Adventures in the Snow

Hi all!

It has snowed in Ravensdale!! And unlike the rest of the area that got a dusting, or maybe an inch or two, we got 6-8 inches. Bring in the heavy wind storm and we got 3 plus feet of snow drifts.

So yesterday I went out, to do some last minute shopping... and it took about an hour to get from our front door to the top of our road. The story goes like this:

Out the door, all bundled up with a scarf and gloves and a layered rain jacket (yes one of my purchases was going to be a new snow jacket, since the one I have is from 11th grade and the sleeves are a bit short now... so it was time to splurge) and of course boots that my pants fit down inside of. The car was covered with not only snow, but a nice layer of ice under the snow, about a half inch. So with my trusty scraper I began scraping off the snow and ice. About 20 minutes later, I was ready to go. I will say that having the car running with the defrost on helped a ton... It could have been longer.

Did I mention the wind yet?? Oh GOODNESS!! THE WIND!!! We had gusts up and past 60 mph. Twirling, Swirling winds that blew the scraped snow right into my face. (When I eventually came home and glanced in a mirror, I saw that my cheeks and nose had gotten 'burned' by the icy wind. CRAZY)

Ya-hoo.. I was in the car, got it in reverse, backed-up, put it in drive and off I went... down my drive way... no problem, not even a little slide... this is no big deal. Out of the driveway, I turn onto our private road... no biggie. There is a neighbor plowing his driveway, (that must be nice to have a plow), I wave to him as I pass. I see a littel snow drift, about a foot or so... ok, ready... GO. I slowly go through the drift. Yes, I made it! There was another one, it was longer but it didn't seem any higher. I got closer, it got bigger, then visibility went from great to non-existant as a huge gust of wind and snow completly wiped out all sight of the drift. I kept going... and going... and then sideways... and then spinning tires. I was stuck. The drift was bigger then I had expected... a lot bigger. It was about 3 feet on the short end... closer to 4 near the fence line.

I knew what to do... my neighbor can dig me out with the plow. As I opened the car door, the bottom of the door scraped along the top of the drift. ooh, I was really stuck. So in the wind and blowing snow, I walked back down the road... I found my nieghbor and out he came to dig me out. About 25 minutes later (yes, that long... it was hard to work when you are getting blown over and sideways and trying to walk through the drifts) I was finally free. My neighbor also plowed that part of the road so that I could get out the rest of the way with out getting stuck again.

Yeah! I was driving down our road again... and there was another drift. This one was smaller at least. Looking back in the rear view mirror, I saw my neighbor sitting in the plow, waiting to see if I made it through that drift... how nice he was!!! (Santa will be good to him this year!)... I made it through that one. Yes! There was the main road in site. And there was also some ice ... and there was another neighbor's fence. Three feet from the fence I stopped... I got out to chat with these neighbors for a bit (they saw me sliding their way and came out for a bit).

So, an hour after leaving my front door, I finally got on the main road and off to do that last minute shopping. The roads in the city were fine... a bit of snow on the road but nothing big if you were going slow (unlike the truck I saw on it side with its windshield hanging off and all cracked up and its cab completely crumpled). And yes, I got my new jacket... it is WARM!

The adventures in Snow Land have just begun. The winds were up to about 75/80 mph last night, luckily none of our trees fell down, and the power was only off for about an hour. This gives us an excuse to read and play card games by candle light and cuddle by the fire. The whole time hearing Isabelle call out to watch "Diego." They are calling for another snow storm to hit on Wednesday...

I am working on pics, but for now, stories will have to do.