The storm started on Friday, December 17th and ended on Monday, the 20th with another day of snow on Wednesday. Our total snowfall was over 80 inches. The first couple of feet were very heavy and wet, and the rest was lighter. I really love snow, but this was an overwhelming amount of it. My dog yard was filled and I had to dig trenches for the kennels and remove feet of snow from the chicken wire covers.
My garage and driveway were inundated and despite multiple attempts to keep my truck reasonably clear, I woke up on Sunday to this:
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| The antenna on the left is all I could see of my truck! |
Some wonderful friends came up from Bishop to help me dig out and by the end of the day, we found my truck.
Getting into my garage was a major endeavor since the snow was almost half way up the door.
The county was not plowing due to concerns about avalanches (they advised us to leave!) so the 6 families in our neighborhood who live here full time were stuck. They eventually sent a front loader up to plow a single lane but by the time they showed up it was dark and they left a huge and rock hard berm at the foot of our driveways. I was concerned about the avalanche hazard and while my house was engineered to withstand an avalanche, my dog yard was exposed. So I brought all the dogs in. It was crazy, but with a few in crates and some baby gates up to keep them out of some rooms, we managed. About that time, the power went out and I had to hook a small generator up to keep my pellet stove and one light going. Eventually the generator ran out of gas and I couldn't face a trip to the garage for more. So I laid a futon out on the floor, got warm blankets and pillows and told the dogs it was time to go to sleep. And all of these dogs, most of whom have never spent a night in the house, curled up all around me on the futon and we went to sleep. It was very sweet and very warm! The power came back on in the middle of the night so I could turn the stove back on.
The snowfall started to decrease Monday evening, and at one point when I let a dog out about midnight, I could briefly see the eclipsing moon through some thin clouds. Tuesday was clear and then it snowed again Wednesday. We now have the amount of snowfall that we usually get by mid-February. We have now had a few days of sun, the avalanche hazard has decreased, and we have the driveway dug out, and moats inside the dog yard fences so they can't jump out.
Tomorrow I finally am taking dogs out sledding and I think I'm going to really love all this snow!
