Nemo visits Casa de Gato

So as you all know Nemo made a pit stop in NE this past weekend.  Oh what fun.. a blizzard.  who doesn't need one of those right??

It was due in on Friday.  I started the morning off not feeling well at all.  I had joked with my co-workers that no matter what I was going to take the day off (because the last 'big storm' we were threatened with never showed up) either it was going to be a snow day or I was taking a sick day.  Teach me to joke about such things.  I was fortunate that work was closed as the snow had started early.

We actually got several inches from the one storm before the two merged.  Most of my 'before' photos are from after the snow started but before Nemo actually formed.

I joked that Nemo wanted in.. 

our back deck

We live on a secondary road and we lose power at pretty much any storm that causes schools to close, so I prepared.  I made sure we had all of our flash lights out in a central location.  I ate a good protein rich breakfast on Friday, had food that I would enjoy eating cold (pop tarts, doughnuts, you know, that stuff you tend not to eat on a regular basis) and I even filled up the bath tubs (because we are on a well so with out power we have no additional water) and I sat and I waited for the power to go out.  Then I thought, I should charge up my old laptop so I could watch movies if need be.  So I charged that up, along with a few other battery powered toys, and got to working on my email.  When Nemo started, I was ready.

Some how we kept power all night.  Winds buffeted the house, and still we had power.  Finally I got tired and I gave up the electronic ghost and went to bed, figuring that any minute we would lose it.

The morning came, and we still had power!!  I was SHOCKED.. (actually that should be in a font way larger than that to try to begin to convey how shocked I was) but so pleased.  I played some more on the computer thinking that any minute it would go out.  We had a hot breakfast and watched movies as the wind howled.  Later on in the day we got up to look out and see what was going on to see that the house across the way (that is sitting empty as it is in the process of being sold) had snow over half way up the garage.  Our back deck had several feet of snow..

And then I noticed just what the wind did with all the snow..

This is my "garden turtle".. he's several feet off the ground

I was so glad that the snow wasn't packed against the house like it was the neighbor's.  It really was quite dramatic.  The snow was very light and fluffy which is probably why we still had power. but being so it has the ability to do this..

Apparently Nemo really did want in

By late Saturday afternoon the snow had stopped and the wind had started to die down, so my husband went to snow blow the driveway, just enough to get out if we needed, but neither of us needed.  So we had a nice warm dinner and watched another movie and called it a night.

Sunday brought a beautiful sunny day and more revelations..

That bump in the middle of the yard in the 'frame' of the porch is the garden turtle

three foot snow bank next to bare ground

Owen checking out the build up on the outside of the window

I was quite surprised that three of the four sides of our house have bare ground.  We probably could walk around the house if need be.  The fourth side didn't get that much extra either, so I am very impressed with the situation of the house on the lot.  I did see a roof tile on the side of our house in one of the bare spots, I had no idea where it came from and since our house is pretty new I didn't even consider it could be ours.  However on Saturday afternoon I saw this..

This is the wall in front of the chimney.  It is also on the leeward side of the chimney - the one side of the house that isn't bare of snow.  We have builders coming tomorrow so we will hopefully get someone to look at what is going on.  There is actually almost no snow on our roof which is nice.  Going out on Sunday afternoon I saw quite a few people on their roofs shoveling feet of snow off them.

So all in all I have to say we got off pretty lucky.  but I reserve the right to revise that once someone gets up on the roof..

If you want to see a really amazing time lapse video of Nemo that someone else made, check out this.  It is on facebook, but you should be able to see it even with out an account.. (if you can't, please tell me)