That time we got snowed in for two weeks

Once upon a time it was February and it snowed the first real snow of our winter.  ("Real snow" meaning over 1/4" of snow that lasted longer than 12 hours on the ground.)

This snow occurred off and on for about two weeks.  We never had more than about 6" on the ground at any one time, but it would melt during the days and leave a thick layer of ice underneath.  The corner of the world where we live doesn't have much in the way of plows, sand trucks, or salt trucks to deal with the snow.  It happens so infrequently, they say, that they can't justify buying those.  When I asked a local about it, she said that they usually miss at least a week of school a year all combined.  To me that seems to justify it, but perhaps not.  I've never lived anywhere so completely incapacitated by snow!

Being familiar with snow driving, James and I tried to get out, but the ice locked our cars in, and the local roads were just as icy.  We were stuck.  Once we could chisel our way out of the driveway, if we got to busier roads we were fine and could get groceries.  People in less sun-exposed areas had to drive ATVs and tow sleds to get groceries.  Many people had their power go out or water freeze and couldn't get help since the power company couldn't get to them to fix it.  Luckily, we're on the same power grid as both the power company and the county jail, so any power outages we've ever had have been very quickly resolved! 

Towards the end of the two weeks, we had a nice 50 degree day of rain.  From the snow-covered view before, this is us heading out the next morning after a night of rain (James is discovering where our sidewalk is again):

This is about three hours later with more rain:

I wish I'd taken a picture of the rivers to follow this up, because then the floods also closed some areas and events.  Rivers are still high, but manageable now.  We were just fine on our little hill!  A girl we know went into labor around the time of the Great Rain, and was extremely relieved that roads thawed enough to let her get to the hospital and thus avoid an unplanned candlelit home birth with an inexperienced midwife of a spouse.

All together, James and I both missed about two weeks of school.  (The local public schools missed three weeks!)  James still had lectures to watch at home (they posted last year's lectures so the students wouldn't get too behind), and I'm now rushing to make up lost time in the classroom.  James especially had some cabin fever being stuck inside for so long; I just took lots of naps.  We made snow angels and snowballs once there was enough snow for it (it wasn't really wet enough snow for the snowballs to hold together, so the snowman didn't happen), but once the snow freezes and there's ice below, it's not quite the same to go play in it.  We did try, though!  And had a great deal of fun throwing shards of ice at each other as we scraped off the cars.

The weather is finally back to acceptable spring temperatures, and the heavy rain does let up from time to time so we can have a day of squishy sunshine.