The first epic snow on our new homestead took less than a month since we closed on the property! In the midst of the storm, I had to go out and find the barn cat, and nearly a day and a half after we filmed that video, we still had no power! We are so thankful for the propane fire, that we were warm and had clothes, and a variety of food that we could choose from to eat even when the stove itself wasn’t perhaps working. It all turned out ok, with the biggest inconvenience actually being… what do we do about getting out of this house and driveway!?
That’s… a lot more driveway
We have 530 feet of driveway, from our garage door, past the house, around the bend, down the drive, turn left, exit onto the street. That’s about… oh… maybe 500 feet more than we had in our little subdivision home! The wind at some points during the storm were driving the snow sideways, blowing up and over the house, barn, and other structures, and either blowing past or settling into the furrows and contours of the land.
At most times, the land seems pretty flat. During the storm, you realize that there are some gentle lifts and swells, and the driveways cross several of these natural little bits. Where the land directed the wind, the snow deepened and drifted by as much as double the rest of the driveway.
Rescued by the Tractor
Our handy little tractor – yes, we will call it a tractor, lets not hurt its feelings. Our handy little tractor was amazing at helping us cut through most of this snow to be able to get out of the driveway. Only about 50 to 70 feet of driveway did Lauren and I need to shovel by hand. We felt that the next day, but 50 feet is a far cry from having to do most of the driveway until a neighbor or church friend could help us get free.
Until this storm, the tractor was mostly a jungle gym for our little guy to climb on every time we visited the cat in the barn or he joined daddy on a “retrieve a thing from a box” run.
Adding the dozer blade onto the front was a 3 and a half hour ordeal to complete solo in the garage – but even so, I am so thankful that Lauren and I thought ahead and moved the tractor and the blade kit to the garage ahead of the storm “just in case”.
An Epic call – Delivered Late
For days ahead of the storm, meteorologists were prognosticating anything from “major inconvenience” to “Armageddon”. Just as the main body of the storm arrived, the local weather map looked a pastel patch of warnings.
For only the second time in the eight years we have been attending, our church in Greeley shut the doors and canceled services! The storm arrived late, but by midday on Sunday, it was raging in full force and the decision to cancel services was definitely the right one.
Cleaning up and Getting to the Barn
The homestead is a muddy mess now – but we are already starting to look ahead to spring. Perhaps this is the last big gasp of winter before we can start working on our outdoor projects! This video I think is the first time we have shared more than an instagram picture of the building, we will have to share more of it soon, alongside our chicken and garden plans and so much more.
Step one, though, is finish digging out, getting all of the winter equipment away, and finishing the process of cleaning out al of the initial move-in piles and random boxes strewn about.
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