A few observations:
It never ceases to amaze me how warm 24F/-4C feels, when it has been much much colder.
Snow is pretty. You forget how much lighter it makes the night.
Winter is the worstest:-)
So it snowed about 4 inches on Monday night (which was a holiday - no school). It wasn't really so much the 4 inches of snow, but the COLD temps, and the freezing rain that followed the snow. It crunched the snow down under a hard layer of ice.
In our southern-most part of Virginia - there is no salt, sand, or snow plows. People have their hot water heaters and electrical panels on the outside of their homes. Homes are not insulated to any sort of "negative degree temps" standard. People do not have appropriate tires on their vehicles, not to mention, they have no experience driving on ice or snow, so the acceleration, braking and not-over-correcting steering knowledge is no where to be seen. So yes, 4 inches of snow is a pretty big deal around these parts.
A 'normal winter snow' gives us a little bit, and then - it warms up and it's gone. Well, with these cold fronts we've been having - it's staying put. Our area broke a 119 year old record. The last time it got to 1F/-17C here was in 1896. Sooo wow. Sooo cold!
School was out the entire week, and the secondary roads are still iced over, we'll see what Monday holds, but it's been crazy out there!
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| Kids tried to clear off the van for us...but they can't reach very far:-) |
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| The bare spot is where Brian had been parked. He braved the driving and went to work all week, picking up others who couldn't get out |
We had hot water pipes freeze at our Hugo house, which was a first. Our Norfolk homes both have outside electrical panels, and water heaters & washing machines in the garages, which are not heated. Thankfully the Nottaway house, and our Willow house (water heater also in unheated garage here) were ok and pipes never froze, but poor Hugo! The pipes froze, and then on Wednesday morning early, they burst. Booo. Thankfully the water was able to be shut off, and there was no water damage - but the washing machine didn't make it. The hose broke right behind it, and I don't know all of the particulars - only that I was told it was bad and we needed a new washer. Haha:-) I don't ask too many questions! I found another washing machine on Craigslist for a great price, and we got that all hooked up. We ordered some low voltage water pipe heaters just to take the edge off such cold temps in the garages.
We ran out of firewood, and have been trying to buy more, and no one will call us back, lol! Maybe everyone is sold out?! Our poor heater at the Willow house is electric forced hot air - and it's about 30 yrs old. Needless to say it's been struggling to keep the house warm especially at night in such extreme temperatures. I've been cooking, washing, baking, etc all week to help keep us busy --at least the kitchen is warm!
Brooks seems to be my only cold weather lover, and has gone out to play in the slippery ice all by himself for long periods of time, in my snow boots (he has none that fit him - Kenna does, but they have a small pink flower on them, heaven forbid). Kenna and Grey get cold too quickly and come right back in. They were initially excited to build a snowman and make snow angels, until they realized it was all solid blocks of ice and couldn't really do anything with it. Brooks has been working away at shoveling the driveway and walkway. He is surprised to report that, while it looks super easy, it's actually really hard:-)
Here's an ice angel for you!
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