer, and I get to play with rocks and iron for a while…. yes, that will cheer me up.

Although business does go on and we can’t work on it every day, we’ve made some pretty good progress. While this is my first water feature, Dan has some prior experience so he’ll be running the show, and of course will bear all the blame if there is a leak this spring. Good luck, Dan.

Check our our progress on Facebook: Waterfall Photo Portfolio