Winter Photos

Just when you thought it was looking like spring, we got the inevitable March snowstorm. In the past week, Schweitzer got almost three feet of new snow for a current summit depth of 167 inches. That's a lot of snow. Even the valley got pounded by the Wednesday/Thursday precipitation that seemed endless (some areas recorded over a foot of new snowfall before it was over). The good news is that it stayed cold during the storm, which allowed residents and the county road crews to push most of it off the roads before it turned to heavy slush.

This morning, area meadows and trees were heavily flocked, making the landscape a winter wonderland all over again. In mid-March, this kind of beauty loses some of its luster. If you are one of the people who would prefer to just get on with spring, don't dispair. With today's sunny skies and temperatures expected to hit the 40's over the next few days, the remains of the storm will soon be gone.

Today's pictures include some scenes of Sandpoint coping with the aftermath from this week's snowstorm, as well as a few pictures of the latest member of the Laughing Dog Brewing family.

Photo courtesy James Byrd

3/10/06: Digging out: Residents were relieved to see the road department out clearing the snow from county roads Friday morning. It is pretty unnerving to see a grader like this coming down the road toward you with his blades forcing the rear of the rig toward your lane. Sometimes the best thing to do is just pull over and get out of the way!

3/10/06: Center divide: So much snow fell that, in town, the road crews had no place to put it. When that happens, they push it into a berm between the traffic lanes until it can be collected and hauled off. In some places, the end result made you feel like you were driving around downtown along a luge track.

Photo courtesy Susan Daffron

Photo courtesy James Byrd

3/10/06: Son of Laughing Dog: This is Ruger, the offspring of Ben, the yellow lab mascot of Laughing Dog Brewing. Ruger is about 14 weeks old and the spittin' image of his dad.

3/10/06: They call me Mellow Yellow: Is he cute, or what? Fred Colby, owner of Laughing Dog Brewing and custodian of this adorable animal, reports that Ruger is so far a very mellow version of his sire. The Sandpoint Insider staff can attest that Ruger was indeed snoozing in the sun when we arrived at the brewery, and had to be repeatedly awakened for his online pictorial debut. By the time we left, he had returned to somnolence and we had to step over him on the way out the door.

Photo courtesy Susan Daffron

See you next week!