Blizzard of 2006

I woke up this morning and it is snowing. The following is a journal entry from my first winter in my little farm house:

Day 1. The weather forecasters had predicted that we could get a really big snow storm. Who knows, sometimes they are right. The snow was falling when I woke up; it is Wednesday, December 20. We fed the horses and my house mate, Megan, left for work. I had been out on Monday to measure a couple of houses for appraisal assignments and I was entirely happy to be working from home on a day like this. I kept the news on as I sat at my computer during the morning and it became clear right away that this is gonna be "the big one"! By noon we had at least 8 inches of snow ~ although I don’t know how they measure the accumulation because the wind was howling and it was snowing vertically! I could barely see out my north windows because the wind had packed snow into the screens.

I went out and fed the horses a mid day snack. Megan called around 2pm and said that they had closed up shop and were sending people home. I talked to her several times that afternoon as she tried to make it home. Highway 66 was closed at Weld County Road 19. She headed north to WCR 34 and tried to head east, but there were cars and trucks stopped at the big curve at WCR 21. No one was going any where. I advised her to head back north again to see if 66 was open, since it is the major east/west traffic way. It wasn’t. I can’t remember whose idea it was that she try and get back to WCR 13 and find Molly’s house. However, around 4:30 she pulled into Molly’s driveway and promptly got stuck. Molly said they were out feeding horses and she looked out and wondered “Who in the heck is out on a day like this?” But every one was thankful she made it there; they called and said they were gonna put her up for the night. It looks like it is just gonna me and the critters at home tonight! Joseph called and he got stuck on his way over to feed their horses ~ and we both live in Platteville ~ he lives less than one mile away! He asked if I could feed their horse tonight and probably tomorrow. Thank God I was home!!!!

Later in the evening Megan called and asked me I could give her old dog, Spur, her insulin shot! “I guess I have to, but I have never done it before”. She gave me instructions as I took the cordless phone down to the basement frig and found all the stuff I would need. After she hung up, I went back upstairs, had a shot of whiskey and then went down and gave the old girl her shot. It happened so quickly that I wasn’t sure that I got the stuff in. I prayed that she would live through the night. She did, which meant that at 8 am I got to do it again ~ but it was much easier this time ~ requiring no whiskey.

Day 2...........

* annette