Your guide through our ice storm, ready to battle wind and snow in my face, to bring you the beauty of ICE.
I was standing in the kitchen this morning helping the beautiful Mama and the obnoxious, but helpful Boy fill jugs with water in case of power outages, when the Mama went outside to check on the Brave Beorn himself, who had been doing chores in the barn for a very long time.
Upon her return the Mama announced that the Daddy was about done but that it was beautiful and scary outside and someone should go take some pictures. and so I promptly finished my toaster strudel (courtesy of the Meemo), and bundled up to brave the wind and ice for a nature photo shoot.
If there is one thing I noticed in my adventure today it was this: if you look out your window in the winter and it looks bright, but not blinding, it is probably just the snow playing tricks on your eyes...
this is what it actually looks like.
Winds were high.
Temperatures were low.
And the ice and snow were so think and heavy that every 3 minutes I heard a crack and then the sound of falling branches. But BOY was it BEAUTIFUL.
When everything is covered in a layer if ice and snow THIS thick:
the world turns into Narnia.
In my adventure I went to great lengths to get some of my pictures, going as far as laying down in the snow just to get a shot of the old hay elevator, and actually walking under a few trees, just to get shots of sow covered branches.
My adventure was truly fruitful, and the ice storm is proving to be a fascinating experience for everyone. Maxx is getting very involved in helping prepare, and he gets all excited about the power going out... You see, the Mama is a worrier and so the last few days have been one big conversation about "When do you think the power will go out?" "We should do this while we still have power." "You're not having school today, come downstairs and help me get ready for the power outage."
Mom knows about Ice Storms. I was 3, almost 4 during the Ice Storm of '98 and we were living in my grandparents' trailer. When the power went out we used a generator that my grandparents had loaned us. But... now I'm not perfectly clear on this point I remember absolutely nothing about this particular event... it seems that the generator did something akin to blowing up...
All I remember about the ice storm is this: we stayed in Gramma + Grampa's house for most of it, and I wore my footie-Pajamas and we used candles for light, and the wood stove to keep warm. And then we didn't get to go back to the trailer for a long time while people cleaned the soot out of all of the walls, and the furniture, and the brown, med.shaggy carpeting, and my stuffed animals.
So far, this time is not half so bad... but it's getting there. There are pictures from the ice storm of '98 of my Uncle (Jonathan, who must have been about 15 during that ice storm) standing on top of rose bushes and briar patches, because they were so frozen solid.
Things aren't quite that frozen, but they're close.
NOW back to the present and my little adventure in the snow today. After rolling around in the snow trying to get that perfect shot of that old elevator, I then stood up and snapped the picture of the grey sky and the tree line
(look back at that second picture of the snow for me, the one where it's all gray, ok?)
And decided to tromp out into the pasture and take a look at everything. I got a couple of panorama shots and a video depicting the absolute intense, beautiful, scary-ness of the world around me.
That venture being successful, I decided to walk about a bit more and take some pictures a little closer to the barn, at which point Svenya and Ruby decided to join me on my expedition, after which I got absolutely no more pictures of anything but cows...
..... Well, we'll keep you posted on how our little ice storm goes, and maybe we'll post the video of me being chased by the girls sometime soon, and hey, if it gets bad enough, maybe we'll start selling "I lived through the Ice Storm Of 2012" Tee-shirts. ;) Happy Ice storm everybody!