Snowmagadden 2013

I have mentioned before that we have been in a terrible drought the past few years.  Last year we got 3.9 inches of snow.  This year we had been doing better than last year, we were up to 5.9 inches! ;-)  Impressive right?!?  So the weathermen started talking about this HUGE storm that was coming our way and we were in for a lot of snow.  Now we were nearing the end of February and it just isn't normal to get a lot of snow that late, so I was expecting a few inches of snow.  Well we got hammered.  At our house we got 12+ inches on Wednesday night into Thursday on the 20th of February.  That is pretty good right.  Well then they said we were going to get another round on Monday night into Tuesday.  I was done after the 12 inches.  Well we got hit again with another 12 inches of snow.  The second snow was a wet heavy snow, the kind that breaks trees, and power lines.  When we got up that morning I even told Randy, "hey we still have power so we are good!"  There was so much snow it was crazy, the dog didn't know what to do as she couldn't even squat to potty as the snow came up past her stomach!

I had bought donuts the day before because I knew we would be snowed in and we were sitting on the couch getting snuggled in to watch a movie and Poof, the power went.  Randy and I looked at each other and we knew we were in for a LONG day!  We reported the outage and cuddled up to stay warm.  About 15 minutes later I hear a zinging in the back yard so I got up to go see what was going on and this is what I saw!!!

Our backyard was on fire.  I called 911 and the firetruck came out.  They checked everything, and put in another request to BPU, and since the trees weren't on fire they couldn't do anything as you can't put water on live electric lines.   The line quits arcing and we hunkered down again.  About an hour later the line started again and our neighbor called 911.  Not us, we were watching but knew they couldn't do anything.  So the fire truck came again! They went next door and told them to not call again unless something was actually on fire. Put in another request to BPU from the fire dept.  We lost power at 8:30 that morning.  By 4:30 the house was down to 59 degrees and the kids were COLD!  We were also. :-)  So we booked a hotel room.  We left hoping the house would still be standing when we got back the next morning and we would have power!

We had a fun time at the hotel, had dinner, went swimming etc.  The next morning we still didn't have power but Randy had to go to work so the kids and I were at the house and it was down to 53 degrees!  We lasted two hours and then I called a friend and asked if we could hang with them until the power was back on.  Power was finally restored at 6:30 that night!  34 hours later. 

The next day we finally got to go out and play in snow and Randy built the kids a fort and they made their first snowman!  I tell you what, I never want to go that long without power again.  Yes I know we are spoiled, and I am okay with that!

 Round 1, it was still snowing when we measured!

 The fort under construction

 All done

 Our neighbor gave us a snowman kit!