The snow in the back yard was so deep it exceeded the height of the porch. The firepit is about 5-6 feet below the drift you see on the left of this photo. Some of the snow is what we shoveled off the deck itself but before we started the snow drift was above the deck itself. Warm weather helped but this side of the property is in the shade and was not melting near as fast as the front yard. The locals say this is the latest heaviest snowfall in these parts they can remember. The days were warm with the nights dropping to freezing one night when it snowed again and around freezing the other nights.