thats ironic regarding the stakes. I am using a new service this year and they put in their own big wooden stakes along the edges of driveway in November. However, that made no sense to me because the stakes got in the way of pushing snow back where it needed to be pushed back. For the first snow of the season the driveway and turnaround were very narrow already. It needs to start out well back to allow for seasonal "creep". So they came back last night to re-assess and fine tune the plowing. I said its okay to remove the stakes so you can widen the plowing area properly. But they just went to the other extreme. Hopefully, I can train them to get it "just right" in the future. LOL Down by the road they were probably trying to distribute the snow in a large area and avoid a huge mountain so that I would not have a blind spot exiting the driveway. Good intentions. Bad implementation. sorry... I'm rambling, whining, venting.. One of these days I'll get a snowblower and do it myself. Or move to a condo!!!

Happy Holidays everybody! Hope your stockings are full of gardening gadgets and seed packets! My wishlist includes Michael Dirr's new book on Viburnums...fingers crossed that anybody even looked at my wishlist :-) The Bluestone catalog and a few seed catalogs are already here so I am already thinking about next year's bounty!! Here's a cute pic of my Connemara/Morgan pony Sneaks, during last week's snow.

I'll go out to measure later, right now can't get out of house.--Maybe 18 plus inches with drifts and still snowing. Have not lost power and winds are not an issue (last night was gusty). We're expecting snow bands through the day and into the night. If this weather pattern continues, next problem will be MAJOR northeast flooding as we move into Spring.--I understand the West is getting hammered again with big rains. The palms look fine (coldest was only 14 F. for the season), problem is all the snow weight on everything--conifers, magnolias, deciduous trees, and power line!) Funny thing was that even though temps were marginal for most of the duration of the storm, it was either wet snow or rain, or BOTH--there was NO freezing rain or sleet (I'll take that as a sign of Spring!). The snow is SO laden with water you can strain your back from lifting even a single shovel of it

If you are talking about the buckets that you add a liter of alcohol to, they are GREAT!!! Alcohol does not freeze, so the mixture freezes into a perfect slush! When you first scoop into it, it might a little too frozen, so just stir it up, or leave it on the counter for 15 minutes. I am not sure how you would add soda along with the booze - there is not enough room in the bucket. I think maybe the soda recommendation is for 'virgin' drinks - no booze, just soda for kids and non-drinkers. If you put it in a bowl, you will want to surround it with ice so it doesn't melt too quickly. Put the frozen mixture into a medium sized bowl, then put that in a huge bowl, with ice between the two. An easier way is to get an appropriately sized storage bin, put the frozen buckets in it, and surround with ice. That can be put on the counter with large spoons for scooping. You can get a shallow storage bin at Target, one like this. They have different sizes, and they're about $6.00. Or just leave the buckets in the freezer and serve as needed. My favorite is the Margarita one. If you get that, be sure and use gold tequila, it's much better. Doesn't matter which brand - I buy the cheapest. I've had the daquiri one too. It was good, but I am not a big fan of rum. And don't be tempted to add a quart instead of a liter. Definitely too strong! (ask me how I know... ;)