Snowed In

This past weekend we had a huge blizzard. Huge. To the tune of 2'+ of snow, plus lots of wind for lots of drifts. But on Sunday we played in the snow, making snowmen, snow angels, sledding, snowball fights, the works. It was lots of fun. As a bonus, the kids even had a school cancellation on Monday.

Not so much fun was the snowstorm we got Tues night and all day Weds. Though we didn't get such an accumulation as the w/e storm (only about 17" this time), the winds were fierce, causing blizzard conditions with often less than 1/4 mile visibility. The kids really couldn't play in it while it was coming down, though they did try several times. Fred was at work, so the kids and I did need to get out to shovel the snow berm along the top of the driveway so that when he got home he would be able to pull in.

But when Fred got to within about 1/2 mile or so from the house, he was stopped by several cars ahead of him stuck, unable to get past a wall of 3 - 4' drifts across the road. So he had to turn around and try another route. He finally made it home and jumped right on the tractor to begin digging our driveway out from under all the drifted snow. He worked wll beyond nightfall, but he got it done.

This morning, however, he was unable to get to work despite all his efforts last night. He got to the end of our driveway only to realize that our road was completely snowed in, with 2 - 3 foot drifts across most of it. Though I had heard snowplows out several times last night, it looked as though our road had never been touched. The only vehicle I've seen on it this morning has been a team of Amish mules pulling a sled.

So, it looks like we'll have another snow day. Every school for miles around has been cancelled. A state of emergency was declared yesterday afternoon. Our power is still on, thank goodness, so we'll be fine. I just have to keep up with all the perpetually incoming wet snowsuits, gloves, hats and boots, finding places to lay them out to dry before the next time they're needed. I think I have enough firewood left for one more day of fires in the wood stove, so I'll go get that started in a minute.

Yesterday I cooked up a quadruple batch of pancakes in the morning, plus a pot roast with enough mashed potatoes to feed a small army. Seems eight cold and hungry children go through quite a bit of food (two of our kids' best friends have been over here since Tuesday afer school). But that's OK. Like I said, we have power. We have food. We have TV and X-Box and board games. And we have lots and lots of snow outside to play in.

Lots.