Anonymous Blizzard?

Once again good ol' Wisconsin came through an epic snowstorm on Sunday.  I don't think this one had a name, though....probably because there wasn't enough snow in it to qualify as a blizzard?  The fun started with freezing drizzle and then changed to snow.  I'm not sure what the total snowfall was, maybe a few inches or less, but the wind made up for it.

Blizzard or not, I think the official name should have been 'Breezy' because it was a tad on the gusty side with 30 mph winds all afternoon on Sunday, with peaks of up to 58 mph at times.  

The west windows in the house were making ominous noises, but the ol' hut held up through another arctic episode.

 There were news reports of whiteout conditions on the highways and a huge 100+ vehicle crash on the nearby freeway leaving scores injured and one fatality.   I'm not a big fan of the freeway during dry conditions but looking at traffic cam videos of the crash, it is amazing there weren't more injuries.  Speed is always a factor.  

Carl and I stayed home.  We needed to work on the house plans anyway and this was the perfect opportunity to throw ourselves into the what-if's again.  We looked through thousands of images of kitchen plans online and had endless discussions, more on that later.  

Anyway, the wind was still howling at 9PM last night, but fearless Joel decided to plow us all out despite the windchills being below zero.  Carl was going to go out and help shovel the snow away from the garage, but our back door was frozen shut and blocked by a two foot deep drift.  Joel had to get off the tractor to shovel us out of the house.  

I could have gone out the bathroom window, I suppose, but there was a 'bit' of a snowbank there, too.

Where's the big bird feeder?  And where is the Quarry?

 We are very lucky to have Joel living out here on the farm.  We would have had to walk a quarter mile in the dark and the storm to get to the tractor otherwise.  

This morning I set out to check on the chickens in the coop and to refill the bird feeders.  Normally, this wouldn't take a lot of time, but today was another story.   

At first, I donned my cross-country skis and made it to the coop just fine.  The snow was fairly hard due to the rain we'd had at times, and drifts were slippery.  I realized I wouldn't be able to carry feed and water while also using ski poles, plus, I couldn't get close enough to the door.  

I skied back around the house to the driveway, and took the skis off.  Ok, will the snow hold me up?  

Spoiler alert:  No. 

We had a pair of snowshoes around here, but danged if I can find them.  I guess I'll have to get serious about buying some.  They sure would have come in handy today.


 I normally keep a small shovel handy, too, but Carl took it to work in case he ran into problems, which is fine.  My other alternative was our large scoop shovel, but the snow was so heavy and hard I gave up trying to make a trail. 

I crawled to the coop on all fours, dragging the shovel along with me.  In the picture above, you can see my tracks, and also how low the washlines are, too.  The door was frozen shut and I had to work at it for a good fifteen minutes before it finally released.   I made several crawling trips to and fro with feed and water for the hens who were greatly confused by the sheer wall of white outside their door. 

Having dealt with the Girls, it was on to the bird feeders.  

The drifts by the bird feeders were quite hard, and since my knees were starting to sting from my wet jeans (why didn't I wear knee pads?) I decided to try standing up instead.

After gingerly walking along, step by cautious step, my luck ran out.  Just as I was about to reach for the second feeder, I sank helplessly one more time.  After finally hauling myself out of the hole, I realized my cellphone was gone.  Oh, brother.  After frantically digging, I finally found it, three feet down.  (Luckily for me, the Lifeproof case is truly lifeproof.)

Luckily, the snow on the other drift held me.  I really don't know what my plan was going to be if it didn't.  That drift is over 6 feet tall.  And I'm only 5' 8".

I made several trips back and forth to the bird feeders, crawling when necessary, and then, finally, it was time to come down off the mountain.

I descended at the highest point because the snow is much harder on the peaks.

What goes up must come down.  Thankfully, it was a nice descent.

And after all of that, I went in, changed into dry pants, and went skiing for a half hour.  In comparison to walking in the drifts, skiing is delightful, I can go wherever I want as long as I stay on the downwind side of the Back Eight.  It was only 4F this morning and there's still a good 12 mph wind with a -9 degree F windchill.  

 Look!  I found the Quarry, I knew it was in there somewhere.

The Formal Garden is looking rather dismal.  The Dome looks really short.

 The pyramid and balls are nearly buried out back.

Strange drifts through the stone wall.

 Hard to believe in a few short weeks I'll be cutting lawn.

 From this:

To this!

Let's get the shovels out, shall we?