Winter's revenge

After bragging about our spring weather and the spring cleaning we were able to get done, we are back to winter here. I knew this storm was coming, so it's not a surprise. But certainly a disappointment after enjoying that wonderful weather. We actually were motivated to get more done before this storm hit.

The snow was predicted to start sometime mid-day on Sunday. Since we live in a rural area, out in the woods, we are always conscious of the possibility of losing power. The biggest issues being that then we would not have use of our furnace or water (we have well water). We make sure to have plenty of fire wood ready, so that we can heat our home with our fireplace if necessary. We also fill water buckets with water to have on hand, just in case. I've found that if I have a nice clean house, we don't seem to lose power. It's the times I skip doing the dishes and haven't straighted up that we lose power. Then we have a real mess that can't be cleaned until power is restored. So we spent the morning cleaning the house and getting everything ready.

The snow didn't start to fall at our house until about 2 p.m. By the time I did farm chores at 4 p.m., I walked out to this:





While Spot seems to manage not to let snow accumulate on him, the alpacas will lay out in the pasture with inches of snow sitting on their backs. Here they had already stood up because they saw me and knew grain was coming.



What struck me was how fast the snow was accumulating. In the short time between dumping out the hay bin, then grabbing new hay and walking back, the hay bin already had a layer of snow in it:



The same thing happened to the grain bowls. Between the time the girls finished eating and I picked up the bowls (we are talking maybe 10 minutes tops), the bowls had a layer of snow in them:



This morning the table here was clear of any snow, by 4 p.m. there was this:




Keep in mind that it's still snowing. These pictures were taken at 4 p.m. showing only the beginning. Now it's almost 7 p.m., it's still snowing, and it's supposed to continue snowing through much of the night.

I was worried to leave anything out there, out of fear it will be buried in snow by morning. Usually I leave the buckets, that I carry water around in, out by the water faucet. Tonight, I put them in the garage:



I'm anxious to see what I wake up to in the morning. I am thankful that so far we are getting snow and not ice (which is falling south of us). I'm also thankful that so far we continue to have electricity. I hope it stays that way.