Well this was an interesting Halloween treat. Who would ever believe that we would get a blizzard in October? All I got to say is, "Thank God we were prepared this time." After last Winter's snow ordeals we decided it was time to buy some new equipment. We got ourselves a brand new nice big snow blower to use in addition to the ATV and plow. Karlo was almost eager for some snow to try it out. Then after that disaster of a hurricane and losing power for a week we also decided to replace the generator that decided to blow up on the very first day of the storm. We had this, "OK, bring it on" attitude and maybe we were a little too confident. We weren't prepared to nearly get killed by falling trees!
The snow started even earlier than expected. I was in Rocky Hill visiting my family (in my MINI) when the first flakes started to appear. I immediately left for home. I had visions of stopping at the grocery store on the way back, but by the time I got to Tolland it was snowing like crazy. I couldn't believe how fast this storm was starting. In the hour that my commute took it went from two flakes in the air, to completely snow-covered slippery roads. Boy were me and my MINI happy to roll into the garage.
Karlo had just picked up the ATV from the repair shop that very morning so it looked like we would be all set. We just sat back and watched the snow fall, and fall, and fall. The power went out in the early afternoon, followed shortly by the phone, internet, and TV going out. Drat. That is far worse than losing power. Not much to do at night, but sleep . . . if only we could.
I did manage to fall asleep, but was awoken to the sounds of chainsaws within a few hours. A big tree came down in the road just in front of our house and the tree crews were out there buzzing away for what seemed like forever. Then there was the constant groans and creaks of the nearby trees. That is the worst feeling to be laying in bed, hearing a groan, followed by a load crack, your heart stops beating for a couple of seconds until you finally hear the crash of the tree or the branch fall somewhere OTHER THAN on your roof. This went on all night . . . groan . . . CRACK . . . boom . . . sigh of relief. We got no sleep at all and woke up to this:
I have to admit, everything was beautiful and we were eagerly looking forward to the snow removal. First we had to clear the down branches from the driveway. I started moving along with the snow blower while Karlo went in front to clear the way by moving tree limbs.
I couldn't resist taking this cool picture of the gallery as I looked back down the driveway.
At one point I heard an enormous crack. I looked up to see Karlo falling on the driveway and a huge branch falling (nearly into the porch and into the hot tub) about 10 feet from where Karlo fell. Scared the crap out of both of us. I just can't believe how close he was to potential disaster. And 5 minutes previous it was me picking up all the branches, but my hands were getting too cold and wet so he took over. Wow. The reason Karlo fell was because he heard the cracking and wanted to run for cover, only the ground was too slippery and he was like a cartoon character - feet shuffling in one place, but going nowhere.
We used the handy dandy Jeep to remove the branch from the driveway:
Aside from that near death experience, we survived the snow and branch removal without too much trouble. We are very grateful that the house didn't sustain any damage. The newly fixed up shed came pretty close to disaster though. Imagine what was going through Karlo's mind when he looked outside to see this. Clicking on the photo will enlarge it for a better image.
Luckily it didn't let go and all is well. I managed to save just about all of our poor shrubs from the heavy weight of the snow. I just hope our poor little beautiful birch tree manages to right itself.
Looks like it's going to be another long week of no power and that I'm not looking forward to.
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