I have simplified my life and have moved...come check out my new home.

Hugs to you all!

Labels: Moving, The Open Window

I am sorry I haven't posted, even on my bloggiversary but I PROMISE to make it up to you! Hopefully by tomorrow everything will be ready! Hang in there folks!

Hugs to you all!

One Year Ago Today I wrote my first post. I was strongly encouraged by my daughter Timoni. I think I was a bit depressed by all the snow as you will soon read but I think I also had a sense of humor as well. Anyway, I thought I would share my very first post. I don't think anyone read it, there were no comments but it was my very first. Today, we have rain, spring rains! Praise the Lord!

Also, things will be a bit different around here tomorrow so please check back...for all who do and comment I will put your name in a little drawing for a little prize...We have to celebrate this major event in my life properly, don't you think?!

Hugs!

The Witch of Narnia Has Returned

I woke up this morning and saw snow, more snow. It was a virtual nightmare. Yesterday spring was beginning to show. The creek, which crosses in front of my house, was full and the sound of running water over shallow rocks was heavenly.

Let me rehash to you city folks just what this week has been like here in the mountains. First of all I arrived home from Easter vacation on Monday. It was raining lightly, wonderful spring rains, the kind that make the grass grow, and flowers bloom and the smells were delicious.

Tuesday morning the rains continued with a few rounds of thunder and lightning, which seemed to shout out that spring was here to stay. I was on my computer when around noontime I looked out my window and noticed that the rain was turning to snow. I cringed inwardly. I am not a winter person. I don't care much for winter sports and in my opinion winter should only be allowed to exist from Thanksgiving to New Years, just to give the holidays some ambience.

Tuesday evening my husband called and informed me that he was stranded in another town due to the snow. Thirty minutes later the lights flickered and I had the all-encompassing feeling of dread. The electricity was going to be off, meaning the phone service most likely would crash as well. I kept screaming inwardly that this is April and springtime and someone needs to have a serious talk with our Maker, and since no one else was around, literally, I started talking although it obviously didn't do any good.

I made a dash for a flashlight, found some candles and then headed to the walkout basement where the wood fireplace is. Fortunately, there was plenty of wood chopped for a few days if needed. Then the lights went completely out and I realized that I was the only person living within 15 miles of any type civilization, the closest town being a population of less than 2000 souls. I was alone, completely alone and in the dark. It was a very odd feeling.

One thing I have plenty of is books, so I lit a candle and began reading until I fell asleep. I awoke Wednesday and still no phone, no lights and I could not see anything outside my window. It was a total whiteout.

A deck surrounds the main level of my house. I have French doors from my bedroom and dining room onto the deck. The snow was as high as I am tall and I wondered if the deck could hold that much snow. I determined that I couldn't think about that sort of thing as there would be nothing I could do if the deck crashed down twelve feet.

I did get a few things accomplished that day. I crocheted a pair of baby booties, read, read some more, took pictures until the battery died, dusted but had to conserve water of course and read again. I packed any and all snowman figures that I didn't get packed away with all my Christmas decorations. In fact, I felt like throwing them into the fireplace. I decided that I hate snowmen.

By evening I figured Larry wasn't going to make it home so prepared myself for another lonely and very quiet night. It was also getting a bit cold in the house, between 46 and 50 degrees on average. I had on two pairs of socks, pajama bottoms, a flannel nightgown, robe and slippers. I boiled eggs, made popcorn and roasted marshmallows. If "Lean Mean Maxine" were around, she would have loved this experience and my outfit.

I am not sure when I fell asleep but about 1 a.m. I heard yelling and shouting and then some banging and my first reaction was to grab the fireplace poker. Deliverance and a few other horror movies came to mind but at the same time I found myself running to the door and opened it to four snowmen - one being my hubby. He was so worried about me, his city wife with no survival skills whatsoever, that he and three of the crew walked 3.5 miles from the highway. They couldn't have gone further driving if they had tried. It took them about 5 hours to walk the forest service road and some drifts were 6 feet deep and four trees had fallen across the road and one of the men said he couldn't even climb over the tree it was so high.

I turned into Ms. Super Helpful and I got the blankets, sweat pants and dry socks for the men plus stoked up the fire to blazing and got the men some water and sandwiches, as they hadn't eaten since noon. I finally went to bed about 2:30 a.m. The men had no idea what they were getting into. I knew Larry would have walked it alone.

The next day I tried to make it cheery so we popped popcorn and roasted marshmallows, etc. In the afternoon the sun came out and things were already melting but still no lights. The phones started working in the afternoon. One young guy was having such nicotine fit that he walked back to the highway to get to town for a smoke and drink. Another man left in a snowmobile as his wife was leaving for Mexico on Saturday and he wanted to see her. We have some friends who rent out snowmobiles so they made it here about 7 p.m. and he left us one which came in really handy. By evening we had electricity. On Friday the snow slowly started to melt but it was too thick and heavy to move with our plow. The forest service snowmobiled in and cut the fallen trees and moved them off the road for us.

Friday my hubby and another guy made it to the highway in our 4x4 pickup with chains on and still got stuck as the snow at this point was thick and slushy from melting. Larry got home about 5 p.m. and then went to pick up Joey and a friend who was staying with us since his mother was out of town.

On Saturday it was 70 degrees and spring had arrived. It was wonderful. I went out on the deck and listened to the creek and birds and relished in the sunshine. I felt revived, alive, and happy! The snow was disappearing and very quickly. It was heavenly.

Sunday was a cloudy day but spring was still in the air. Then I saw the forecast: a 50% chance of snow for Monday with accumulations of 2-4 inches. I awoke this morning, Monday, to at least six inches of snow and it is still falling, heavy and thick with up to nice inches expected, although there are already at least nice inches on the ground and the snow is still falling, heavy and thick.

I looked at my husband with tear filled eyes and said, "I think the Witch of Narnia has returned". He replied, "Well, honey, we haven't seen any Mountain Lion tracks lately" and then he laughed and said, "cheer up" and I said, "Go to hell!" and stormed out of the room.

Labels: Snow, Spring