Sunday February 24, the forecast was 41 degrees and 100% chance of rain.  It had been raining hard-- 6" the day before!  Noonish it began to snow, hard.  Huge wet gobby stuff.  100% rain?  About 1:30 the power went out.  Not much later, the power came back on.  Nancy washed lunch dishes; Dianne went upstairs and filled the tub with steaming hot water.  The second she got in the tub, the power went out again.  Not a big deal, the bath had already been drawn. They'll get this fixed quickly too.

We flipped switches in the panel box and went to battery power.  Good -- we could test the new batteries we purchased the month before.  Nancy shoveled the garage apron, twice.  The snow was the wettest we'd ever experienced -- on the border between snow and slush.  We walked around shaking snow off shrubs and trees.  It was so wet and heavy that just a thin layer bowed them down to the ground.  We drove down the hill --  not too bad, although the highway had not been plowed and was pretty slushy. Maybe we could make it to our appointments the next day.

 Around 6 the phone went out too.  Well dang, no internet now.  We had supper and watched it snow in the lights on the front deck.  So pretty!  Around 9, everything went dark -- our battery power died.  What the heck?  They were new.  They were better.  They were supposed to last longer. Went to bed by lantern light.

Next morning we woke to at least 5" of snow, still no power, still no phone, and still snowing hard. Now this is not so much fun.  We felt totally isolated from the rest of the world.  Because of how the phone lines run on this hill, we could have been the only ones without phone, and no one would know we were out.  Plus, we were supposed to go to town for 2 different appointments that we'd be charged for if we didn't show. We ate breakfast, donned warm waterproof clothes, grabbed our cell phones, and headed down the hill on foot to Willie's place.  He can get cell phone reception from his front deck.  We knocked on the door at about 10:00 am  and woke him up. 

He had been up half the night cutting trees on the highway.  His dad and son Cody (who also live on our hill) had been in Glide trying to get home.  The state police had closed the highway, but Cody told the police to let them through.  He headed east, cutting his way through the tangle of trees.  Willie headed west, cutting his way through.  They got home around 2 am.  Willie said they cut through 48 trees.  The power lines were a mess. 

Wow!  This might be worse than we suspected.  We called our first appointment and got a message that the office was closed.  Second appointment, no answer, no message. Guess we don't have to worry about missing them. We called a good friend and asked her to report our phone, so we wouldn't have to stay on the line forever.

Mike Ellis, our northern neighbor, drove in and said he was going down the hill and to town.  Willie said the road was clear at 2 am.  Mike left.  We began the trek back up the hill in 5" of snow.  Very soon Mike came driving back to Willie's.  Apparently our road was no longer clear. 

So we now knew:  Widespread storm damage, all the way to Roseburg.  That incredibly wet, heavy snow was clear down to the valley and caused massive problems.  (Later we would read that at the worst, 40,000 people were without power.)  Unknown when we'd get power, phone, or off the hill. But -- friendly neighbors with chain saws and big trucks and cell phone coverage.  And Long Shadows was a fairyland.

Everything was beautiful	St. Francis with his snow cap and shawl
Around 11 a.m., the phone came back on.  Later we learned that the local phone repairman had chained a generator to the phone box at the bottom of our hill, and it ran nonstop to keep our phones working. We started melting snow in pots in front of the fireplace -- a process that would go on for days. Meantime, we tried and tried to start the generator until we were both exhausted.  No go.  It had been a long time since it had been run - bad on us! -- and the electric ignition died years ago.  Willie dropped by to check on us, so we asked him to start it.  He's a logger, with strong arms, and got it started, but it took him a lot of cranks. But house power still didn't come on.  What the -- ?  Nancy spent the afternoon searching through the system manuals, slogging back and forth to the solar building troubleshooting, and talking to tech support.  Finally got the answer and got electricity flowing.  Turned out the batteries were still charged. But we were much more conservative with the power.  No lights for watching it snow.  Just fridge and freezer -- and the outlet for the modem! Now we could connect to the internet.  Emails went out to family and friends about the snow storm, reassuring everyone we were warm and safe, with plenty of firewood and food.  The snow finally quit mid-afternoon.  We measured 9" in the meadow. 11 pm -- it goes dark again.  This time the batteries really do run out. Tuesday, we manage to crank the generator ourselves.  Now our pattern is run for a few hours to chill down the fridge and freezer and send/receive email, turn it off to save gasoline. Tuesday afternoon we went exploring.
A few hundred yards from the house, a huge madrone limb had crashed into the power lines. You can see the wire in the middle of the picture, disappearing into the tangle. The house is just past the pole in the distance. Well, at least we would know when PP&L had our problem fixed.  No power before that.
Snow turned everything into a work of art	It kept on snowing and snowing
This is the only tree we found down -- right behind the house, very close to where we hang the hammocks. This is one tree Charlie won't have to fall. Just buck it up into firewood.	Walking through the snowy forest was just magical!
Tuesday afternoon and evening it snowed again.  5 more inches.  In the meadow, it measured 14". Those of you who live in places where it snows all the time probably think that is nothing, but you have snowplows! Notice the banner photo at the top of this page.  That's halfway down our road to Willy's.  But that's not what it looked like Monday morning. Those trees came down sometime Tuesday. Willy cut the road clear on Tuesday, and then more needed cutting Wednesday. When it comes time to try to exit this place, our driveway is always a challenge.  The snow on the portion of the driveway near the house is deep and mushy.  But the really bad spot is the 90 degree curve out to the road.  It's always deeper than the rest of the driveway, because it's unprotected by trees.  There the car wants to keep going north and not east. But we're not in any hurry to leave, because once we go down, we might not be able to drive back up.  We're good here.
Driveway to house	That bad curve out to the road
Garden decorations	Someone here LOVES playing in the snow!
It will be a long time before the snow is off the solar panels	That dang dog loves the stuff. Belly deep doesn't stop her from dashing around in it.
This is the fir tree just west and north of the house.  A tangle of broken limbs is propped up by lower limbs.
Front deck	Patio seen from Nancy's room
Wednesday a surprise -- a friend from Glide drove up in his big truck, with tire chains, to bring us (and Cheryl and Jerry) 10 gallons of gasoline and 2 cases of bottled water. He had to wait 1-1/2 hours at Rock Creek before being allowed up the highway. The work clearing trees took precedence. He said every power line between there and here was down, and it would be a l-o-n-g time before we had power. But the highway wais cleared of snow. He actually got stuck coming up our road, and Willy helped get him going.  The two of them also cut more trees blocking our road. Between shoveling snow, slogging through deep snow to the solar building, yanking on the generator cord until we can't pull anymore, carrying firewood into the house, and keeping the firelace stoked 24/7, we were certainly getting our exercise.  Our calf muscles were aching from walking in the snow. We also were learning that everything takes longer when you're living pioneer style:  scooping and melting water, keeping oil lanterns filled and lit, figuring out low- or no-cook meals, cooking on the BBQ side-burner by flashlight, washing dishes in a few cups of water.  Fortunately, we had brought firewood to the house the day before the storm hit.  But by Thursday we started thinking about needing to bring more, which meant being able to get the tractor out of the barn and to the house.
The snow is up to the bottom of the seat on that chair	Looks like the tractor has to climb out of the barn or we have to dig it out.  It's not 4-wheel drive, so it's up to us.
First we shoveled the berms of snow that fell off the roof and blocked the entrances. Then we shoveled the 90 degree turn we have to make at the bottom of the slope coming out of the barn.  That’s always the hardest part, and it was again.  Tractor wants to slide sideways when you make that turn. After much back and forth and digging up gravel and shoveling out under the tires, Dianne managed to get the tractor headed up the drive. Went to the road, turned it around, came back. Okay, that worked. But without a lot more digging, we didn’t think the tractor could make it in on the north side, like we always do -- and we didn’t have that much more shoveling in us. So we decided to try to come back in the way we went out, up the slope on the south.  A little more digging, and this time Nancy was on the tractor.  Lowest possible gear, flooring the gas pedal all the way, and s-l-o-w-l-y the tractor climbed the slope and at the very top – SPLOOSH! The snow still on the roof let loose! Fortunately, it mostly hit the tractor hood, not her.  But that was even more snow for the tractor to climb over.  But we got it in the barn, shut it down, and staggered back to the house. Saturday we really needed firewood.  We asked Michael Ellis to use his BIG tractor and clear a roadway from the house to the barn. He already used it to push snow off the road.
That won't last a whole day!
A BIG John Deere with a bucket, 4 wheel drive, and higher clearance than our little tractor
The garden road headed to the barn	The driveway almost to the house
This is still a scary part of the driveway. The BIG tractor has driven over it, as well as a couple PP&L trucks, and it still is a mess. Path completed, we bring firewood to the house.  Yay!  Then we attempt an escape from the hill to Glide.  Continue with our attempted escape........