Two days ago, Will and I were working in T shirts. I was working in the garden, picking rocks and tilling and he was pouring concrete into the forms for the footing of our new front porch. I was even thinking of planting peas and setting in onion sets.

Then we listened to our morning weather radio station. STORM WARNING!

So, instead, I made sure the wood box was full, fed all the animals extra, and filled all the watering tanks. It rained all day yesterday, then last night, it turned to a heavy, wet snow. A foot of it or more. Power went down here and there all over the area, as well as hundreds of trees. Of course, being off grid, we didn’t notice it.

But it WAS very hard doing chores this morning through more than a foot of drifted, wet snow. And Will had a heck of a time plowing our driveway (all 1.3 miles), getting stuck four times and breaking the driver’s side mirror and one plow light off on smaller trees that were weighted down across the drive.

We drove the Festiva to town a few hours later and I got to see a little of how bad the driveway was. (David had left for work an hour earlier and had to stop and chop down six or seven more trees so he could get his truck out without damage. Always prepared, he carries a hatchet with him.)

The April 15th/16th snowstorm seems to be an annual occurrence here in the northland. It’s beautiful but is one more reminder that it’s always good to be prepared — even in the spring.

4 COMMENTS

  1. Dan,

    First of all, our footings are only to support a mostly decorative slip form rock and concrete wall 16″ tall. And we are on a high gravel and rock ridge with very very little moisture in it so frost doesn’t heave anything up here…not even in our chicken coop that is set on railroad ties lying on the ground. The posts will be supporting the porch deck and they are four feet into the ground.

    Jackie

  3. Well, isn’t Mother Nature something else! Hope the concrete had set up enough on the footings. Our weather is strange here in southern MO, too. No snow, but I am picking asparagus in my winter coat! Blessings to you all (including the animals.)

  4. Whew glad we did not get that down in the cities. I was thinking of planting onion sets myself but we have been getting frost. Hope it melts down fast for ya.

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