5:33 pm - 14 degrees - windy...
...isn’t
so simple – especially in the winter time.
When we have a lot of snow, each trip to town has to be planned out. Extra time is needed to unbury, scrape off, and warm up the rig and extra time is needed to slowly (and hopefully safely) make our way down the mountain.
During the winter months, the drive down the curvy mountain road (that’s skirting the edge in numerous areas with no guard rail or anything to stop the rig from going over) can be extremely nerve wracking, especially when you are supposed to be driving straight and all of a sudden your rig slips sideways due to ice or super slushy snow, sliding towards that 100+ foot drop-off. At least there is currently a built-up wall of snow on the edge of the cliff that gives me a small false sense of security.
Besides the nerve wracking drive itself, there is always the very real possibility of getting stuck (it's happened a few times). So when there is snow on the ground (regardless if it’s an inch or a foot), before I ever head out, I always make sure that I have a snow shovel, tire chains, extra food, blankets, snow shoes, and snow gear for everyone in the car. This year I even added a few travel games to help the kids beat the boredom of being stuck. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
This mornings adventure took us just over 2 hours to make the 30 minute drive to school.
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| The wind was blowing so hard, the snow was blowing back into the road. |
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| Clearing snow drifts on the county road. |
Over the past several days it has been very windy causing a lot of snow drifts to form on the road. After last night's 62+ mph wind gusts (all night long and into the morning) Tony jumped in the tractor and slowly started clearing the snow drifts on the county road as we followed behind for a few miles.
Due to the extreme wind, in addition to the big snow drifts, there were also a lot of downed branches and trees.
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| Some of the smaller trees and branches the kids and I were able to move. |
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| Some were too big for us, but thankfully two wonderful loggers were able to clear the road for us! |
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| Our trip came to another halt with this downed tree that also took some lines with it. But the two wonderful loggers once again showed up and cleared this one also! |
When we finally do make it off the mountain and into town, I try to have all my errands done as quickly as possible so I have time to make it
back up the mountain with plenty of daylight to spare; just in case we get
stuck or have to put chains on.
