Blizzard of 2010...

There is only one word for February 2010….SNOW.

our front porch

Our area has been hammered this year with snow. We have had several large snow storms and have now recorded more snow fall since they began keeping records. We lost power for a couple days, that was a challenge with having babies in the house. I will admit I’m not as adventurous since having the kids. Fortunately for us we have the wood stove so we could stay warm. This wood stove is not really designed for cooking but we were able to cook by perching small pans around the top of the stove. It doesn’t get as hot as some of the stoves we’ve had before, we couldn’t get water to boil but we could get it to steam. I cooked potato soup one day, it was a good thing that I started it in the morning because it took 9 hours for the vegetables to get tender. We also had eggs and sausage for breakfast so we definitely didn’t go hungry.

front of our house

The worst part is not having water but at least when you have snow you can melt snow. Also, when you lose power in the snow it makes it easier because you can put all the food from your fridge and freezer out in the snow.

looking from the house toward the driveway

A storm like this makes us question our judgment putting in a long driveway with a curve in it! With almost 3 feet of snow on the ground we get really stuck here. Peter tried to clear a little bit with the tractor but the snow is so heavy that it broke the arm of the tractor.

our poor broken down tractor

So he began digging trenches in the snow to get to the detached garage and office and then another trench to the road so that we could walk out.

Wythe - "in the trenches"

When the power was out we knew our neighbors across the road were trying to heat their house with a fireplace. Peter loaded up three bags of firewood and some hot water and hot soup and hiked to their house to deliver our care package!

Peter - loaded up to deliver food and wood

By Sunday evening their power was back on but ours wasn’t. We loaded up the kids, Ainsley in the baby Bjorn and Wythe in the backpack carrier, took flashlights and hiked over to their house for dinner and to watch the Superbowl. You would have thought we were die-hard football fans, when in reality we were just eager to get out of the house. That night our power was turned back on, electricity is a wonderful thing! We really got lucky with the electricity, normally it wouldn’t be turned on so fast but we had lines down across our property and across the road so that made it a priority.

our truck is under there somewhere...

Peter and Wythe

me and my precious boy

what a pretty snow!

'til next time...