Take five for trivia
Last week's trivia question resulted in a lot of equivocation. With good reason where anything to do with snow is involved. Some love it, some hate it and all that hot and cold, wet or dry, love it or leave it discussion results in a range of potential answers revolving around "it depends." Our dear friend Larry makes me green with envy when he talks about his lifelong love of the art of downhill skiing so I can't help but reproduce his entire answer for you:
The
general answer to your question is 10 inches of snow usually equals 1 inch of
water (rain).
The specific answer depends on the amount of moisture in the snow and what
region of the country you're talking about.
For example, snow generated by weather coming in from the Pacific Ocean often
has high moisture content, thus the name skiers and snowboarders give it -
"Sierra Cement." It's so heavy it's like trying to ski mashed
potatoes.
That same snow, when it travels across states such as Nevada, dries out a bit
and becomes what Ski Utah markets as "Champagne Powder." It might
take 15 inches of that snow - or more - to equal one inch of water (rain).
Anyone who has ever made a snow person knows "dry" snow won't do. It
has to have some "pack-able" moisture in it. Unless, of course, you
dampen it with a few sprays of water.
-- Larry PhS (powder hound skier with 1.5 million vertical feet of
heli-skiing).*
*
A helicopter flies skiers and snowboarders from a remote lodge, lands on
or near the tops of the mountains and down everyone goes to where the
helicopter is waiting to take them back up again. Sometimes the snow conditions
are superb; other times less so. The drier - and deeper - the snow, the better.
I would never argue with the guy!
As you contemplate the joys of champagne, be it the snowy type or the bubbly type, consider our question for this week. Just so you don't go stomping the WRONG thing, name three ways to identify the spotted lanternfly throughout its lifecycle.
Submit your answer for entry into our random monthly prize drawing. Each correct response per week goes into the hat and at the end of the month one lucky winner receives a PPFF goodie. The more weeks you enter, the better your chances!
A lovely and growing event for the Friends of Nolde Forest and the Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center is the Nature of Nolde Forest student art contest. Organizer Russell Slocum shared a bunch of photos of the recently concluded event and noted that participation was 21 local area schools this (up from 16 last year). The gallery of winners is on display from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm at Mr. Slocum's 
