Got Buried In Snow (with 3 videos)

We didn't get buried, but our house sure did.

Boy oh boy did we ever get hammered in Wisconsin with this last snowstorm! It kind of made up for how mild this winter has been so far for us. 

It all started kind of nice on Tuesday into Wednesday.  It was very pleasant sitting in the She Shed looking out the windows at the snow as it started to fall. We knew we were going to get a lot. But at first, it was kind of floating down like a snow globe outside. Very pleasant.

It was so magical and gentle. It was almost to the point that I didn't mind that we missed out on our escape vacation trip a couple weeks ago. I do like looking out and how soft and white and beautiful it is. All of the sounds are muted and muffled. It's like in the movies.

I made this little video clip:

By dark, it started whipping up a little stronger. We snuggled into the She Shed with a couple good HGTV shows and movies on tv. I made up a hot steamy mug of Tom n' Jerry... which is an eggnog drink with some brandy or rum, plus a little sprinkle of nutmeg on top.

The winds started picking up. It was blowing in from the north and east. We were having a real "nor'easter"! And boy oh boy was it really crazy. The snow was blowing sideways!!! 

Before we headed to bed, I shot this little video clip out of the window from the She Shed. There was no way I was going to go outside in this weather!

Sometime during the night the wind switched and it now came from the South. This was a heavy wet snow and it was just splattering hard against the house. I got up about 1:00 a.m. and took a look outside. Here is the She Shed door leading out to Binney's little potty yard.

For the rest of the night, we could hear the winds howling and blowing. There were sounds of blasting sleet and snow hammering against the house from the south. Fortunately, our power stayed on all night. We snuggled in and slept the rest of the storm away until 6:00 a.m.

The sky was heavy and dark yet and we really couldn't see too well. I opened up the blinds in the bedroom to look out and this is all I could see! The winds that had been blasting across from the north and east blew all the snow down onto the little patio table and in front of the door to Binney's potty yard. Then the wet snow and winds from the south kinda froze it all into place. Look at that!  It almost looks like marshmallow fluff, but it's all firm and almost crusted over. 

Well, this poor little dog really had to go outside to the bathroom. She wouldn't go out the night before at bedtime so she was virtually dancing on her tippy toes to get out the door. I kept filming from the window with the camera while Steve took her down to open the door from the She Shed into the potty yard. 

He figured it would be too deep but she really really had to go. So he tried. Look at her reaction on this video clip!

Yep, that's as far as she made it. One plop in the snow and Steve had to dig her back out to bring her to the other doorway. 

We got up and made some coffee.... then I took a few more pics when it got a bit brighter out. 

When he had opened the door I noticed how much snow was clinging to the door lock and the door knob! This was really a wet heavy snow and it was stuck to everything. 

It was at least a foot deep in front of the doorway and closer to 2 ft deep on the picnic table itself. Look at how it molded and smooth itself out with the blowing winds. 

I looked out of the front windows and these are our stairs that go out to the mailbox and the street. I think we will have to do a little bit of shoveling this morning?

Amazing how much snow piled up on the front porch. Here is our porch swing! So hard to believe that last week we were sitting out here on a beautiful day enjoying the sunshine wearing just our sweatshirts. It was feeling like Spring was on the way. Even our apple trees and lilac trees have little green buds starting on the tips of the branches. All of our snow was gone and we were thinking of doing some yard work!  Mother Nature sure likes playing funny jokes on us. 

Look at the height of the snow on top of our coach lamp out in the potty yard. That is almost all snow, with just a tiny peaked roof on the light fixture itself.  Mother Nature IS amazingly hilarious!. 

The ones on the front of the garage were even more crazy....

 This reminds me of a gnome!

The drifts in front of the garage were two and three feet deep. But the wind whipped through between the garage and the She Shed...   it had literally swept the walkway clear down to the concrete pavers. But the snow then mounded itself up against the side of the garage in a high drifted pile about 3 ft up the siding. 

Steve felt so bad for little Binney that he trudged on through the yard and opened up the fence to get the snow blower into her potty yard. He cleared out a path over to her most favorite spot to go potty. What a guy. 

Since we were snowed in for the day and not going anywhere, I decided to tackle the painting in the bathroom and get a second coat up on the ceiling and work on the walls. I put on some soft music, and sipped my coffee in between sections.  

No rush, and it was transforming the walls and ceiling into something soft and harmonious with the accent wallpaper on one wall.  The wallpaper was put on by Peggy, the previous owner. She had personally ordered it from a place in Italy and begged me not to strip it down.  I am usually not a fan of wallpaper, but this textured thick stuff is soooo pretty! It's embossed and thick and has tiny metallic lines that almost look like embroidery to the surface of each leaf. 

The new paint is such a pretty green and I find the color soothing and almost reflective. It doesn't soak in the daylight, it kind of reflects it outwards and looks softer and lighter during the day. At night it seems to give a hush and a peaceful feeling to the room, that we noticed the effect in the kitchen. Now when I relax and take a bath in my tub, it will be soothing and peaceful and relaxing. 

Steve helped with the brush cutting in on the high spots and I finished rolling all of the walls. Made it right to the bottom of the can with none left over. I was worried we'd have to wait a couple days for the snow to subside before we could buy another can of paint. Soon we were putting back the little pieces here and there like the mirror and robe hook and pictures. We were done!

Now to take a wonderful hot soaking bath

 in my bubbles

 looking out over the

snowy terrain outside. 

Since it was a "Snow Day", the grandkids were out of school. The highways and streets were finally cleaned up. Towards later afternoon, we went and grabbed three of the grandkids because we needed to babysit them for the evening anyhow. Their parents had to travel to Oshkosh, and the roads were clear enough to go. 

We took a little detour to the grocery store to stock up on good things. They decided they needed garlic breadsticks and meatball subs and spaghetti for supper. They couldn't decide on which flavor of ice cream to get for dessert. So we bought two. Why not? 

A little unicorn headed girl

 got piled up with everything 

because she wanted to "help"... Lol

Clayton had already done the snow shoveling at his house and then decided to help clear off Grandpa's gas grill at our house. Yes, that is one big hunk of snow that solidified over the top of the grill. He actually picked it up twice and had to grab it again to pose for a picture. That shows how dense and thick this snowfall was.  That also means it was a lot harder and heavier to shovel.

Kids helped to make supper and we had a lot of giggles and silliness around the table. What a great way to finish up a "Snow Day"?

It was time to bake up some cookies, and all three took turns with parts of the recipe. Our granddaughter Whitney showed us the special technique of how to crack an egg. Clayton is using it in this photo below. It works so well and doesn't leave any pieces of shell behind.

Here's a video that the grandkids made on another day of how Whitney's Way works to crack an egg:

The house smelled so good with the aroma of baking cookies. The girls were counting them up and figuring out how many were going to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and how many were going to go back home with them. We doubled the batch so we had 4 dozen pretty big cookies. 

Yummmmm 

(the white chips get browned on top and taste almost like toasted marshmallows!)

The recipe is from my friend Hilary who lives out in New York. It works flawlessly every time and you have to use shortening, not butter. We substitute the dark chocolate chips with the white ones and we omit the nuts. The recipe is foolproof and they come out perfect and light brown when baked on parchment paper. 

The "Snow Day" was over, babysitting was done, and it was time for us to crawl in bed. The roads were cleared and the snow was taken care of. Time to get back to normal. This morning we woke up to beautiful sunshine streaming in. What a change from looking out of the very same window the morning before????

Notice that Binney now has a nice area all snowblowed out to do her business, and she does not have to get dumped into a puffy deep pile of snow any longer.

We left the snow on the picnic table on the patio. I think it looks kind of cool. We'll see how long it lasts. I'm sure it's very heavy. 

This morning the snow is all sparkly and beautiful like crystals or diamonds. It's kind of hard to capture in a photograph, but I think you can see it. More magic of Mother Nature.

And guess what? 

The weatherman just announced 

that we have 

MORE 

snow coming tonight!!!