Blizzard at The Homestead

I'm done for the day and in for the night.
Today's entry goes beyond the five o'clock hour I intended
to record each day and documents some of the blizzard fun
we've had here at the Homestead the last 24 hours.
Thanks to the recent weather systems several of these
blog entries are far more extensive than I ever planned them to be.
So enjoy while the going is good!

We lost power about 7:30 last evening. Dad and I got the generator
revved up and headed into town for extra gas so we could have heat and
water overnight. He always loved working as a cop in
snowstorms back in the day.
We got the gas but I forgot to bring my camera for the ride.

We got back about 9:00 and he got out there with the snowblower!

If you remember from yesterday's blog,
he had cleared this at about 4:30-5:00.

After finishing with the snowblower we did the most logical thing
to do when in a blizzard at night without power -
find the snowshoes and jerry-rigg a strap for the one that was broken!

So, I went exploring in the lightly falling snow at 10:00

It really was much brighter than what the pictures let on.
You might be able to see the house in the background.
Most of the glowing orbs are snowflakes, the two in the windows are candles.

I have a photo of this lilac bush in yesterday's blog.
I'll have to remember to get a picture of it when it blooms this May.

I love fence lines.

Deer tracks.

The power returned overnight - very lucky compared to
some in Maryland who have been without since the weekend.


Some of where I walked last night.

The drive to The Homestead

The roads were well plowed - better than we would have
ever seen in my hometown of Piscataway after several days!

The phone booth is a feature here in the
village of Sandbrook just down the road.

County roads are clear here!

Time to get another pass or two
down the lanes with the snowblower

Feeding troughs are cleared for the deer

And they came down this afternoon in my snowshoe tracks!

Something startled them and they ran back to the woods for a bit.


I strapped on the snowshoes and took off again for a bit this afternoon.
There is every bit of 2 feet of snow on the ground.

The pond is spring fed and barely ever freezes over

The Homestead from the backside

Another shot of the runoff creek

Pretty Hunterdon County in the snow

The front field

Storm damage to my mother's car -
if this is the worst of it, we are very fortunate

Too cold for sap today - maybe later this week.