Winter Storm Aftermath

 Here in the Cascade Mountain foothills, we generally get one majorly-major winter storm every January. But the one that hit this January 11 was a two-fer. 

As forecasters predicted, a Northeast gale hit our region…but this one was a doozie. They expected lows in the low single-digits, which in my “Are You Prepared?” post, I mentioned is really cold for our area. 

But it actually got to about 6 degrees below zero. With winds about 35 mph, gusts to 45. In our 17 years in the Foothills, we have never experienced that kind of cold…and or wind chill factors down to -20 or worse.

The day our high was about 3 degrees, with those gusty winds, I didn’t go outside. Not for a short walk, or to bring in firewood. Normally, I go out in every  kind of weather, so that was a first.

And what was unusual about this storm was that we got only a dusting of snow before the cold hit. So there were no handy snowdrifts around the house to insulate the crawlspace.

Luckily, though, my husband John and I followed our own good advice. We finished every item in the previous post’s checklist. And it helped enormously, or should I say, ginormously, that we only lost power for about a minute.

Yep, it feels unbelievable, but as the cold winds howled, we had one minute without electricity. 

Still, it was so cold that for three or four nights, John and I kept two faucets dripping. Also, we kept the heat on all night long, very unusual for us. And circling back to no power loss—what a huge blessing to have had power. 

What also helped was something we did back in November—which I neglected to include in my checklist—that we had actually done back in November: Covered the crawlspace vents. 

We learned our lesson two years ago, with that year’s major winter storm. We did not cover the vents, and our pipes froze. Solid, as frozen as frozen can be.

The one challenge of this deep freeze was that our shower drain froze up. Not surprising, since that bathroom is the room furthest away from the woodstove. But the drain thawed on its own within a few days so all was well.

Two-foot poultry fencing to keep the rabbits out was nearly covered!

Anyway, I mentioned a two-fer: The temps had just warmed up to a balmy 17 degrees, when the weather site forecast 4-6 inches of snow. Well, we got about 14!

But again, and sort of unbelievably, the power stayed on.

And thanks to the brisk northeast wind, the snow blew off our satellite dish, so we didn’t lose internet either.

That first day, instead of taking my usual 2 1/2 mile walk, the furthest I could go, wading through that snow, was 1/8 of a mile. And Holy Moly, was I tuckered out.

We’re not on a county road, just a private lane, so the county snowplows pass us by. Happily, we have terrific neighbors with snow removal equipment who plowed us out. 

We did goof up with one chore: we’d used all the extra firewood we’d brought in during the uber cold snap. Because we thought we were getting just a few inches, I didn’t think to bring a couple of boxes of wood indoors.

 We did have plenty of chopped wood, stowed safely in two of our woodsheds. Yet again, because we figured we wouldn’t get much snow, I didn’t cover the woodpiles with a tarp. As usual around here, in  major snowstorms, the snow blows right into our sheds.

So while John shoveled snow, I got the small broom we use for the car and swept the snow off our firewood. Then brought in not 2 but 3 boxes of firewood to atone for not being prepared!

All in all, we were incredibly lucky with this winter storm.  But then, after all the years of winter power outages, frozen pipes, wet firewood, and other misfortunes, maybe this time we were due for some good luck!