December 15-20 - The Great Winter Storm of 2008

The view from my living room window.

The icy and forbidding road that could not be conquered
unless you had four wheel drive and chains.

Sadie

Oso (the neighbor dog), Sadie and the rear end of Zoe.

Mama and Dakota - FYI: Goats don't like snow.

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It appears that the great winter storm of 2008 is over. I was stuck in my house for 4 days and was suffering from cabin fever. On the 5th day I braved the elements and ventured out. I put the chains on my 4 wheel drive pickup and when I saw a break in the weather I drove it to the bottom of the hill. In the morning, I bundled up and started the mile trek down the hill. Just as my truck came into view, I thought to myself, "hooray, it's still there and it doesn't look like anybody's crashed into it!" In that momentary lapse of concentration, I lost my footing and the ice took me down. It didn't hurt all that much, but I quickly looked around to see if anyone had seen me fall. It didn't appear that anyone had. Once I got to my snow and ice covered truck I attempted to put the key in the lock. It was frozen over and I had to warm it up with my hands. Once I finally got the key in, the inside of the lock wasn't budging. I had to spit on the key and then insert it into the lock to try to loosen it up. After a couple of minutes, I was finally able to get it to turn over. Then I tried to open the door. No such luck, it was completely frozen shut. I had brought a broom-like tool with me and I started to brush the crevices of the door. After about ten minutes of trying to get the door open, a woman walked up to me. I had been so busy with the door that I didn't even see or hear her approaching. She had apparently also walked down the hill. Her vehicles weren't able to navigate the icy roads so she had walked down the hill the last four days and has been able to hitchhike to town. After about 15 minutes working together, we were finally able to pry open the door. Success! I got in and turned the defroster on then we both scraped the ice off of the truck. One hour after leaving my house, I was finally ready to go. I dropped off the hitchhiker in town and was on my way. I arrived at my final destination (40 miles away) one and a half hours later safe and sound and grateful that I don't have to go through this very often.