February 2011 Blizzard

We survived what the news stations were calling the "monster storm" or the biggest storm in 10+ years (I've heard 50+ even). We were, as far as we can tell about 5-10 miles west of the center as it moved through the Midwest. It started snowing yesterday shortly after noon and didn't stop until sometime during the night. It also had consistent wind speeds of 30-40 mph. And, to Moose's dismay, there was even thunder! We all went out to start shoveling at about 7:30 this morning. When I stepped into the garage, this is what I saw... It is hard to say how much snow we actually got because it had drifted so much. We think it was 14-18 inches. But, since it had drifted it was hard and heavy. Joel worked on the sidewalks while I worked on half of the driveway. Wally had a great time playing in the snow and "hiding" in the holes that the wind made around the trees.

We helped one neighbor get unstuck from the road and back into their driveway and saw several other cars attempt to leave, only to get stuck feet into the road. I was hoping the snow plow would come by, as was Wally...

It is now 8:30 pm and no snowplow has made it into our loop. To kinda sum up the storm, we didn't get any mail today. Joel made it to work this afternoon as the buses started up after noon running on only the Saturday schedule. Joel said it was amazing seeing the amount of snow out there in piles around town. Last night I heard that the National Guard was called into Iowa City to help with snow removal and rescuing stranded cars. Here is one of the piles from only half of the driveway. It is about this tall all the way to the road.

There is a beautiful drift outside our bedroom window on the roof between our room and the porch. This picture was actually taken from outside underneath it.

Our house looked like it had been pelted with snow. I guess it was. Our bushes certainly weren't very happy. This was also the first time that I've seen any moisture under our porch and I think there are two inches of snow or so down there.

The dogs didn't know what to think of the snow. They seemed to think it was pretty fun, but then realized that it was pretty cold. They haven't been out much today.

After nap today, Wally and I went outside again. The neighbor kids had come over this morning to play in our snow piles. They made a cave that then collapsed (it was empty at the time). There was still a small tunnel for Wally though. As I dug it out a little so he could crawl through it, I found some of the original cave. Needless to say, it made my job easier. Between Joel and I, I think we put in roughly 4 hours of shovelling today, and still don't have the entire driveway cleared.

Wally has such a great imagination these days. This was his "Jewel cave" that was full of sparkling jewels. He also had to put snowballs into the cave as this is what Max from "Where the Wild Things Are" did in the movie (that he has been watching).

Joel and I hurt. There was so much heavy snow. We were jealous of our neighbors that have snow blowers, but appreciated the fact that we don't have a corner lot! Once the weather warms up, this snow should be a ton of fun!