Digging Out

Yesterday we hunkered down in the house after the snow started to blow.  We watched the news and the weather channel on TV, listened to our weather radio, and looked out of the window occasionally to see if the predictions were correct.  I got busy in the kitchen preparing a warm meal of chicken noodle soup, baked sugar cookies, and made 3 pots of hot tea to sip.  I knitted on stuffed mittens and the pink and gray pair is just about done.  I also downloaded a new emag about fiber, knitting and spinning that said it would take 20minutes which took over 2 hrs.  It is really good and has videos that I can watch and interviews of other knitting and spinning ladies.

This morning after breakfast I decided I would go to the barn to feed the sheep and check them out.  I had to go around the long way due to the drifted snow.  In places the ground is bare and other places the drifts are hip deep on me.
Danny bundled up and bravely came down the bank in front of the house in the drift carrying his snow shovel. 



The driveway is piled high out to the machine shed.



Danny and I dug out the drift behind the pickup, it was waist deep and now we have to get the driveway cleaned out.  We can't even open the door to the machine shed to get to the big tractor out so we just came back into the house...



Mr Gray was complaining to me that the barn is not air tight and it snowed on the hay that I had moved inside.  I have never seen snow on the inside of our old barn, it blew the snow through the little cracks.  I  have spent many snowy night and days in this old barn waiting on a cow or ewe to have her baby or taking care of a sick animal and I have never seen the snow come in like this...the winds were wicked last night.

They just called and school has been called off again tomorrow.  That is Ok with me.  The Highway department has not been down the road in front of the house yet and no traffic has gone up or down it except for an occasional tractor.  They probably are still cleaning out the main highways.  The temps will be below O in the morning.
We can dig out more tomorrow!



The Day After the Blizzard of February 1st of 2011



I took this picture at 5:38 pm yesterday evening from my front door.  The winds were howling and the snow was coming down sideways.  We were so thankful to be in our cozy little farmhouse, safe and warm.  Animals in the barn, well fed.



 Another picture from my front door this morning.  The sun is shining!   Danny had shoveled the sidewalk earlier but the winds are still blowing (but not as hard as last night) and the snow has blown back into the walkway.  I can not tell you how relieved we are, we didn't lose electricity, I don't think we got the 20 inches of snow they predicted but who can measure with all the drifting.  We are very blessed.  The sun is shining, we still have power, and everyone is OK. 

This drift is over waist deep.  Time to shovel out.  We will continue to pray for others that are facing more problems than we did.  This mass blizzard has effected so many people.  We watched the TV and would see cars and people out in the blowing snow, the slick roads, and the ice.  We wondered if they had to get to home to a loved one, did their job require them to be there, what was their story? 

HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!!!!  The groundhog did not see his shadow this morning!  We will have an early Spring!  I think I will get out the garden seed and draw a diagram of our planting plans.  I am so ready for Spring!  What will the rest of this month bring?  How about March and April?  We will start lambing over 40 ewes in the middle of March.  Sure happy that I was not treking back and forth to the barn during this storm...

We pray that all our friends and family are safe, warm, and healthy and are weathering the storm without problems...we will continue to watch the broadcast of the happenings of the North and East...please stay safe!