Surviving Up North Blizzard, Chapter 2 (Sunday)

Sunday morning at our house

There may turn out to be only two chapters to this saga, as our power and phone are back on, and as of this evening the driveway has been plowed! The siege is ended! We were pleasantly surprised (thrilled, more accurately) when radio and a lamp suddenly went on in the middle of the morning. Really? Already? We had expected to have to rough it for at least another 24 hours.

Bright sunshine!!!

Remember Friday and Saturday? The situation didn't look much different for us on Sunday morning, except that the sun came out. That was cheery! It was colder, too, but the snow had let up, and the sun urged us outdoors, after a hearty breakfast of buckwheat-blueberry pancakes. (I made extra pancakes so we could have some later like bread, with peanut butter and jam. Good lunch!) It really was beautiful. (And yes, I promised "beautiful" photos for Chapter 2, but decided to save them for my photo blog, "A Shot in the Light." They'll be up sometime soon, i.e., when I get to a high-speed connection and can put them up at full size, undiluted. They deserve that, I think. -- But on with the story.)

We bundled up to "assess the situation," as David called it, taking a good look at the vast Siberian landscape ordinarily designated our driveway. 

Does this look like a driveway?

If you look really hard at the driveway photo, you might be able to see two orange flags, one on the right margin and one a bit in from the left margin. What do you think? David said he "wasn't worried" about getting out. I was dubious. The old husband-wife story, all over again: She doubts, he prevails. Or -- ?

Onward and upward?

Here we go up the hill! 

See farmhouse and one-story end of the barn (where cows used to live) in rear-view window! 

Feel heavy clenched fists on passenger side, heavy determined foot on accelerator on driver's side!

We roar forward in 4WD! 

We climb the hill!

Sarah, left behind in the house, was no doubt straining to hear every sound....

Sarah checks out human progress

But no, in the end it was Sarah who prevailed. She was not left behind, after all! Maybe 4WD would have gotten us had the truck been higher off the ground, but you can see where we got stuck and had to shovel out to back down the hill again. 

Then Sarah came out, and we all went for a walk. The tire tracks made it easier to walk most of the way up the hill. Where the tracks gave out, David and I went in over our knees, and Sarah was up to her belly!

Sarah doesn't mind deep snow

The view from the top of the hill was worth the climb. We were happy!

Looking north from the top of the driveway

Looking west toward M-22 and Lake Michigan

Later in the day, another doggie sortie took me to the top of the hill, and I saw tracks! Some large animal had come in from the highway, angled across the hayfield, and up to the neighbor's drive--oh, I get it. The neighbor had come out from Northport to check on his plumbing pipes. Well, it was exciting there for a moment.

Actually, it's been exciting for three days. We were lucky. We kept warm, kept ourselves fed, and we had light and time for reading and writing. Some people might call it a hardship. For me, at least in part, it had elements of vacation. I'm trying not to feel guilty about that....

Sun looking silver behind small cloud

P.S. I've uploaded more photos of scenes around our house in the past couple of days, which, if you choose, you can see here and here and here.