Western Massachusetts residents Thursday were cleaning up after the region's first significant snowstorm.
Snowfall totals Wednesday night into Thursday ranged from about 7 inches in some hill towns, to just a couple inches in parts of the Connecticut River Valley.
In downtown Shelburne Falls on Thursday morning, Rick Grant recalled the lack of snowstorms last winter — his first working for part-time for the Town of Shelburne Highway Department.
Grant recalls a November 2023 storm that brought “wet and sloppy” snow and then a long lull until mid-January. Over a two-month period last winter, Grant said he was paid for eight and a half hours of work.
While he said he hopes for more snowstorms this year, he does not hope for “a whole ton of it at one sitting.”
The town added a snowblower to the snow removal arsenal for snow removal in downtown Shelburne Falls this winter.
But Thursday morning, Grant was working on Little Mohawk Road on “another little job” to make the walkways safe around Congregational Church of Shelburne. He cleared the entryways and spread ice melt because it is supposed to get cold at night.
Grant said there was no real challenge to clearing the 5 or 6 inches of snow from this storm. Rather than using a snowblower, he used a snow pusher.
A couple of miles up the road, Shelburne Falls village resident Diana Hardina walked on the slushy road. The town highway department had plowed and sanded, and a light accumulation of snow had fallen since.
Hardina said every morning she drives up to this road, to take a walk, “which some people find, a little bit ironic, but, it is.”
When she walks the infrequently traveled road with friends, they create free-association stories and play word games. And as for the post-storm scenery?
“It's like spectacular, you know! It's like one of those moments where everything changes again and there's other moments in the year, of course, for other seasons,” Hardina said. “But what's also nice about this is that it's not really cold today or windy.”
Hardina began driving to this part of Shelburne, the Patten District, during the pandemic — to get outside and exercise.
“It was kind of a discovery during COVID [lockdowns] to be able to walk, you know, abreast with people at a safe distance and hardly encounter a car,” she explained. “So you're like the only driver…”
At this point, a Tesla approached. Its driver slowed, rolled down a window and inquired to make sure everything was OK with the snow-covered pedestrians.
A couple of road turns away, 79-year-old Donald Churchill was in the final stages of clearing his driveway. He said the process had taken about an hour so far, and involved a plow, a scoop shovel and — now — a snowblower. Taking a long view of the advances in snow-removal technology, he said snowblowers have made the task easier, but “the older you get, it isn’t so easy.”
Churchill said his snowblower started right up this morning like he expected it would, because he checked on it a month ago.
At the highest elevation on Reynolds Road is Wheel-View Farm, started at this location in 1979 as a dairy farm with Holstein cattle. Now, John and Carolyn Wheeler continue to farm the land but stock grass-fed beef cattle instead.
“We farmed with John's father from 1972 to ’79,” Carolyn Wheeler said.
"And I grew up on another farm in Shelburne, and, today's my 75th birthday," her husband John added. "So, we've been doing it quite a while.”
The couple laid out the challenges to farming including ice storms, droughts and high winds that bring power outages — the things farmers have no control over.
"But that all affect[s] your income and daily life," Carolyn said. "So, I guess we’ve gotten used to that over the years.”
John said there was much greater pressure to do storm cleanup back in the days when they were dairy farming.
“The cows are in the barn, and they have to be milked and fed twice a day," he said. "And I would do that first and then worry about getting the snow plowed so that the milk truck could get in if they were coming that day.”
Now raising cattle for beef, the Wheelers said the pressure to remove snow quickly is lessened — especially with pre-planning.
“So, I fed [hay] yesterday afternoon so they'd have enough hay [to get] through the day today. And so, I can go out and plow snow this morning and not have to worry about feeding right away,” John said.
Carolyn added that passersby should not be concerned by beef cows outside.
“They like the snow, and they like the cold! So don't feel sorry for a cow if you see it standing outside. Often, they have shelter, but they just choose to be outside,” she said.
Carolyn said the cooler temperatures are refreshing for the beefers. Plus, there are no insects out there to bite them, like in the summer.
Asked if advances in technology make snowstorms and farming easier to take, John Wheeler enthusiastically explained the equipment is much better now.
“I have four-wheel drive tractors that I didn't used to have," he said. "I don't have to put chains on the tractor like I used to with the two-wheel drive tractors. And a cab! To keep me warmer and drier while I'm [moving snow].”
The farmers at Wheel-View Farm said rainstorms that turn icy are the toughest thing to deal with at their elevation, around 1,250 feet.
“Here, if it's just snow like this, we can plow it, [and] get it out of the way,” John said.
