Sunday, January 30, 2022

How did you weather the nor'easter?

I have a cyber-friend who lives in Maine. I emailed her ahead of the massive nor'easter bearing down on them and asked if they were prepared. She replied, "It was -26 this morning and warmed up to a whopping 13 degrees! Heat wave!! My basic storm prep includes a batch of cookies to be made as the storm starts because we will be hanging out drinking coffee and eating cookies waiting til the storm ends to clean up. In this case the storm is two days and we will need energy from the cookies to clean up."

Before the storm hit, she wrote: "We decided to pick up a few last-minute items from the store and were there as they opened at 7am. The place was picked over and more delivery trucks won't be arriving until Monday if the east coast can dig itself out. We got what we needed and headed out to bake cookies."

After the blizzard passed, she wrote:  "The snow started at 9:45 pm, winds were kicking up at 3am so we knew it was going to be bad. We had extra wood piled in the living room, a batch of fresh butterscotch and heath bar cookies and now we wait. And wait. The wind really got bad late morning into late afternoon. Power never even flickered, but we do have a generator if needed. It snowed until about 3am this morning. Our back and side doors are blocked by drifts."

"It's is beautiful out though. Now we begin the cleanup. Raking the north side of the roofs, shoveling out the generator and dog pen, and cleaning up the driveway with the tractor and snow blower attachment on it. This will take a few hours, but it gets us outside in the fresh air and sun (although it's -12 wind chill factor)."


"A nap is definitely going to be in our future after lunch. This was not the worse nor'easter we have had, but it was a good solid 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. We will not be able to get out to church, but plan on enjoying the beauty of the Lord's work while we are shoveling it." 

"My dogs aren't leaving the house. They might have the right idea."

So that was my friend's experience. How did everyone else weather the storm?

8 comments:

  1. here on Long Island, we are fine. I am waiting for a local guy to dig us out. (I have long Covid and my son is away till at least tomorrow...)

    My dogs are really enjoying all the snow! So cute to see them bounding around my yard happily.

    As for food, I got a huge delivery earlier in the week and roasted a chicken yesterday. We've been picking at that all day, too.

    Nice to have a day where no one expects me to be anywhere much or do anything.

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  2. The wind was worse than the snow. Some areas are still bare ground with other spots around buildings having 2-3 foot drifts. It's really hard to judge how much snow we got. Maybe over a foot. No power outages. Easy to shovel.

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  3. No snow, just 60s in the South. The coldest it has been when I have been outdoors was 9F. I thought I would die. Two pair of gloves, one ski gloves were not enough. I don't know how they work at all in that kind of weather!

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  4. Even cold here in Florida

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  5. Outside DC here. We got an inch, maybe two, of snow. The wind was more of a concern for us, both due to concerns about trees around the neighborhood and because it made the temps drop bitterly. No power issues in our area, but we do have a generator, oil lamps, and the like if it goes. It cruised right past us, unlike the storm at New Year's, that hit hard in our area. Hope all are well!

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  6. We've been having cold mornings here in Florida. In the 20's but... as an old timer said, "When you add Southern humidity, y'all, it's COLD DOWN HERE!! I recall a few years ago we had a real ice storm, power down. My son and Grandaughter walked thru snow and ice to 'check on me'. They were stunned to find me warm and cozy, and drinking hot coffee. Best lesson on 'why it's smart to be a prepper" I ever gave him, did not have to say a WORD! Hope EVERYONE is safe and warm.

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  7. It went to the teens a time or two here in Alabama, now we have it going up into the sixties for a few days. If it weren't for incoming rain some serious spring cleaning would be going on outside right now. I don't think I could bear living somewhere that didn't have these spring like reprieves throughout our cold season.

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  8. Our winter storms aren't as bad as many parts of the country, but we had one a few days ago. We were expecting a lot of freezing rain, in addition to sleet and snow. Thankfully the freezing rain didn't come to fruition. It's what brings down trees and causes power outages. In preparation for power outages, I got the house clean, laundry done, a big pot of ham and beans cooked, and baked a batch of oatmeal cookies. Even though we have a whole-home generator, an extended outage would drain the LP tanks. In the case of an outage lasting several days, we would run the generator a few hours each day. This would keep the freezers cold and give us a chance to cook and warm the house.

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