The calm before the Storm

Ma; my better half and I are as prepped as we can be for the next storm.

We have wood set up and the house has a lot of our canned goods.

We already have gotten a few snows that came through that are as bad as what the prediction is though I hadn’t heard if it hit the areas around us the same.

What is coming in is predicted, between two of the sites I watch all year long for a very long time now is between 16″ and 36″ of snow over a few days., and now and added wind advisory with winds up to 50 mph updated to up to 100 mph). Which brings us into the negatives again -23F, -31C). The cold temps, snow and now winds, it’ll be surprising if we have power still come Monday afternoon. The worst, is now I am concerned about my trees. These temps and the weight of snow and the winds could sheer them off. We have lost 8-15 foot tops sections over the years with that combination. The winds will be coming from the South which are the worst of winds as well. I have lost buildings from those winds this time of year. The newest update says up to 85 inches ..but.. it could only be 12″..

Our very first actual snow that was predicted to be 3″ ended up as 16-18″. It took me a couple days to dig through out the paths to the outbuildings we need; Wood Shed, Shop , deep freeze, and Innie, which has all the dry goods.. along with the little path to “the pit” where we dump any left overs or veggie stuff. and eventually, to our dumpster.. which, of course, doesn’t get serviced till maybe March at the earliest.

We have been getting between 4-6″ of snow most every day and dropped down 9F ( -12.77 C) during the nights and up to a balmy 12F (-11.1 C) plus the wind chill ( -4F, -20C )(-1F, -18C) for some time now. Right now, both sites say it is 26F here and a low of 26F tonight..it is 12f ( -11.1) and dropping.

We don’t have any trees up here except to the north, which doesn’t help much when the winds have been coming from the East and SE. We got another snow with light winds the other night that brought our level in all the areas I was in above my hips. The snow was pretty compact as well so re-digging out all my paths that I do every day was a bit of a chore.

Yesterday was beautiful; no new snow, no wind and the sun was out, granted 12F (-11.1C) but still, it was pretty. It was the first time I could get up on the roof as well to clear it off.

With the brutal winds, not heavy for the most part though we had a few rockers, trying to stay on top of a snowy roof when you are getting hit with any of those winds and while it was snowing was simply not smart for me, I don’t have the best balance anymore to begin with..

So, up on the roof I went…after I dug out a path. the snow in that area was to my chest. Once I got to the gate I had to open, then it was just digging out the gate so it would open, as it brushes the ground in fair weather. Then just dig a path to get a ladder in…Next it was get into the shop to get the ladder.

The ground heaves up here when it gets cold like this. I have even dug three inch trenches under the door that is another three inches above the ground level.. The ground heaved enough, once again, that I couldn’t open the door. Fortunately, I learned some several years ago to keep a crowbar in the entry. Prying the door open enough to get me in, I grabbed the ladder and set it up….

Crap!

The snow was a lot deeper than it looked from the ground. I started digging from the top of the ladder and found myself digging a trench to the top of the roof. I wasn’t overly concerned about falling as the trench had the snow at my big fat belly…and I still had 4-6 inches under my feet.

I started digging across the top , heading towards the stove pipe. The snow and the chill haven’t been our only problem. Even though I just cleaned the chimney in November, the house would fill with smoke every time I opened the stove door and wood was burning poorly. When I made my way to the pipe, I could see that it was all but closed up from residue . While I was there, I pull the smokin’ hot cap off, dropping it into the snow to cool then cleaned it up and replaced it.

Now all I had to do was clean the rest of the roof. I just worked my way back and forth going ever closer to the edge. Once I got close enough, I just used the shovel to slide the pile off and over then move on to the next section. It took a few hours but other than my old bones and muscles getting stove up, it was a pretty nice task; paying for it today, but I could see even a bit more of the lands around us from the roof than I can from the ground.. which is funny as we have a 360 view.

That pretty much got us ready for this next burst coming in this afternoon.. long before I post this, assuming we don’t lose power.

The sites are talking that temps will rise during the night and by end of midweek , we should be above freezing during the day though they are still saying snow.. that would either be higher than us, or very wet, very heavy snow. SO yeah, it could be horribly nasty this week, or , it may just be pretty much what we have been going through already but with higher temps… We could lose power when all the wet heavy snow starts pushing lines around.. or it may not..

Worst case, we sit in the front room, by the fire, melting snow for water and cooking on the wood stove.. Been there, done that.

We can’t worry about getting out. Other than the post office having a bunch of our mail , we are good.

The few folk I have chatted with are also getting hunkered down for the storm. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best..

and even through all of this, there will be people throwing tantrums; they want “this” now. They deserve “this” now. They don’t care that they can’t get out of their house, they want “this” delivered now.

Final Thoughts

Lass, our female hummingbird, still refuses to head to town though Hollywood, her buddy, comes up during not so bad days to pester her to leave and hang out with the family in Gotham.

We swap out her feeders any time they are to ice up so that she can be as comfortable as she can. She made it just fine through these cold nights and all of the snow. She just heads in to the cover porch area to stay warm and out of the weather during the day, or sit under my window to chat when it is relatively nicer. With temps rising, she’ll do just fine…We will worry about the storms after this one as they come through.

She has a wee bit of a temper right now. She’ll visit a little but generally she flies around the garden complaining when we are outside, so, we leave her mostly alone. She is probably tired of me asking if she wants to come in.

As I sit here, typing away, I watch clouds and sun play tag; the calm before the storm. It is suppose to come in most any time now. Lass is sitting outside my window, fresh juice waiting for her and Ma is spinning and knitting as we get ready to record the last couple video pieces for her.. then I’ll have to try to put it all together.

Snow on the horizon, pretty much everything buried under the snow. Deep trails cut from building to building , chimney cleared, roof cleared.. We sit and wait for …

Just another day on Zen Mountain