The Big One

A near as I can tell, we received about 14 inches of snow from the snowstorm of the decade. This was the first time it ever snowed under the front storm door.

I couldn't even open the door more than a few inches, despite Dylan wailing that he had to go "OOOOOwwwwt." (Dylan changed his mind when he got a good look at the white stuff.)

Here's how the front lawn at dawn; the boxwood is covered:

The kittens desperately wanted to go out and play, so I let them into the garage. Jim-Bob tried to go out, but the snow was up to his ears so he backed up. the kittens decided playing in the house was a better option.

Back inside, Chloe curled up for a nap.

Unfortunately, I couldn't curl up for a nap. I had chores to do. Feeding the outside critters was the hardest it's ever been in the ten years we've lived here. John walked ahead of me to the barn, and I tried to follow in his footsteps. Snow was knee-deep and the going was tough. Besides the horse feed, dog food, and cat food, we also toted a couple of gallons of hot water to melt the ice on the horse tubs and dog buckets. Feeding took twice as long as usual. I had to chip ice off the horses. The only outside critter happy about the snow was Maggie the border collie.

At the barn, John got his big tractor started. Then he worked on the road and driveway.  

Here's the view of our scraped road looking toward the northeast; our yard is to the left:

Instead of cutting across the lawn, I walked the road to do the evening feeding. It was longer, but easier. Here's the view looking toward the southwest. Our yard is to the right.

This is what our back yard looked like. The bottom driveway is still snow-covered and our juniper is almost buried:

The snow-covered boxwoods by the front porch look kind of like ghostly gnomes, don't they?

We never received our paper or our mail today. Very little traffic was on the roads.

As I post this, we're all in for the night. We're warm, fed, and we never lost power. Most of the snow blew off the power lines and trees, so that's a good sign.

Temps have dropped below freezing, though. I hope it doesn't snow anymore.

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