3.14.2017 - Blizzard Day!

Wow - what a crazy day!  We were under blizzard warnings all day and they continue until tomorrow morning.  It started snowing early this morning and just never stopped.  I had some flyers I really needed to pick up from Staples in Saratoga but wasn't about to drive there.  However, Jim checked the weather and thought we had a small window of opportunity to go into Saratoga.  It was a slow, snowy drive in but thankfully Jim is a great and cautious driver.  We picked up the flyers and even went over to Lowe's for a few things.  Many stores never opened - Staples was planning on closing up soon after we left.

Our drive home was another story.  The snow had picked up even more and the plows couldn't keep up with it.  Most of the traffic was heading into Saratoga so that lane was kind of packed down - our lane was getting thick with built-up snow.  We saw one giant 4WD truck totally turned around in a ditch.  But the snow was coming so fast and furious that Jim could barely see the sides of the road.  One of the worst issues was that, even with the defroster on full blast and the wipers going, the snow built up on the windshield and wipers making it impossible to see.  Jim literally had to try and find a place to pull over every 2 miles and scrape the windshield!  We were so glad to get home safely!

However, after lunch, Jim headed back out into the blizzard.  Once he turned off the main street in Corinth heading to Angel, he almost turned around.  He said it was like driving in a field - you couldn't tell where the road was.  However, just in time, a snowplow turned in front of him at the beginning of our road so he was able to follow the plow.  However, he still had to stop and scrape the ice off the windows.

Once he got to our property, there was easily over 20" of snow piled up at the end of the driveway.  He waded through snow up to his knees to try and uncover the chain.  He never thought he'd be able to get up the driveway.  He would drive a couple feet, bottom out the truck, back up and do it again.  Once he got out of that snow, he had the steep driveway covered in snow to try and make it up.  He told me later that I would have been crazy if I would have been in the car - he was sliding all over the place, back and forth all over the driveway trying to get up.  He finally did it!

Obviously the first order of business was to plow the driveway.  You can see how much snow there is when he opened the garage door.

From absolutely no snow on the ground to this in one day was pretty incredible.

Before Jim could even think about plowing, he had to hand shovel out the bucket!

Getting in position to attach the bucket...

Once he got the first plowing done, it was time to come in and warm up by the heater.  He was soaked to his knees and then some!  This is pretty crazy - we have the soffits and fascia boards on all of the structure except for the stairwell.  It was so incredibly windy that it blew snow up in through those openings and we had snow on the landing!

After he warmed up a bit, Jim used his new countersink bits that he bought at Lowe's (his weren't in the best of shape) and continued doing some blocking work for the cabinets in the kitchen.

Finished look...

A brief moment of lighter snowfall when Jim headed out to do the second plowing.  He had just gotten out and all the snow came off the roof - Jim said it was up to the bumper on his truck!

 

We'll have to wait and see if we broke a snowstorm record for the day - they were predicting that we would.  We got well over 2' and it's still snowing!

 

High 23/Low 16 - blizzard drops over 2' of snow!