Pre-Holiday Snow Storm

Perfect day for shoveling....

VW bug in the intersection - wonder what he was 'thinking' ^_^

Hmmmmm, ya think?

LOL Beck, What fun! Poor RIc is out shoveling paths and decks. Looks like the Chickies winter pen is working well. I covered 2/3 of it and they have a nice dry area. Yesterday I went down and cleared off the top and banked it on the two sides where it was drifting in a bit that worked very well. Today Ric shoveled me a path and cleaned off the top. They seem just fine. He shoveled off a path to the bird feeders one down to the barn and coal bin, out the front walk and some of the parking area. He has the back deck done and most of the patio. He is looking pretty tired and he is still out there.

My Juniper hedge is buried. I guess I should have gone out yesterday and shook them free but the snow was so lite and they were calling for so much wind that I thought wait and see what they look like come morning. Bad choice.

Pretty Holly

Thanks onewish, I just love the snow. I did start on cleaning them off but it is a big job and I know I won't get it all done. There is practically no snow left in the trees but the evergreens are heavily laden.
This gives you an idea of how loaded down they are, the difference between the clean side and waiting side. You can see just a bit of the view from my driveway.

Here is the back side of the Juniper hedge. I got a good bit of this side cleared but didn't quite make it to the end. We think it is about 12ft wide 10-12ft tall and more than 100ft long.

This was taken pretty early yesterday morning. We got a lot of snow after this was taken.

Snug--that makes me more grateful for the overhang that keeps my doors clear. Now as for the REST of the walk, thats still another story.
VWRose--that is pretty (the lights on someone elses house) but kind of amusing that snowmen are mixed in with the camels and wise men, do ya think? LOL- that might be what onewish referred to.
Bec--it was perfect for shoveling all the way up here too. The sun on clear pavement is so helpful.
We took our teen learning-driver out for practice. Most of neighborhood still quite covered with packed snow. Still a whole lot of slush on Veterans Highway, a major road. Even some spots not clear on Ritchie Highway a very major road. Lots of slush on roads just off Ritchie. Be careful!! People were out getting groceries. No milk at Shoppers, but yes at Aldi's. Starbucks was doing a very nice business--not their usual Saturday I suppose but respectable considering.
So I hope if you really had to get something, you've already gotten it and will stay home tonight!!!!

nice post card of the house!!!

Pretty pics everyone! I took a few early Saturday morning when the snow was still coming down and we were all having fun in the snow but I quickly turned into a grinch when our power hadn't returned by dark :( I was in a great mood on Friday, made the necessary trip to the grocery store to stock up and thank goodness I got my package shipped out to Maine with Christmas gifts! I knew we would be snowed in and had planned to cook a turkey, make another attempt at baking bread and FINALLY get some Christmas decorations out. Didn't happen - power went out just before 7:00 AM Saturday morning and I shoveled out a path on the deck to get the small stack of firewood we have for emergencies.

The snow was knee deep by mid morning and by late afternoon when the snow finally stopped the official storm total for our area was 28"!!! Without power we were basically out of touch with the outside world but telephone calls from friends alerted us to the fact that the area was crippled. We heard about the problems with I-81 and the National Guard had been called out to rescue those stranded and move them to the local high school - last count I heard was there were 1200 people at the school! The Dominion workers showed up early afternoon and told us they were going to try to get our power back before dark - yay! We only had enough firewood to get us through the night and even then the fireplace barely keeps the temperature in the living room around 50 degrees. The good news was short lived however, the power guys couldn't get the line fixed until the tree crew could get down the road and the road still hadn't been plowed by late afternoon. Troopers that they are, they walked almost a mile down the road to do the work but they needed larger equipment. They knocked on the door just before 6:00 PM and told us that calls to VDOT were unsuccessful to get the road plowed because all the plows were concentrating on getting I-81 open again and we were in for a long, cold night :(

Fortunately we were smart enough to leave one of the cars farther down the road near the entry to our field and that road had been plowed by morning. A crew of six tree workers arrived by mid morning and once again trudged through the thigh high snow to free the line for the Dominion workers but we were on our last piece of firewood! Rick was able to make the trip to his parents to finally get more firewood and walk it all the way back to the house where I was trying to keep the fire going with kindling! By 1:00 the Dominion guys were back and reported they were going to try hard to get the power back on before dark even though the road STILL hadn't been plowed! By 3:00 we were discussing whether we would be able to stay here another night or whether we should pack up and spend the night at his parents - whew! the power finally came back on at 3:15!!! Our road still isn't plowed but at least we have power :) Through all of this, the dogs were unfazed, they got to sleep on the couches with us and what fun playing in the snow!

Normally the snow isn't a problem for us, Rick uses the tractor to plow us out and get the road open to the nursery but even the tractor can't move in snow this deep :( It will definitely be a long week (weeks?) and I'm not sure when?? we'll be able to get the nursery driveway plowed out - it will be a long walk in that driveway to check on everything but in the meantime the dogs are loving it!

love the pup pics!!

Thanks Allison, they sure are having fun with all this white stuff :) Gosh, I'm almost ashamed of myself reporting my woes - just had a chance to look at local news sites, reports of some travelers being stranded in their cars for 12 hrs before being rescued :( Definitely makes my predicament seem minor compared to what others have had to endure! My apologies to all those who had much more severe conditions than what I had to deal with.

Just because you weren't stranded in a car doesn't make your woes any less. We had it easy no power outages just a good bit of shoveling. I think we got sometime around 16 to 18 inches. The dogs look like they are having so much fun.

Things like this really show us "who's the boss" and expose all the weaknesses in our modern comfort lifestyles. We brought enough wood near the house for about a day's worth of fireplace fire, and have a couple days more out there, but kind of old and not the best quality. We have food but much of it depends on cooking it in an oven or stove top. The more I think, the less prepared I feel!
This storm really came on fast and far exceeded predictions. I sure feel for the people stuck on the highway. Its easy to do.

We heat with a wood/coal stove and although I can't quite cook on it I can use it to warm things up that have already been cooked. The Grill is just outside the door and we have used that to cook on in a pinch. We have flashlights candles and several oil lamps and a few mirrors that can be set behind or under them to reflect some of the light. Our biggest problem in water. We are on a well so without power for the pump there is no water, once the hot water tank empties. I do keep a couple of gallons of water stored and we have been known to bring in buckets of snow to melt and use for things. A 5 gallon bucket of snow doesn't make a lot of water but it doesn't take long to melt sitting in the backroom near the stove and I can put a pot of the stove and get some hot water. We have a good bit of canned food. So we are pretty prepared. Funny though as far out as we live we don't often loose our power.

Hiya all - well, I'm 'pre-storm' stuck! DH drives a Mustang, I drive an SUV - guess whos car he's driving?! I need to get my Christmas dinner bought and I'll be doing the shopping tonite when he comes home! Normally I order my groceries online (yeah, yeah, lucky and lazy at the same time) & pick up - but, I like to pick out the turkey myself....

So Bec....

Are you still sticking to your comment about people from "around here" making a fuss over their "little snows"???

(Just teasing!) :o)

LOLOLOL - no, I take (nearly all of) it all back ^_^ I will admit this was a snowstorm ^_^

I posted on my FB status when we had around 4-5 inches - about predicting snow shoveling in DH's future - my cousin in Norway replied with a "give him a blow-dryer with an extension-cord, around here we call that a dusting" ^_^

I am enjoying all the snow pictures. Debbie, sorry about the loss of power, that makes things pretty rough. We have a kerosene we keep for emergencies like that and my cook top is gas so at least I can make a hot meal. Usually in a real emergency all our local Fire departments open up as a warming station and stranded motorists or folks that live way out in the country are picked up by snow mobiles and brought into the warming stations.
Some of our biggest problems when the power goes out is people will start fires in their seldom used fire places and end up starting a chimney fire, then trying to get the fire trucks to the house up some of those very long winding unplowed driveways.

Which reminds me make sure you all shovel out the fire hydrants so they are easy to see and get to, it could mean saving your house or your neighbor's.

Never fear! I can cook on the wood/coal stove quite well and I have about 25k gallons of water in the pool, if I need to cut a hole in the ice. It may not be the most comfortable of choices but the one thing I would surly miss is DG and all our friends and acquaintances. Ric

LOL, only 36 hours and I was going through DG withdrawal! My daughter laughed at me when she found out we lost power and were snowed in - after all I AM a "Mainiac"! We lost our power all the time there and often snowed in for days in our rural setting but it was easier because we heated with wood and had the cookstove for additional heat and cooking. Fortunately with all the plants we have here, we had pre-filled gallons of water so we had plenty of water but the plants were the main reason I didn't want to pack up and head to Rick's parents! With temperatures hovering around 50 with the fireplace going I'm sure they wouldn't have survived if we had just left - my MIL didn't understand my concerns :(

We got about 14". Only real inconvenience here is the delay in all of the holiday preparations. I was behind anyway, because of dealing with a case of Pnuemonia, so now I'm in crunch time. Oh well, it's always something!!

Hope you are feeling better stormyla!!! :o)

Hope you're feeling better! I'm always behind, but purely from procrastination and not sick or lack of time!

I just had to leave a rather nasty message for the HOA - the public sidewalks and common areas are still covered in snow, nothing has been shoveled or salted - tried taking big boy for a walk and had to walk in the street in some places - also due to some homeowners NOT shoveling their part! I sent her a polite email and got an out of office reply - now I'm mad!

Don't you all pay the big bucks for maintenance of common areas, Bec?
Our roads are still a random mess, I see no signs of repeat salting by the County anywhere, remaining stuff if either hard rock packed snow/ice, or the slush invading from the sides and resticting lanes. Probably all working to try and clear school parking lots which will not be used till after New Years now- Despite waiting till late in the day for announcements, obivously they can't open school tomorrow with the road conditions. And if they did, half the kids would stay home, the rest would do nothing productive in one day before Xmas break. Why wait and pretend to make a big decision.?

oh Stormy .. hope you are feeling better

Thanks, guys. I'm just a bit winded when trying to do dumb things like shop and hang a lot of stuff up. What gets done, gets done. Maybe I'll make my nieces wrap their own presents. LOL

Stormy, you've got mail :)

We still can't get into our driveway - Rick caught someone with a bobcat at a neighbor's on Monday and he at least was able to knock the snow down enough so Rick could get the tractor out but what a mess! The fresh layer of stone we had hauled in for the driveway last spring is going to need lots of work to get it level again. More bad news...Rick was finally able to get into the nursery yesterday and discovered that two of our hoop houses collapsed from the weight of the snow! Fortunately most of the new plantings for spring are okay but we'll have to wait for the snow to melt to find out if anything in the flattened houses can be salvaged, those poor Japanese Maples :(

Stormy, Sorry to hear you are under the weather. I think Ric had Phenomena, he didn't get X-rays to confirm but went thru 2 courses of antibiotics and took a couple of months to clear up. He was walking around doing things but spent a lot of time resting and sleeping.
Sally LOL, You are so right about the schools.
RCN, Oh that is such a shame. They are calling for "wintery mix" to come in sometime Christmas. Not sure if it is going to be rain, freezing rain or a snow/rain mix. Are you guys down there getting any of that?

RCN, So sorry to hear about the hoop houses. What a mess. Hopefully, there won't be too many casualties. Maybe the snow will kill that crud growing on your driveway.

A shame about the hoop houses! you know you're a gardener when you feel the pain over someone elses poor plants.

I AM GRATEFUL...that our water heater did NOT decide to fry itself the day before the snow, , or Christmas day, thus keeping us from the store, but decided to fry two nights ago. Son smelled smokeiness but we couldn't see a problem until hubby's morning shower today. Talk about a wake up! And I am so grateful for my super hubby who can go get one at Lowes and replace it for us. I am grateful to have money in the bank , ( credit cards), to pay for it and its not that much compared to other emergencies. Since this one is sixteen years old and the problem is wiring, we are just going to replace rather than reconnect and test. If it failed to fix, then we'd still be out extra days. I guess I should be grateful it didn't start a fire too! oh boy, don't even know if it's likely but that sure would have been bad news.

OMG Sally! I'm so glad y'all noticed & are safe!!! (And I hate to tell you afterwards, yes, they can cause fires!)

Deb, I hope the plants in the hoop houses are ok, our awning kept sagging under the weight and we had to keep going out on the deck and removing the snow.

Stormy - GET BETTER! It sucks being sick, it sucks even more during the holidays - I had to stay home alone for Thanksgiving due to exactly the same thing...

On the HOA fees - absolutely, we pay high fees and get more or less nothing in return but grief about tall grass, weeds, burned out light-bulbs and garbage cans from them! I finally managed to get hold of them and was first given the lame excuse she wasn't exactly sure who was in charge of snow-removal! Then she told me the dude hired to remove the snow "was busy at the other 2 locations, but would call him to see "if" he'd come back here and finish"!! Needless to say I got pretty snarky with her ^_^

LOL Sally, Laughing with you not at you. We had several years in a row when we would get up on Christmas morning and not have water. Always something a bit different but how does that happen 3 years running. The fourth year Ric said it must not be Christmas because we had running water. The kids were pretty small back then. I remember that the one time it was a broken line and Ric had to put burning coals on the ground to thaw it enough to dig up the line. You are very right about having someone that can take care of the problem and enough $$ when you get in a pinch. Holly

Sally, I've become so use to the water heater going out at the most inopportune of times, I put in special valves and couplings so we can swap it out about like a spare tire. However, I'm sure these preparation will make this one last 20 years. LOL Ric

Holly, YES! We're going to be scrambling today to prepare for more bad weather :( They're predicting freezing rain to hit by midnight with ice accumulation by morning and more freezing rain into the afternoon! I discovered several conifers close to the house yesterday that were bent down to the ground with heavy snow and tried to free them but with the ice coming I'll be scouting out any more that might suffer if we get the ice on top of the snow that's still piled on top of them. We've got one more hoop house that still has snow which hasn't melted so we'll be trying to free that one up today - if we get the ice they're predicting that house will be a goner too! Getting ready to head to the grocery store to stock up, hopefully pick up more firewood, get some water stored and hunker down for the predicted power outages! We might just be spending a quiet Christmas with our pets :)

If you don't hear from me for a couple of days, everyone have a Merry Christmas!