Snow week, details.

We did pretty well logistics wise surviving an unexpected week with no power.
For cooking we used a camp stove. At first I used it outside, but after ski camping in the RV I brought it in the house. It didn't seem much different than the RV stove.

  We entertained ourselves by working outside, shoveling, clearing channels for water to flow to storm drains and talking with neighbors. Inside we had ipod speakers for music.

For lighting we used headlamps and candles. Heat was a gas stove.

 

 

 We no longer think it is excessive to have three coolers, as we used all of them. The big one was our fridge and we added ice a few times. Our freezer was emptied on day two of no power and buried in a snow pile. When we opened it up the other night and it was great. There was snow frozen on the outside, a very good sign.  The meat was still 100% frozen, a few things had thawed a bit but nothing was ruined.

Our raft cooler held the entire contents of the fridge.

The 'freezer' when we left to go skiing.

The 'freezer' a few hours before we opened it up.

Last week in Pictures

It started as snow.

Then turned to freezing rain.

Beautiful at first.

 

 

But destructive.

We lost power, so we went skiing.

In the RV.

It snowed a ton there too. (Johno helping O down a very windy section).

Neighbor's basketball hoop.

Snow week

Our last week has been an interesting adventure. Odin had snow days on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  The weather here was pretty wild. We had snow, more snow (the total was 11"), then freezing rain, then just rain. The freezing rain made us loose power on Thursday. It finally came back on tonight. A full week later.  John went to work as usual just had more fun on the commute! Most main roads were plowed on Wednesday morning, residential roads were another story.   On Friday his office finally lost power and closed around lunch time.


We made the best of it. After not having power for 24 hours I wanted a change of pace, and since it was snowing. . .  We packed up the RV on Friday and went skiing. The snow was fantastic, family powder day x2! We came home hopeful for power. Driving to our street we noticed many other people with lights on, but not ours. . .  Each day we were more and more hopeful.

Finally today a neighbor went down to the local power company office and talked to a person. He gave me her number, so I called too. So did two other neighbors. Ta-da! Power was on just before dinner time tonight.

Good Morning

Our neighbor measured this morning and we had 9" on the ground, but it hasn't stopped snowing. John went to work just for the sport of getting there. Odin has a snow day for the 2nd day in a row. The forecast calls for possibly another 6" during the day.

Snow Day!

Here is a headline from our newspaper:

Let it snow! Olympia could get 14 inches

Forecast: Expect 1-3 inches today, then 6-14 inches Wednesday before rain washes it away over several days

This morning I got the call that every child hopes for, "school is cancelled".  It has been snowing since Saturday and is hovering right around the freezing mark. So it gets melty and turns to slush, then freezes overnight. Makes for tricky driving in a town that is not set up to handle snowfall and does not have a team of dedicated plows and drivers.
John had some things that needed to be done today at work and went in. He said his office was a ghost town.
We might go searching for a sledding hill later. It is supposed to be warmer and rain on Thursday.

he's half in the orange sled.

 

Read more here: http://www.theolympian.com/2012/01/17/1951872/let-it-snow-olympia-could-get.html#storylink=omni_popular#storylink=cpy

It's looking like winter more and more

 

Frost

Yesterday we had really thick hairy frost here. It was like tiny needles standing up on everything.  Odin thought if there is no snow to play in why not play in the frost. The grass was very crunchy.

Today

With January days like this who* needs Spring Break?

Sunny snd 50 degrees. We have used the bikes more this month than we did in November and December combined. And it's only the 8th! 

We even had a beautiful sunset tonight.

*To be honest, I need Spring Break. We are headed to the Caribbean in March to go on a cruise with my family to celebrate my dad's retirement! I am so excited! The last time I was in tropical water was right after John and I met - and it was with my family in 1999.

Spring?

Washing dishes in the kitchen this morning I saw three Robins in the yard. Does that mean Spring is here?

The other day Odin and I went for a bike ride. He insisted on wearing his sandals. Meanwhile I was wearing a down jacket and another jacket on top, and rain pants. Guess who wanted to turn around because their feet were cold?

SIX!

Can you believe it? Six years old! To celebrate we headed to Duluth to ride the roller coaster at the ski hill. We did a number of rides, had  some lunch and drove back to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner and cake.  Odin insisted on putting his gifts under the tree. Six.. It is so big.

Box sledding!

Christmas In Minnesota

What I learned from our week in Minnesota for Christmas.
1) Red eye flights have way less kids on them.
     a) Ours did great.
     b) Less kids is not a good reason to book a red eye.
2) 6am playdates can go surprisingly well. We had a great visit with Jenny, Jim, Laura and Adam.. And bonus Aunt Kim!

 

3) Not sleeping for an entire night is much harder on me than it used to be- and it never was that easy.
4) Even when it is 40 degrees warmer than usual Minnesota is cold in the winter.
5) No matter how much grocery shopping is done before arrival daily trips to the store may be necessary.