5-6  inches of snow in the night. We woke to a blue sky and bright sunshine. The temperature was about 25 or so today-a real heatwave! We finally got out the snowshoes and took a mile long trek through the woods out back . I haven't been spendkng nearly enough time outside this winter-its been so frigid and windy!  Tonight we are expecting another round of snow and another sunshiny day tomorrow.
Today was a stay home day, i spent some time rearranging  my kitchen cabinets a bit and jeff and i discussed some kitchen improvements that are in our future. I took care of some other odd jobs but mostly i tried to rest up.

maine ice storm 2013 followup

well, its been over a week now since the ice storm and the ice is still with us.  today the sun finally came out for more than a few minutes.  the wind kicked up and the ice laden tree branches swaying in the wind sounded like leaves rustling.  some ice was falling, but not much.

the old farmers almanac had predicted a colder and snowier winter for northern new england.  so far, so good.  frigid temps again for the next few days.  this is the 3rd frigid cold snap in the last month.

 

 

we had a quick snowstorm drop 6-7 inches of snow last night.  this morning was all pretty and rosey looking

 

   

maine ice storm 2013

 

 we had a pretty bad ice storm around these parts that started on saturday december 21st and ended late on monday december 23rd.  many people lost their power on saturday, but ours didn't go out until monday morning.  right after i had gotten up, but right before i made my coffee :((
this first pic is how it looked out my back door on saturday morning.

 

jeff and i spent the weekend just keeping up with stuff and hanging out while the lights blinked occassionally.  sunday the power went off and on a couple of times but not for longer than an hour.  monday morning i got up at 6:30 and turned on the coffee pot, but before my coffee could brew the power went out and we knew that was it.  the ice was getting thicker and thicker.

 

we had the woodstove going and lots of bottled water and food we didn't have to cook, so we were good.  when darkness started to fall we got out all of our candle lanterns and some flashlights and spent the evening just chilling out--mostly with jeff playing his guitar--and talking--and drinking a little whisky--maple flavored jim beam--yum!!!

 

when we got up on tuesday morning it was all done and then we had to work to get out of the driveway.  we went to our daughters house--she had power.  one sons home also kept power but the other didn't--his was actually out for 3 days.

 



 



 

 

 

 

 



we had to cut down a whole bunch of young birches and wild cherries that bent over and blocked the driveway.  a couple of them were touching the phone line, but it held up.  a couple of branches were overhanging the power line, but the power company came and trimmed them back.

 

the roads were all good down to julies (14 miles of back road) we had to drive around many drooping trees, but none that totally blocked the road. 

 

funny picture of jeff conquering the elements!

 

 

 

 

i took my christmas morning food to julies to prepare and we planned on going to the sons house with power on christmas morning.  we also took showers there.  then we stopped at the grocery to stock up on snackies and then to mcd's for our christmas eve dinner.  we were on our own for christmas eve and i don't even know if there was church services.  at that point we were too tired to care much.

 

when we got back home the sun was shining and the ice was beautiful.  pictures cannot do it justice

 

 

 

the temps were very cold that night--near 0*  i put on my down coat and went outside to look at the stars.  it is very, very dark here anyway because of no street lights and very few houses, but with no lights from any houses at all it was  actually very nice!

 

we brought in more wood and packed all the dirty dishes into a tote to put in the garage until the power went back on because they were just bugging me sitting there.  got all the candles lit and settled down with our snacks.  around 7 pm the power went on!  i hardly noticed it because everything was turned off so i just heard the soft hum of the fridge going on.  i jumped up and ran around and turned every light on!!!! 

 

then the power went back off!!!!! 

 

it came back on for good (so far) about an hour later.

 

it was kind of a happy/sad kind of feeling though. 

 

it snowed a few inches on thursday and the snow clung to all the ice and made it look even prettier

 

 

it has stayed cold for the most part and we've had very little melting.  this morning the sun was trying to come out and the temps got up to about 33.  some ice was falling, but i think there is still so much ice out there.  tonight its freezing rain again and we are expecting 6-10 inches of snow?  then potentially another coastal storm on thursday into friday. 

 

and we've only just begun.........

 

 

i should mention that there are still some mainers who haven't gotten their power back yet.  a lot of people didn't have power again until saturday--we were very fortunate considering we live in an outlying area that we got our power back so quickly.