October Nor’easter

We drove home from my aunt’s memorial service in Rhode Island to find at least 14 inches of heavy wet snow carpeting our town. Our area also remains without power. Thankfully, we lost only one tree limb and there appears to be no damage to the house or barn. But the bushes, small trees and shrubs are another matter. We will know more as the week moves on and warmer weather moves back in. But at the moment, it appears that the damage for our property may be worse than the ice storm of December 2008.

The neighbors down the road were kind enough to let us park our car in their driveway until we could make a clear path down our own. We had packed shovels in the car so we walked back to our house and commenced the wintry work. Chuck hauled out the snowblower and cleared the driveway of snow. I set out to remove as much snow from the shrubbery as I could. In some places it meant shoveling lots of snow off where the branches were splayed and then digging out the tips from where they were buried near the ground. Each one that sprang back up without snapping was a little victory.

That done we were able to back the car up the driveway and into the barn. Then Chuck got the generator chugging away and we now have electricity, heat and running water. The temperature inside the house had fallen only to 49F/9C and the freezer had not gotten above 15F/-9C both of which were pretty darn good.

We know we are lucky and we are grateful.