Stay safe. It's just ramping up here and we'll likely have a foot or more by tomorrow. We're well-stocked and I bought gas for the blower and am crossing my fingers that I don't have to help Steve with the removal. I'm planning on staying put for the next 40 hours or so.

I giggled at the grocery store today: There was plenty of milk, eggs and bread on the shelves, but everybody seemed to be stocking up their liquor cabinets. This ain't Atlanta! ;o)

LOL. When I heard the national weather report, the first person I always think of is Gandle, but I should put you on the list right behind him. I hope the forecast is right and that it'll veer north of us and hit the Lake region instead of the valley. But, we're in for a deep freeze.

I'll have Christmas inventory on the benches and this is when I pray for the furnaces to keep cranking and the electric to hold. My DH tried to crank on the generator last time we had an outage......and I think his generator yanking days are over.

Hows your sweet pooch doing?

6 PM news said lows of minus 14 tonight with wind chills of minus 35. Now I know very well I'm not going anywhere

Hang in there guys stay warm and safe. Steve S.

No snow here yet, we had lots of rain and the wind is not too strong yet. Right now it is warm (52), warmer then all day yesterday but that is going to change shortly. Hope the wind does not do much damage. Since I took in, put in the shed and tied down anything which could blow away, it should fizzle out.
I watched Nebraska and neighbors all day yesterday. You guys just stay safe and keep the exra blankets in reach.

It hasn't been 24 hours since your first post, George, but I hope it's stopped snowing.

Are your doorways drifted shut? That happened to us several years ago; good thing we could get out thru the garage!

Just got internet and cable back after it having been out all day. We got about a foot and a half of wet heavy snow in the storm and pretty much everything was closed and canceled today. Anything that hasn't been shoveled or plowed yet has become ice. I had today off anyway, but it was nice to have Steve here... although he's still exhausted from having spent three hours with the help of two neighbors with big snowblowers to clean our driveways, sidewalks and plow berms. I can't imagine winter without neighbors working in cooperation with one another. (And I'm soooo glad he's in town and able to do this.)

The city is a mess because the snow was too much for many trees and there were fallen branches and downed power lines everywhere this morning.

It's been quiet around the house. I've done the prescribed physical therapy with Izzy, and her bathroom breaks are interesting because she's not allowed to be outside without a leash and belly sling, so we both get to tromp through the knee- (for me) and belly- (for her) deep snow drifts together.

I've got some chicken stock on the stove top and a pot roast in the oven and I'm probably going to trick some neighbor women into coming over for a bit tonight since many of them have been cooped up with kids, and could probably use the break.

Tomorrow will be business as usual. It's always fun trying to figure out where to put the garbage and recycling after a big snow fall, but it always seems to work out nonetheless. Hope the rest of you stayed safe and warm.

Unlike Michelle, the 15 " of snow we had was dry and with the 40 MPH winds last night we had monster drifts. Spent all morning blowing snow from our walks and drive, then went to the neighbors and cleared them. When the drifts are 3 times the total height of your snowblower it seems tather futile pushing the poor thing into the enormous drifts but it finally cleared them out.

The polar temperatures are what is making life miserable now. Predicted low tonight minus 16 with wind chill of minus 35. Wouldn't take more than a few minutes to get frostbite on any exposed skin. I looked like an eskimo this morning and even with my new ski suit on still got chilly.

At the hardware chain store this morning they still had fall bulbs for sale, not sure how you would get the ground loose enough to plant them but they did discount them 30%, none of them were large enough to force so will skip that bargain.

Yikes! I'd almost forgotten about big winter storms like the one you're all experiencing now. I wouldn't want to deal with cleaning the snow and ice off car, sidewalks, driveway, etc. But I do have fond memories of being hunkered down inside during a winter storm when the world outside almost seemed to stop. I would bake or read or listen to music. I'd take a walk outside after the worst was over and enjoy the quiet and the clean look of everything covered with snow. But I'm still glad I'm through with winter storms.
Keep warm and stay safe and try to enjoy it if you can.

We had our first *snow* last Saturday.
We awakened to a winter wonderland that lasted for the most part of 2 hours, then it melted and was out of here.
My kind of *snow storm*, shoot, I didn't even go to the store to get milk and bread. I think I'm mellowing out in my old age.

I always think of Gandle when the snows storms start.
I saw a PBS TV show about states and hoped that Gandle was
watching so he could remember Nebraska in the summer when the corn was growing in the fields.

Likewise for Michelle, she blooms like a field of beautiful wildflowers wherever she is. Isn't it so like both of them to think of others and to lend a hand.
Come to think of it, that's the kind of folks we have here at the GP, nice to think about, isn't it?

Stay safe and warm, y'all.

My poor mother has been getting herself all worried about the killer storms that are hitting the midwest. Ohio is lumped in with the midwest, but it isn't really, especially not the eastern side. So yes, we have high winds and temps in the teens and a smattering of snow, but we don't get the stuff like Gandle and the Wisconson folks. Hope you are all ok in the true midwest.

Yep, the Eastern, especially S.E. side is more like W.Virginia. Not that we don't get humdingers sometimes, but we aren't flatland, nor near the lakes to get lake effect snow. I have been watching the radar. When you grow crops in winter, that is a daily pastime, and I'm getting better at hitting the forecasts than the tube. My DH traveled north West today, and he had to go to 4WD just at the county border, but it was just a sudden icy sleet squall. That bothers me worse than snow.

I shut all the doors and windows to the chicken shed this afternoon and threw an extra bale of hay in there and extra rations until the nights creep back up to at least mid-twenties.

Will start looking for my shorts Thursday next week. Supposed to be in the 40's, until then highs in the teens and 20's.

It's colder here right now then what it was yesterday with the wind, windchill in the single digits. I put the rest of the winter-birdfeeders out today and a titmouse followed me from the shed to the house to pick up the food and out to the hook and waited there for me to fill the tube feeder up! Must have been one of my buddies from last winter. Within of half an hour the goldfinches were back on their large feeder and the downies as well as the chicadees knew exactly were their feeder was. Grand Central Station at rush hour agains for the next 3-4 month, the rest of the year it is Grand Central at 10 in the morning.

This area's first snow arrived December 5th (same as in 2005 & 2007). 3" of very wet whiteness disappeared from pavement the next afternoon. Last night was our first real cold: 20², which still nothing compared to the midwest, but more than cold enough for me.

Planted Cascade snap peas late last summer and have been serving them for several weeks. Yum! They've ignored the cold --- even last night-- and are still blooming. I may throw a row cover over them and see if we can have snap peas for dinner on New Year's.

Go for it, Meldy! Just three days ago, I grabbed my spade and dug enough carrots to roast around a big chunk of beef. They had endured many 20s nights, none the worse for wear. I didn't cover anything......harvested my fall cabbages the same day and dug up half a dozen celery plants to grow on in my g'houses. If I'd have hayed up the rest of the veggies out there, I'd have been able to squeeze through to January, most likely.

I was telling some friends, I had inadvertently stuck a bunch of eggs in my coat my hens had left me, forgot about them when I started to spade up veggies, and proceeded to make scrambled eggs inside my pockets. It's a really gross feeling when egg yolks bleed through to your skin and drip downward toward your knees at twenty degrees. LOL.

The storm hit here on Thursday, left work about an hour early and even though i only live three miles away was the worst i've driven in a long time. Zero visability- wasn't even sure if i'd be able to leave the parking lot, luckily one of our police officer's was heading out so I followed him. 50 mph gusts and snow falling at 1" an hour doesn't make for a fun ride home. At least I didn't get stuck on the Thruway like many others for 12 hours. Oh well by tomorrow it's be in the 40's and the 16 inches will melt, then we'll wait till mid week for the next storm to hit.

OK, this video is a few days old and there are a few "colorful" words in the background on the audio, but this video and the nine photos that followed made me bust out laughing. This is why they hardly ever cancel classes at the UW. There's no telling what kind of stuff the students will get up to given enough beer and enough free time...

That's great Michele, all of us in the cold weather areas do find a way to have fun through all of the misery lol.

Good one Michelle. I can't remember that classes were ever canceled at U.W., or was it just that the Rathskellar never closed, but then I only went there 3 semesters. Before that 3 semesters in North Dakota. I like them cold I guess.