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Winter wintened as hard as it could
We've had a big winter storm sweep through - big even by our standards. Heavy snow Sunday night turned to rain on Monday, rained all day Monday then turned back to snow that night and then there was wind.
School and university classes were cancelled yesterday and today, so O's been working from home, which honestly has been really nice, I appreciate having him around all day and it was reassuring that he didn't have to go out in the wretched weather. Also, this means he's been available to plow - we have a half mile driveway and I'm not great with the plow truck. Especially since, over the course of yesterday, the ground cover turned from wet heavy snow to a foot of slush. Needless to say, the roads are TERRIBLE.
I've been shoveling, and shoveling, and then shoveling some more, trying to get things at least reasonably well shoveled out for the inevitable re-freezing. Since it was also raining at the same time I was wading around in and attempting to shovel very wet, heavy snow and ankle-deep slush, I spent a lot of yesterday absolutely sodden.
Everything hurts today. I did some more shoveling anyway, including a walk up to the highway again to clean up after the next round of plowing.
Lots of people around town have power out. So far ours hasn't done more than flicker, fingers crossed, but if it does go down, we have a generator. I have a mammogram appointment on Thursday morning that I'm supposed to be there at 7:15, which on these roads, means leaving here at 6:40 or earlier ... in the dark ... and I'm still on summer tires due to poor life choices (tried to get them changed last week, everywhere was completely booked up). I'm thinking about rescheduling.
The only real Adventure we had in all of this was running out of water at about 7pm last night, probably the maximum Terrible Roads because the all-day rain was just turning back into snow and everything was soup. We are too far out of town for city water and have a 2-tiered water system because our groundwater is terrible; we used the well water for flushing/showers/laundry, and a tank for drinking and cooking. We normally get the tank filled once or twice a year ... and this fall, we forgot. We basically *never* run out, so of course it happened in the worst weather we've had in five years. I was chatting with a friend online last night when Orion LUNGED across the room and slapped off the circuit breaker to the crawl space, so of course I jumped up to see what had happened .... what had happened was the pressure pump had run dry.
This wasn't a terrible disaster because a) we still have water for most needs, it's just heavily contaminated with minerals, and b) there's a public water pump about 2 miles up the highway (because a lot of locals are in the same position we are due to the terrible water). So we collected some containers and set off in the plow truck, as that was the only thing we had that we were reasonably sure could handle the roads. Orion did some touchup plowing while we were out anyway, and we CRAWLED up the highway in 4-low (with me playing Lookout to warn him if anyone came up behind us - but everyone was driving just as slowly as we were). I took a picture of the parking area at the pump.
There's water in every one of those ruts - it's basically a foot of snow of which the bottom few inches is water. No city snowplows anywhere yet. HORRIBLE.
Once all of this freezes, it's going to be like iron, so on the way back, Orion dropped me off with a shovel and a headlamp at the mailboxes, and I shoveled out around them and then walked home up our half-mile, unlit driveway in the slush, the rain, and the dark. I tried to take a picture of this ...
(I picked this job; I'd far rather that to driving the plow truck in this mess in the dark.)
Overnight the snow resumed again, and today we actually got some lovely winter wonderland weather.
... at least until the wind started and knocked it all of the trees, along with some branches and more power lines. BLAH.
We called the water delivery people around noon, thinking it would be tomorrow at the earliest, and the guy came out TWO HOURS LATER with their tanker truck to fill our 1300-gallon tank. Did I mention we're way the heck in the middle of nowhere with a half mile driveway that hadn't been plowed again yet?? I tipped him well.
But we're totally comfy now! I stocked up on supplies this weekend, we're now well plowed out, we have water and power (*warily eyeing the outage map*), a full tank of propane for the stove and generator, and we have honestly been very cozy.
School and university classes were cancelled yesterday and today, so O's been working from home, which honestly has been really nice, I appreciate having him around all day and it was reassuring that he didn't have to go out in the wretched weather. Also, this means he's been available to plow - we have a half mile driveway and I'm not great with the plow truck. Especially since, over the course of yesterday, the ground cover turned from wet heavy snow to a foot of slush. Needless to say, the roads are TERRIBLE.
I've been shoveling, and shoveling, and then shoveling some more, trying to get things at least reasonably well shoveled out for the inevitable re-freezing. Since it was also raining at the same time I was wading around in and attempting to shovel very wet, heavy snow and ankle-deep slush, I spent a lot of yesterday absolutely sodden.
Weight loss
I lost 2 lbs yesterday. Probably mostly water weight, but dang.Everything hurts today. I did some more shoveling anyway, including a walk up to the highway again to clean up after the next round of plowing.
Lots of people around town have power out. So far ours hasn't done more than flicker, fingers crossed, but if it does go down, we have a generator. I have a mammogram appointment on Thursday morning that I'm supposed to be there at 7:15, which on these roads, means leaving here at 6:40 or earlier ... in the dark ... and I'm still on summer tires due to poor life choices (tried to get them changed last week, everywhere was completely booked up). I'm thinking about rescheduling.
The only real Adventure we had in all of this was running out of water at about 7pm last night, probably the maximum Terrible Roads because the all-day rain was just turning back into snow and everything was soup. We are too far out of town for city water and have a 2-tiered water system because our groundwater is terrible; we used the well water for flushing/showers/laundry, and a tank for drinking and cooking. We normally get the tank filled once or twice a year ... and this fall, we forgot. We basically *never* run out, so of course it happened in the worst weather we've had in five years. I was chatting with a friend online last night when Orion LUNGED across the room and slapped off the circuit breaker to the crawl space, so of course I jumped up to see what had happened .... what had happened was the pressure pump had run dry.
This wasn't a terrible disaster because a) we still have water for most needs, it's just heavily contaminated with minerals, and b) there's a public water pump about 2 miles up the highway (because a lot of locals are in the same position we are due to the terrible water). So we collected some containers and set off in the plow truck, as that was the only thing we had that we were reasonably sure could handle the roads. Orion did some touchup plowing while we were out anyway, and we CRAWLED up the highway in 4-low (with me playing Lookout to warn him if anyone came up behind us - but everyone was driving just as slowly as we were). I took a picture of the parking area at the pump.
There's water in every one of those ruts - it's basically a foot of snow of which the bottom few inches is water. No city snowplows anywhere yet. HORRIBLE.
Once all of this freezes, it's going to be like iron, so on the way back, Orion dropped me off with a shovel and a headlamp at the mailboxes, and I shoveled out around them and then walked home up our half-mile, unlit driveway in the slush, the rain, and the dark. I tried to take a picture of this ...
(I picked this job; I'd far rather that to driving the plow truck in this mess in the dark.)
Overnight the snow resumed again, and today we actually got some lovely winter wonderland weather.
... at least until the wind started and knocked it all of the trees, along with some branches and more power lines. BLAH.
We called the water delivery people around noon, thinking it would be tomorrow at the earliest, and the guy came out TWO HOURS LATER with their tanker truck to fill our 1300-gallon tank. Did I mention we're way the heck in the middle of nowhere with a half mile driveway that hadn't been plowed again yet?? I tipped him well.
But we're totally comfy now! I stocked up on supplies this weekend, we're now well plowed out, we have water and power (*warily eyeing the outage map*), a full tank of propane for the stove and generator, and we have honestly been very cozy.
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Thank you for sharing the details of living in a snowstorm out of town. I will try never to complain about the rain in Wales again.
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I grew up with a well, so every time the power went out we lost water. It was amazing to me to be on city water as an adult and not lose it with power outages.
Stay safe!!!!
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Wow, beautiful! Glad you all are okay!
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Pretty snow covered pines pictures accepted at any time.
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That "winter wonderland" picture is absolutely glorious!
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Staying warm and cosy sounds like a good idea to me.
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The water tank guy is VERY impressive!
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Climate change everywhere, and yet here in Florida, K–12 textbooks are no longer allowed to mention it, and teachers can get in trouble for doing so. . . .
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The timing! *horrified boggle*
I'm glad you were warm and cozy (and fully watered) before too long!
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