Snow in the South

Our bit of warm weather ended with a storm heading our way at the beginning of this last week.

After the last snow and crippling effects it had on Atlanta, everyone took great precautions with this storm - especially since it was going to be a doozy!

All reports had the storm starting with off and on rain Tuesday night - no accumulation. But that didn't stop every school from canceling classes for Tuesday . . . . by Monday evening!

DAY 1 - Tuesday:

As predicted, off and on rain - just sprinkles here, some snow near Altanta and north, but no accumulation. We had a very nice day off of school where the kids could get together with their friends and Robert to could make his flight for his meeting in Washington DC.

On the way home from picking up Natalie from a friends we saw two snow plows and were excited that at least we had those for clearing roads once they got bad.

I heard on the radio about the order in which they clear roads in our area: routes to hospitals, steeps graded main roads, then other - our neighborhood never gets plowed, they just let the sun do it's job. This is usually fine as it warms up within a few days, but we have a long steep hill to even get out of our back part of the neighborhood and with our front wheel, 2-wheel drive, no weather tired van, I don't even attempt it.

I also heard the order of best to worst weather for power lines: rain - best, then sleet (because it just falls through trees and off power lines), then snow (it's usually heavy here in the south because of the humidity and will build up), the worst being freezing rain - coating branches and power lines with ice causes the most damage.

DAY 2 - Wednesday:

By Tuesday afternoon, school for Wednesday was called off with the storm really

 heading into the area this time. Wednesday was always going to be the worst day of the storm. 

We did get our first round of sleet during the night. I didn't sleep well after waking in the middle of the night to hear the tinkling of sleet on the window and roof, always checking to make sure the power was still on by looking into the hall for the night light coming out of Jake's room.

Come morning, there wasn't too much accumulation here,

but enough to need to clear off the driveway so it wouldn't ice over.

I also really love to shovel (and I realized I love to shovel not only snow, but dirt and mulch as well) and will shovel snow/ice with the smallest bit of an excuse to do so.
I got a good work out and enjoyed the peace and quiet of a snowy (well icy) day where everyone else was staying inside.
The kids did come out play.
And yes, one of my southern boys didn't have on a jacket or gloves.

There was enough snow to sled on.

And, yes, Natalie did sled right into a tree. :)

DAY 3 - Thursday:
Our next round of sleet started Wednesday evening (of course there was no question that school for Thursday would be canceled). It lasted throughout the night but I woke up to seeing snow falling gently outside the window.
My big concern was our power - and it stayed on.
My brother, who lives in Augusta, wasn't so lucky - getting the worst of the freezing rain and lost his power. Fortunately, they were able to have it restored within a couple of days.

I love how beautiful the ice and snow is on the rosemary bush 

 

and other trees and bushes.

We had perfect sledding conditions with the wet snow, especially over a layer of ice from the day before, and our big hill was the perfect spot!

Luckily we have neighbors with real sleds to share, but our southern sled (the top from a plastic container) worked great as well.

It was beautiful to have the sun come out by 10am (hours earlier than expected) and hear birds in the trees.

Many were optimistic that there would be school on Friday or at least a delayed start, but, looking at the two above pictures of our road, I wasn't too sure that the sun would clear it off (and other even more "secondary" roads) well enough for the busses to run.

I had another chance to shovel snow, but I let the sun help melt it a bit to make it easier. 

Even still, I had to chunk off ice in our shaded spots (the problem with having to let the sun melt everything is that there are a lot of shady spots that don't melt as quickly as the rest).

The snow was perfect for snowballs and snowmen, and a soft spot for laying in the sun.

I had heard 3 trees fall (or parts of trees) in the woods the day before, so when the sun had melted the ice from the branches, Alyssa and I ventured out on a walk.

We found this branch that had fallen and had landed sticking straight up in the path. It looked really funny just sticking there (but that is why you don't go walking through the woods when the branches are icy or heavy with snow).

The woods were beautiful and where the sun was hitting the snow, mist would rise up (the picture doesn't do it justice).

You can compare the picture below to the one from our last snow day and see how much higher the river is and how much more snow we got this time. 

We came back from our walk to find the snowman (showgirl actually), well under way.

Some veggies, rocks, sticks, and a scarf later and she's done.

I had to put in this last pictures - yes, those would be bare foot prints, and you probably guessed they belong to Jake - who had to run out to tell me something, so why put on shoes or a jacket (he was in short sleeves as well).

Day 4 - Friday:

The sun was out again on Friday, melting the snow and drying off the roads. With another day off of school (too much snow on the secondary roads), we had a lazy Valentine's Day breakfast (check out the Valentine's Day post) and finally ventured out of the neighborhood to visit friends.


I'm grateful for the down time I had with the kids. It was too bad that Robert was out of town and missed our week together. 

I'm grateful I keep my home/pantry/kitchen well stocked with supplies and I never had any feeling of panic to prepare for the storm. I just made a stop at the video store to stock up on movies.

My only concern, since Robert was gone, was that if our power went out I would need to start a fire - not one of my talents - but we had everything we needed for that as well and I would have gotten it going and we would have been fine.

Being prepared and knowing we would not get out of the neighborhood for a few days let me relax and enjoy our days.

The kids, of course, had me at their beckoned call - one of the reasons I shoveled the driveway :)  - but we had a great time together.