I made an attempt to go out in the yard and try to dig the evergreens out of the deep snow that is weighting down the branches. The fir by the front door has its lower branches bent down under a weight I can't shovel. The Austrian pines out back are weighted down.
The hemlock looks stripped, with its branches all pulled down.
The little Swiss Stone Pine looks ridiculous, peeking up out of the snow.
So I put on my ski pants, got a shovel and plunged into the snow at the edge of the driveway. It was scary. I sank into snow up to mid thigh. I later measured: that's 28 inches. It is not light enough to swish through, there is a crusty hard layer about a foot down, which is what is trapping the evergreen branches and pinning them so firmly to the ground. It trapped me in each step, and I had to pull my leg entirely out of the snow, lifting it 28 inches to place the next step. It was truly a feeling of being trapped!
I made it out to the hemlock, but it took a lot of effort, raising each foot so high and plunging back down. I finally was able to dig down and free some of the snow and ice bound branches.
But I fear I did more damage. Hemlock sprigs were torn off and ripped up with each shovel thrust. There was no way I could avoid stripping some of the branches.
The little Swiss Stone Pine was freed from snow a little more easily. It's smaller than the hemlock, and not as wispy.
But after that, I struggled back in. Just moving in that grasping sucking snow, up to my thighs was exhausting, and it really did give me a scary feeling of being helplessly trapped. And I think I was doing more damage than if I left the limbs pinned under all that weight. I didn't even try to get to the Austrian pines or the spruces or the poor fir tree by the front door.
What a winter.
