Kate's Description of the Christmas Snowstorm

Thought you'd care to hear from more Careys than just myself...

The Friday before Christmas, this part of the country was hit by a snowstorm! Mother and Lynne were out shopping at the time, and Father was at work, so it was just Mia, Murray and I at home. About 1:00 we were making cookies,etc. when we noticed that the wind had picked up, and that tiny ice crystals were falling. The precipitation changed from ice to snow to ice a few times, and then it really started falling fast (within half an hour, the ground was nearly white!). Mother and Lynne started for home swiftly, but they had to drive very slowly along the twisty, ice-coated roads, and the drive took longer than usual. About the time they started home, Father left work for fear of being snowed in and also started for home. He, too, had a rough drive, and passed several cars in the ditch, before he finally came home. All this time the snow hadn't slowed at all, and by the time of his arrival (about 2 hours later) the ground was completely covered, and blowing, swirling clouds of snow obscured much of the surrounding landscape. It only slowed a little over the next night and day, and we were snowed in all weekend.

Fortunately, the snow was perfect for sledding, and Saturday morning we ventured out. It was at least three inches above our knees almost everywhere, and, in the drifts, a good bit deeper than that! Moving was difficult, but we managed to blaze a trail up the hills, and up a gap cut into the tree-line for our sledding convenience by our landlord. That first day, sledding was tough because the snow was so deep, but the next afternoon it was much easier, and we rode down several times before we came in. Molly loved the snow. She delights to chase us down the hill on our sleds, pouncing on us and licking us when we get to the bottom. As it was up to her chest in many places, she had to bound like a dolphin to get anywhere, and thus she wore herself out to a perfectly-content-to-lay-in-front-of-the-heater state.

Tuesday morning we got up early so as to shovel out the driveway. Our driveway is rather long, and it slants upward fairly steeply, and the snow was deep enough to bottom-out the van, so we had a lot of work to do! It took us a few hours to get the driveway clear, so Father didn't get to work until past noon.

The snow had stopped by then, but the wind hadn't. Tuesday, it got very strong, and by Wednesday the power company reported 1,000 customers without electricity in a nearby state. We thought we would probably lose power, too (after all, it made sense- the power goes out and stays out on the slightest excuse in this valley). However, on Christmas it only flickered a few times (an incredible fact) and, even though the wind flatted an old barn in the field, knocked over a tree in one of our friends yard (squashing an old building, but not harming their house) and ripped the siding off another friend's house, this area never lost electricity!


NB~ And it has kept snowing. Some melted over Christmas and a few days later, but we have nearly non-stop snow this week... ~ Miss C.