“The February 9 – 10, 2010 Blizzard! – February 14, 2010”

On February 9 through February 10, 2010 the Mid-Atlantic area experienced its second major snow storm of 2010. We experienced Blizzard conditions and at times we had white out conditions. We added about 20 more inches of snow on top of the 26 that we received earlier in the week!

We’ve been out and about the last three days as the driving conditions are slowly improving each day. One of the major challenges is pulling out of side streets or out of parking lots as the snow is piled high and in many places you can’t see over the piles. There are snow hills in many of the parking lots that are twice as tall as my van! It’s truly amazing at how much snow we received in this area. One snow storm of this size is very unusual let alone two in the same week! We’ve set records over most of the state.

I thought I would share some new photos, especially so our daughter who is away at college can see how it looks around here.
Hi Sweetie! :-)

Here we go again! This is the normal Windy Meadow view which I actually took from a window instead of from the end of our driveway. The second blizzard is just beginning. At the peak of the storm not only could we not see the tree line, we couldn’t see the house across from us which is quite closer than these trees.

A view out of our back windows during the blizzard on the night of February 10, 2010 as the blizzard was starting to wind down. The snow is up to the top of our fence.



This is our son who is trying to climb out of the snow after uncovering a vent which is located to the left of the window. The metal object you see right in front of him is our sundial which is telling us its snow time! :-)



Our brick sidewalk after about 1 ½ hours of shoveling and snow blowing by three people. The sidewalk lights are 24 inches tall. So in this area of the yard the snow is about 4 feet deep. You can also the top of our one evergreen bush which is about 6 feet tall. We had about 2 feet of snow blown up against our front door. It took a while to clear off the front landing to even get to the sidewalk. LOL!



The front of our house showing that the snow is up to the bottom of the windows.



The pile of snow at the end of our driveway before the plow guy came by for the second time in one week. We used the snow blower on Thursday after the blizzard to clear off the area right in front of the garage doors. I’m standing on the cleared portion of the driveway trying to take a picture of the dogwood that I include in all of the Windy Meadow pictures. As you can see, we can only see the dogwood’s top most branches. The top of the cut in the snow, on the bottom right of the pictures is 2 feet tall.

Another picture of the snow pile at the end of our driveway. This is the dogwood that I include in all of the Windy Meadow pictures. I had to stand on part of the snow pile to take this picture.



These last two pictures were taken after our plow guy stopped by and dug us out for the second time this week.

The pile of snow at the end of our driveway. For reference, it’s taller than the height of a standard car and almost as tall as the top of my van.

The light pole at the top of our driveway. You can see the huge pile of snow on the side of our road. Our road is still only one to 1 ½ lanes wide in most places.

We’ve had a lot of snow melt which means late at night its freezing and making driving challenging.

Oh, we are getting more snow tomorrow night, Monday into Tuesday. This time it’s supposed to be only three inches. Sigh…

I appreciate everyone’s comments and I’m so glad that you decided to stop by and visit us at Windy Meadow.

Back later today with some stitching pictures!

Cynthia
A Snowy Windy Meadow

“Batten Down the Hatches! Again? Yes, Again!!! -- February 9, 20109”

Batten down the Hatches or in other words, A MAJOR SNOW STORM is HEADED OUR WAY!!!

Again???!!!

I can’t believe I’m saying this for the third time this winter and the second time in one week!

Yes, we have another huge weather event headed our way. It’s actually here already as it began lightly snowing at 1:30pm this afternoon. The snow became heavier at about 3:30pm. All of the bare surfaces, the few that are out there, are already white. The photo below of Windy Meadow was taken about 4:30pm this afternoon as the storm was worsening.


The forecast is for between 10 to 20 inches of more snow over the next 24 hours!

They are also predicting higher winds this time so hopefully we won’t lose power. We are also hoping that the snow from this past weekend is packed down enough that it won’t add to the drifting problems.

I’m not sure where we are going to put the new snow as we still have over 2 feet of snow in the yard. We were able to get out late yesterday and then again today to pick up some more supplies. You ought to see the snow piles in the parking lots! There were still snow piles in many of the parking lots from the December 19, 2009 snow storm. Add in the snow from the February 6, 2010 snowstorm and we have mountains of snow! And a lot less room in many of the parking lots to park!

DH and I have been off of work for the last two days. We both work further south where they received 28 to 30 inches and the roads down there are still a mess. In addition a lot of trees are down on most of the major highways adding to the problem. We probably won’t be at work tomorrow as that will be the height of the storm and it will be questionable whether or not our respective places of employment will be open on Wednesday or even on Thursday. We’ve never been closed for this long, not even in the 1994 snow storms!

The public schools let out early this past Friday right before the snow storm worsened. They are still closed and will probably be closed for the rest of the week. Then on next Monday and Tuesday they are scheduled to be closed for Presidents Day and the day after. So DS may not be going back to school until a week from this Wednesday!

Yesterday, DH was a little bit under the weather so DS and I went out to Panera for lunch. We then stopped by the grocery store to restock on bread and bananas and a few other things. It’s amazing how much food we go through when we are all home as usually we eat our lunches at work and school! I then stopped by the local park so DS could do some sledding. Then we both came home and spent about an hour with the shovels getting the packed snow off the top of the driveway by the road where the plow pushed it back on our driveway. We also made sure to clear out the packed snow in front of our mailbox. Thank goodness we were up by the main road as suddenly a buck and two doe came running through the snow along the side of our property line, across the street, and down through the next yard. A car was slowly coming down our road, we are still down to slightly over one car width of cleared road, and he stopped when he saw the buck crossing the road. I started waving so he would know to not move as he couldn’t see the does. When they passed I was able to wave him on. As he drove by he rolled down his window and thanked me. :-)

In this area, we know if there is one deer there are going to be more! But we were able to let him know that there were only three and that it was safe for him to continue. It was also fun to see the deer running through the snow as they take huge leaps with snow flying! Two feet of snow does not slow them down!

We then had fun clearing the packed snow that was rapidly turning into ice from the main/flat part of the driveway. Usually, I would just let it go as it would be gone in about two days with the winter sun, but with another 10 to 20 inches on its way, we both thought we needed to clean up the packed snow and ice. It’s a lot of fun working with DS as he tells stories, pretends the snow is attacking us, has fun seeing how far he can throw the snow from his shovel, etc. Always and adventure! This was a nice workout for both of us so when we were done it was time to unpack the car, take showers and just goof off. :-)

What did we do when running around today? While DH was getting more gas for the snow blower, running a few errands, and then putting the two cars in the garage, I made a quick stop for several paperbacks and magazines for me and a new DVD for DS, plus a few other odds and ends. DH and I met for a quick lunch at Five Guys, love the burgers and fries, as DS wanted to stay home and catch up with everyone on Facebook.

Since I want to play with my quilting I decided to stop by Joann’s earlier today to pick up a couple of fat quarters. I thought this was a good idea, especially, since I’m a very novice quilter and I don’t want to ruin the good fabric! I have this vision of sitting in front of the TV watching the Winter Olympics while doing some English Paper Piecing to make a quilt. I’ll post a progress picture when I have something to share that hopefully won’t be embarrassing! LOL!

We just finished getting the candles, flashlights, and camping lantern ready, and filling up a bathtub with water (we are on well and septic and if the power goes out, we can't flush as the well pump stops pumping). We washed the dishes and now we’re doing laundry so we’re all caught up if we lose power. We are now all at home, warm, safe and dry.

DH already called our wandering plow guy so that he will stop by and dig us out again after this storm passes. So hopefully, we’ll be able to get out on Thursday or at the latest on Friday.

While we are snowed in we are planning on doing a few chores, playing a bunch of games and hopefully watching some movies if we have power. I'm also planning on washing and pressing some of my new fabrics.

Stitching? Oh, yes, I finished the January, 2010 light bulb ornament for the February Christmas SAL and I’ve already started the February, 2010 light bulb. I’m also planning on putting Uncle Sam back on the table as I need to finish him up by June, 2010 for the Black Eyed Susans challenge.

I’ll be sharing a photo of the finished January, 2010 light bulb ornament with everyone soon. :-)

We’ll be thinking again of our police officers, volunteer fire, EMT personnel, State Highway employees, and the personnel at the local Hospitals and wishing them well. Thank goodness we have them!

Many of them have been working non-stop since the first storm. Hopefully, we’ll get a break in the weather so they can have a chance to rest!

Today, the Mayor of Baltimore put out an all hands call asking for help from any private contractor with snow equipment. In addition, there are repeated reminders on both the TV and radio stations asking everyone to stay home and off the roads! Hopefully all will listen and honor their requests.

Vancouver, would you like some snow? We have some to spare that we would gladly send North! LOL!!!

I hope everyone in the path of this new storm, stays safe, dry, warm and that you hopefully find some time to stitch!

I also wanted to add that I appreciate everyone’s comments! I read and smile over each and every one. It’s a wonderful feeling knowing that I have friends who enjoy reading my blog and who have been thinking of us and everyone in this area during these challenging storms. Thank you!

Cynthia
A Very Snowy Windy Meadow

“26 Inches!!! -- February 7, 20109”

26 Inches!

That’s the unofficial measurement here in Windy Meadow, twenty six inches of snow during the February 6, 2010 Blizzard.

That my friends, is a lot of snow!

Our primary roads are now in good shape. Our secondary roads are passable as we now have one lane open in the road in front of our house and on the rest of our secondary roads out to the main road. Most of the public schools in the path of the blizzard have already cancelled school for tomorrow.

We are very thankful for our state highway employees, police officers, volunteer fire personnel, EMT personnel, our Hospital personnel, and all of the others who volunteered their time to keep everything running during the blizzard. Many of them arrived on Friday night and are just beginning to go home as they are being relieved by those who can now get out of their homes.

Once the snow stopped yesterday afternoon, we were able to dig our way out of the front door. Yes, even though we have a roof over our front door, the snow was blown up against the door!

I thought I would share some pictures of the 2010 Blizzard.

During the blizzard,

This is the looking out of our front door,

Our sun dial is almost under snow,

Looking out of our garage,

Front sidewalk cleared by dusk. Look at the snow on the little roof!

Dear son clearing sidewalk,

Front sidewalk cleared and sign posted asking to be plowed,

Dear husband working hard to clear in front of the garage doors,

Did you know that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and predicted six more weeks of winter? Sigh…

By the way, there are now predictions for 5 or more inches of snow beginning this Tuesday through Wednesday. Yes, we have another winter storm watch posted already!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

“26 Inches!!! -- February 7, 20109 - Continued”

More pictures of Windy Meadow after the Blizzard of 2010.

We have a plow guy!
It only took him about 20 minutes to move all of that snow. WOW!



Deer tracks in 2 feet of snow at Windy Meadow,

Dear son exhausted after clearing snow. Or that’s what he wants me to believe! :-)

Climbing the snow mountain,

Almost to the top of the snow mountain,

Dear son’s Rocky imitation,

Back soon with some stitching pictures!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

“Batten Down the Hatches! Again!!! -- February 5, 2010”

Batten down the Hatches or in other words, A MAJOR SNOW STORM is HEADED OUR WAY!!!

Again???!!!

Yep, we have another huge weather event headed our way. Actually it’s already here and we have gently falling snow outside right now. The grass is just about covered.

It began about 11:30am this morning and is supposed to last until about 10:00pm Saturday night. We are forecasted to get from 20 to 30 inches of snow”!

Some areas might get more than 30 inches of snow!

One of the weather newscasters said that so far Maryland has received more snow than Alaska?

This is not typical for this area!

DH and I took the day off as the storm would arrive at both of our places of employment before it would arrive here and the commutes home would be terrible. Neither one of us is critical so we don’t need to be there, thank goodness. The schools let out 2 hours early and a lot of the businesses are already closing. Basically, everything will be cancelled for at least the next two to three days. I’ve been receiving emails announcing cancellations from the school, and now from all of the LNS and the not so LNS announcing that their super bowl sales are being cancelled and rescheduled. :-)

We spent the morning running a few errands, getting the cars and the van in the garage, getting gas for the snow blower and the generator, one more trip to the grocery store, and getting the money ready to pay one of the wandering plow guys. We then took DS out for lunch at Olive Garden as we figure we won’t be back out until late Sunday night or on Monday.

And of course I had to stop by the fabric store to pick up some fabric to play with as I’ve decided that I want to teach myself how to quilt. Yes, Beth, I fabric stashed! LOL!!!

We should have blizzard conditions in this area after dusk. So it’s safer to be home than out and about. We’ll be thinking about our police officers, volunteer fire, EMT personnel, State Highway employees, and the personnel at the local Hospitals and wishing them well. Thank goodness we have them!

The storm on December 19, 2009 was predicted as the storm of the century but this one is expected to be much worse. Higher winds, blizzard conditions, and snow totals.

We just finished finding the candles, finding the flashlights, checking the batteries, filling up a bathtub with water (we are on well and septic and if the power goes out, we can't flush as the well pump stops pumping). We are now home, warm, safe and dry.

We are planning on doing a few chores, playing a bunch of games and hopefully watching some movies if we have power. I'm hoping to be able to stitch a little bit as I want to finish up my January, 2010 light bulb ornament for the February Christmas SAL. I also need about one hour of work to finish up the January, 2010 Fortune Cookie from Fireside Stitchery’s Fortune Cookie club. Once I have both of these done, I’ll have some new pictures to share with you. I’m hoping that once I finish adding the floss and the petite very velvet to the January Fortune Cookie it will photograph better. The silver metallic keeps showing up as gray on all of the pictures I’ve tried to take!

I hope everyone in the path of the storm, stays safe, dry, warm and that you hopefully find some time to stitch!

Back in a few!!!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

It's 2010! -- January 10, 2010

Thank you for all of the well wishes during the Snow Storm of 2009!

I took several pictures of the 17+ inches of snow but I'm not too sure what happened to them on the camera. They ummm disappeared! Okay, it was probably operator (that's me) error.

The snow didn't stick around very long as the next weekend we had fairly normal to slightly higher than normal temperatures for our region. But while the snow was here, it was very pretty. The Holiday lights looked just beautiful with the snow.

Now that the Holidays are over and all of the guests have left my thoughts are turning to closing out all of the family 2009 paperwork, taking down the decorations, eating all of the leftovers, and stitching!

While I was not active in Blog Land I did make some progress on several projects. I'm going to catch up with those here on the blog before I show you what I've done since the first of the year. I also several photos for the 2009 TUSAL. By the way, don't get too excited as I haven't done much stitching since the beginning of 2010. LOL!

Back soon,

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

Quiet After the Storm in Windy Meadow

Hi Everyone!

Well, here in Windy Meadow we received 17+ inches of snow in the big storm this past weekend! Yep, 17+ inches of snow. It was a dry fluffy kind of snow and was just beautiful!

I wish I could have shared with you the huge pile of snow that formed on top of our sun dial. It was fun to watch it grow all day and into the night on Saturday. Unfortunately, when the sun came up on Sunday it melted very quickly. :-(

We were dug out by Sunday afternoon. Our State Highway guys did a great job. We also were able to flag down one of the roving guys with a blade on the front of his truck to do a couple of passes on the driveway. Then DH and DS got busy with the snow blower and the shovel. DD and I were on Christmas decorating and hot coffee/hot chocolate/hot tea patrol. :-)

You ought to see all of the big piles of snow in the parking lots. To quote DS, "Epic"!

I don't have a picture to share with you as I kept forgetting to take one on Sunday. I'll try to take one tomorrow morning before going into work. And hopefully I'll have time to post tomorrow night.

I haven't done much stitching though I do have some pictures to share of what I've done over the last few weeks. And yes, I actually finished something! Wahooo.....

Yoyo, I'm sorry but I don't have a post for this month for the TUSAL. Almost no stitching has been done in December, 2009. :-(

Just returned from taking DD and her best friend out to dinner. DS decided to stay home (smart guy). I now need chocolate or a nice cold beverage!!! They are both great girls but can they talk! LOL!!!

DH is out goofing off for the night. Actually (this is for Anne of the Cape Stitcher), he's playing Bridge. LOL!!!

Back soon...

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

Batten Down the Hatches!!!

Batten down the Hatches or in other words, A MAJOR SNOW STORM is HEADED OUR WAY!!!

Huh you say?

Beginning at about 11:00pm in our area until 6:00am Sunday morning, we will be getting at least 10 and up to 20+ inches of snow. Now I know that this might not sound like a lot to some of you but for this area, that's a lot of snow! :-)

Here in the Mid-Atlantic states when snow is predicted, everyone runs out and buys bread, milk and toilet paper. When they predict a lot of snow, which in this area is 2 to 6 inches of snow, everyone runs out and buys lots of bread, milk and toilet paper and lots of other groceries. When they predict the storm of the century (okay, I know it's only 2009 but that's what they are saying) they run out and buy EVERYTHING! LOL!!!

Usually we try to make sure that we have all of the neccessities several days before a storm is forecasted to arrive but not this week. After a full day of work, I then headed out tonight to the local grocery store with about 500 of my closest friends!

Yes, I didn't get to the grocery store until after 7:00pm and it was still crazy. Everyone was being very nice and friendly so what could have been a very frustrating experience actually wasn't. I also noticed that everyone was being very nice to all of the cashiers as they had been working hard all day!

What made this even more challenging for me was that we hadn't had a chance to do any grocery shopping this week so not only was I getting items for the snowed in weekend, I was picking up everything else that we had not been able to buy this week due to lot's of other activities. Including the afore mentioned bread, milk and toilet paper. Sigh...

We were also planning on putting up some more Christmas lights outside but we haven't been able to as each weekend when we weren't running around with family and school activities it was raining. And by raining I mean heavy, heavy rains! This was our last opportunity to finish up the outside decorating and obviously it isn't going to happen! LOL!!!

Hopefully our power will stay on so we can spend the weekend finishing up the inside cleaning and decorating and hopefully a little bit of baking.

Who will be that standing up at the head of our driveway on Sunday? That will be my husband flagging down one of the trucks with a plow on it's front who drive around volunteering to plow out your driveway for a fee. Or at least he'll be doing that in between using our snow blower to dig out our driveway. :-)

I've already seen several of the trucks with plows cruising around this evening while I was out as they were stocking up on coffee and other neccessities so they will be ready!

Tonight we are going to be playing the fun games of, finding the candles, finding the flashlights, checking the batteries, filling up a bathtube with water (we are on well and septic and if the power goes out, we can't flush as the pump stops pumping), and then putting two cars and a van in the garage.

I'm hoping to be able to stitch a little bit though I really need to dig out the dining room to get ready for next week! LOL!!!

I hope everyone in the path of the storm, stays safe, dry, warm and that you hopefully find some time to stitch!

Back soon!!!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

Windy Meadow's First Snow Storm!

This past Saturday a winter storm went up the east coast and shared it's snow with Windy Meadow. It was supposed to start as rain and then convert to snow but it changed it's mind and decided to start and stay as a snow storm! Soooo I had to change what I was planning for the day as I didn't want to drive an hour away to go shopping in this mess! LOL!!!

Usually we don't have snow this early in the year and many years we don't have snow at all or just a few snow showers. Our daughter was very frustrated as the rain that they were having didn't convert over to snow until late in the storm. So sweetie, this post and these pictures are for you!

The first picture is about mid-morning when the storm was really getting strong.



The second picture was taken on Sunday morning before the snow started melting. It's quickly disappearing though we still have some on the ground today.



Thank you for stopping by and I hope you are having some nice warm weather where you live! Or at least I hope that the snow come quickly, looks beautiful, and then leaves as quickly. :-)

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

“Baby Its Cold Outside!” -- January 19, 2009

This has been the theme for many blogs over the last few days! And yes it’s been very cold and windy here in Windy Meadow!

Today we had a small snowstorm! Since it’s usually brown during the winter in Windy Meadow, I thought I would update my blog header with a picture that I took early this afternoon when it was snowing.

We had a lovely light snow for several hours. It would snow for a while and then the sun would come out, then more snow. This continued for most of the day and I think we had about ¾” to 1” of snow accumulation.

Once the snow disappears, as it doesn’t last long around here, I’ll take another picture so you can see how Windy Meadow usually looks in the winter.

A while ago, there was a discussion online as to what colors do you think of when you think of the winter season. Here in Windy Meadow we have many shades of brown from the trunks of trees, branches without leaves, dried grass, and dormant bushes. We also have various greens from the evergreens and in late winter, we can start to see the new grass growth and the leaves of Daffodils and other early spring flowers.

Hope its warmer where you are or at least that you are warm and cozy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow