Well, in addition to dropping messy petals, the buds get covered with ants seeking the sweet-tasting bud sap, and that’s like, really icky.
I enjoy the image of grandma cutting off the peony buds, much like Morticia Addams pruning rose flowers off prior to putting the naked thorny stems in a vase.
Heh, I was thinking African. Nigeria or Botswana, maybe.
That was probably part of her rationale - I can’t imagine she was a fan of ants, either.
I think peonies actually have very nice, decorative foliage.
So this new big storm is on us and it started snowing around 4 am.
9 am. I get up. There’s about six inches of new fluff all over.
The OCD’s are out blowing, shoveling, scraping, sweeping, dusting.
It is still snowing.
It is supposed to snow continually and pretty heavily until around 6-7 tonight. The town isn’t even sending plows around until this afternoon.
You all probably think I’m making this up. 
For awhile, yes.
In most American gardens, it winds up looking like this.
It’s Irish I think, O’Seedy
I am quite tickled that my silly construction sparked so much debate. 
I’ve seen it around here too. I don’t know why they want to go out a do such a thankless chore two or three times or more. It don’ make no sense.
So the storm continues, getting so heavy at times I can’t see Mr. OCD. But then the snow lightens - to only 4 inches an hour or so - and lo and behold and yougoddabefuggingkiddinme…
Clearing two six-inch snow falls is a LOT easier than clearing a 12-inch dumping.
Yup. if he waits for the whole 12"+ to fall the OP is going to spend more than twice as long total clearing the snow as he would’ve if he’d gone out halfway through. We’ve learned not to let the snow get more than 6-8" deep before getting rid of it.
True, and I’ve addressed the wisdom of staying ahead of a heavy fall. OTOH, I don’t think it’s any huge savings in time or effort to clear 6 inches or so twice than to clear 12 inches once.
There is a difference, in any case, and IMHO, of doing a quick clearing, knowing full well that several more inches are coming… and meticulously clearing every bit from every corner and surface when the same several inches are already falling. My neighbor is repeatedly trying to do a “final final” job as heavy snow is falling around him. It’s too bizarre for words.
I have 15 inches or so to clear in the morning, and other than keeping the doors clear, it wasn’t worth any putative savings to go out in the storm to get rid of the first half. Tomorrow will only take a little extra time over what 6-7 inches would.
We’ve gone out to clear between accumulations, but not while snow was still falling. I have no idea what our neighbors do since houses are far enough apart that you really can’t see from one driveway to the next, but I’m pretty sure no one tries to keep up with storms - even the ones who have to go out. (The young guy directly next to us works for the electric co-op, so he’s on-call during extreme weather conditions.)
I do wonder what it’s like in the brain of someone who feels compelled to do seemingly insane things…
The one nice thing about farm life is that we never shovel our snow. If we have guests, we back one or both cars out of the garage and have our friends park inside.
It sounds like he’s actually clearing six two-inch snow falls, which is a little on the crazy side.
Aw, fachrissakes. Okay, this will be the last time I add to this thread - I’m going to get accused of being more OCD about it than Mr. OCD. But…
So we get hit with another rather sudden, heavy storm this morning. So sudden that a peek out the window at 4:30 am or so revealed a clear driveway; at 6:00 the phone rang with a school delay; at 8:29, as the kids were slinging up backpacks to head to the bus stop, the phone rang again with a snow day.
So the Ohseedee family was, of course, out clearing. Quad. Snowblower. Shovels. Scrape/dusting the three cars.
Once again, more snow fell during this effort than was cleared away. Once again, the snow was predicted to continue. At almost 11:00, my driveway is six inches deep and two of their (unmoved) cars are again completely covered with a heavy blanket. It was not a mystery that the snowstorm had just begun at 8:30. It was not questionable that it would continue until at least noon. It was not a secret that 6-8 inches overall were expected.
But there they were, in the earliest snowfall, frantically cleaning away like the last flake had fallen.
I think it’s ceased to be funny. These folks have… a screw loose.
Dear merciful snow gods, they are out there again, at 11:15, scraping every bit of snow off the driveway… as it continues to fall with at least an hour to go.
I’m going to knock on their door to give them a pamphlet about the wonders of the Promised Land.
Arizona.
Dude, you need to step back already.
Yes, it’s weird, odd, uncalled for, bizarre, OCD.
But you’re making it look like it’s spreading to your house! Stop looking out the window and checking on them.
There are a lot of worse things that people do than this, odd though it seems. It’s not hurting anyone. They obviously groove on it, so just sit back and laugh.
But stop taking note of how often etc, that’s bordering on the ragged fringes of being compulsive too.
You’ve been warned, this is how it starts, innocently at first. Next thing you know you’re up all night and at the window with binoculars, taking notes about how much snow fell!
Twice as long to clear a driveway with a gas powered snowblower and quads?
Yeah, not at all. Wait until the snow is finished falling and do it once. Even if it takes some miniscule amount longer to snowblow 12" than it does 2", it certainly isn’t 2x.
