Ah, March. It is a month that has long brought us such a seemingly unending array of weather here in this part of the country and this year has certainly been no exception.
For us, on this patch of the planet in Ohio, we had just finished shoveling out of an early March snowstorm when the weather forecast brought us warnings of an ice storm. We awoke just shortly after midnight March 5 to the electrical power flickering. It came back on for just a split second, then went out again.
Silence
The silence inside the house was ominous, bringing memories of an ice storm about three years ago that left us without power for eight straight days. I could not fall back asleep, wondering just how cold the house was going to get and wondering if I would be able to wake on time to get up and around for work without the power of an alarm clock.
The sounds of ice pellets hitting our roof and windows should have been enough to hypnotize me back to sleep, but it didn’t work that way.
Getting ready for work in a very cold house with no running water and no electricity is always such a challenge. I did the best I could to make myself look presentable and lamented the fact that we were so unprepared for this latest storm and the circumstances it landed in our lap.
I couldn’t help but smile that morning when I watched our little Amish neighbor girls hiking toward our house from over the knoll of our farm fields, because I knew this morning presented no new challenges for them.
In so many ways, they are much more prepared to live through any of life’s storms than we are.
As I write this, we are most definitely snowed in. Yet another March storm blew in just as we celebrated the melting of the ice and restored electrical power just a few short days ago.
No hope
Today, there is absolutely no hope of going anywhere, as we discovered snow drifts are waist-high and even higher in places as we tried to see if we could drive out the long lane here on our farm. It’s simply not going to happen.
With much more snow forecast for today, and with the winds causing a whole new set of challenges, I can only do what the rest of the family enjoys most — cook and bake and enjoy the finished products.
Cort is home from college for his spring break, though it sure hasn’t felt much at all like spring! While we are all confined together, at least we have enough people to play some games and make some memories!
I hope this is our last big blast of winter. Instead of grumbling, I guess we all should try hard to enjoy the quiet before the storm of spring work comes our way! It will be here before we know it.
