Maybe the Spring Will get Snow After all!
Weather fascinates me. I need to know the temperature, how fast the wind is blowing, how much rain we have had. I love watching weather. I guess if the sun was shining everyday I wouldn’t be as interested. What I really like is bad weather.
Elaine and the kids gifted me with a weather station for Christmas last year. The weather station monitors wind speed, rainfall, humidity, barometric pressure and temperature. I stare at it at least 100 times each day. (Ok, maybe not 100, I just wanted to see if you were paying attention.)
I get excited when the local weatherman predicts a winter storm. Last week, the weatherman warned us our area was in for a major winter storm. I was really excited. The weather forecast called for up to 18″ of snow, accompanied with strong winds up to 35 mph. The National Weather Service issued a Winter Storm Watch for last Friday night through Saturday evening.
I bought extra fuel for the tractor and extra hay for the livestock. I was prepared.
Did I ever tell you about the snowstorm Elaine and I endured the first year in this house? It happened on Mother’s Day weekend. Yes, it can snow here in May!
We received 15″ of snow that weekend. Elaine was in heaven. Of course, then we lost electricity for 27 hours. When you live in a rural area, electricity is needed for EVERYTHING! Water is pumped from the ground by an electric pump. This is the water for drinking, cooking, bathing and TOILETS!
Not having a working bathroom didn’t really bother me much. Well, it was a little colder than I would have liked it. Elaine didn’t enjoy it as much as I did. I can’t imagine why she complained so much, but she did. We melted snow on the wood burning stove for making canned soup. We were living like Abe Lincoln, except for we had 3 four wheel drive vehicles in the driveway.
Being that we had just moved in, we really didn’t know what to expect. It might have been really fun if we would have had candles or batteries for our flashlights. After about 20 hours without electricity, I decided to try to make it to town to get candles and batteries.
I got in one of the four wheel drives and started down the driveway. I would have made it to the road had I actually activated the four wheel drive. Our driveway has a few curves and several areas that are sloped to the side. At one of the curves the truck started sliding. When the truck stopped sliding it had turned 180 degrees in the driveway and was buried in the snow. Knowing I had two other vehicles to drive provided little comfort. I couldn’t get them down the driveway because the first vehicle was blocking the driveway.
I walked back to the house in the deep snow to get a shovel and dig out Vehicle #1. Arriving back at the house I found Elaine smiling and enjoying being snow bound in our new home. With her tongue in her cheek she asked me, “Are you ready to move back to town?” That might have been a mistake.
That was the first time I used my best construction language in our new home, explaining I would be happy moving back to town. Unfortunately, I didn’t stop the construction language until it created tears (not mine).
We survived the storm (and the construction language). We learned enough to get prepared for storms. I look forward to storms now.
Friday night the sky was absolutely clear. The stars were shining brightly. It was spectacular, but disappointing. I was excited and waiting for the pending winter storm.
The stars were shining brightly when I went to bed. I woke up about 2:00 AM and it was starting to get cloudy. This was going to be great. Eighteen inches of snow! I’m going to get on my tractor and plow the snow off my driveway! I’m a happy man.
At 6:20 Maggie was at the side of the bed. Before I went to bed I opened the window blinds to allow me to see the snow when I woke up. When Maggie woke me, I looked outside. It was snowing heavily. There was only 1″ of accumulation, so I believed it had not been snowing for very long.
It didn’t matter, we were on our way to the 18″ of snow the weather forecasters promised. About an hour later the snow stopped and the sun started to peak through the clouds. In another hour the snow had melted. By the time another hour rolled around the ground was dry. So much for the Winter Storm Watch and the 18″ of snow.
Monday the weather forecast was sunny and 45 degrees. Late Monday afternoon clouds started building up to the west of us. By Tuesday morning, we had 8″ of unpredicted snow. I had plenty of feed for the livestock and now I have a tractor to plow my driveway. My construction language wasn’t needed. Well, I might have directed a little at the television weather forecasters.
Our crazy lives!
Monner
