Wednesday, Dec 26, 2012

We have a snowy and very windy day today.  We are predicted to receive 9″ (23 cm) of snow by nightfall.  And the wind is gusting to 35 mph (56 kph).  Not the classic definition of a blizzard, but close!

I think I’ll just stay in the house today and do some reading in the several books I received for Christmas.  I could be out with the snow blower… but as long as the wind is strong, the lane would fill back in about as fast as I blow it clear.  The prognosticators are predicting 5 mph winds tomorrow, and that’s probably when I’ll start clearing.  It will be nice to have a ‘down’ day today anyway.  We have not lost electric power, so we are very comfortable inside.

When we clear our lane of snow, we also typically clear the county roads nearby so that the neighbors can move more easily.  And if someone were in distress, we would be out there already.  It is apparent now that John made the right call to hook up the snow blower to the JD 7130 tractor on Monday.  I was skeptical that we’d receive that much snow, but today is proving him right!  I’m glad it’s ready, and I’ll begin with it later today or in the morning.

This is the machine we’ll use later today or tomorrow to clear a path through the snow.

When we heard the weather guys begin to use the word blizzard yesterday, it brought back memories of the big blizzard we experienced back in ’78.  We had snow drifts as high as the peak of the barn roof.  The lane was eventually cleared by a neighbor with his bulldozer!  We drove in and out of here in that narrow, high-walled snow alley for many days.  It is the benchmark snow event that everyone talks about when a big snow comes.

The snow did not begin here until about 1 am, so we enjoyed our family time together at Christmas yesterday evening unhindered with travel concerns for anyone.

I got a picture of Rhoda in a text message last evening.  She was in a t-shirt and celebrating their arrival in Florida.  I understand it was 80 degrees!   No snow-blowing for Ross and Rhoda!