I’m not sure how much snow has fallen as of this morning. My yardstick was nowhere to be found, presumably buried under the snow. (For that matter, so was the Nissan Sentra parked outside.)

It was very difficult to get down to the barn this morning to feed the horses. It’s only about 150 yards, but that’s a long, long way when then snow is up to your waist and higher. On my first attempt, I got about 15 feet before a chilly collapse into the snow. I had rather unpleasant visions of myself stuck in the snow halfway to the barn, cold and exhausted, unable to move. So I headed back to the house, bundled up in long underwear, snow pants, and tightly bound work boots, and headed out again. I managed to get down to the barn using a slightly less deep path, one with snow only to my thighs. Both of the dogs even managed to follow me, although not without a fair amount of struggle.

The horses are pretty much locked into the barn by the snow, although the overhang provides enough of a path to get to the water trough. They were very happy to be fed, so I’m glad that I made the effort to reach them this morning. I only hope that the path I cut this morning isn’t completely obliterated tonight.

I’m sure Paul won’t be coming home tonight. (No other radiologists could make it into Aurora today. While he takes a break this morning, cases are being read remotely from Swedish by two radiologists who live in walking distance of that hospital.) And I’m sure I won’t be going to school on Thursday. (Campus might be closed again… I hope it is.) Our driveway is scheduled to be plowed tomorrow, but that might be difficult, given how heavy the snow is. Frankly, I figure that I’ll be lucky if I leave the house in a week.

As much of a pain as this blizzard is, the precipitation is most welcome, given the drought we’ve been having these past two years. Snow now means fewer fires this summer, after all.

Okay, so here’s the fun part, the pictures. Just remember that the ground is more than 3 feet below the snow level.

This is our house, as seen from down the driveway. The lefthand lump on the right side of the photo is my old Nissan Sentra. You can also see the large overhang of snow from the outside here, shown below too.

So this is the overhang of snow, as seen from the garage. I have to pass underneath it to get to the path to the barn, which worries me greatly. I have no desire for it to fall on me or the doggies, after all.

This is the barn as seen from our covered west porch.

One of our trees.

Another poor tree. Note the top of a 4 foot fencepost to the left of it.

Yet another poor tree.

So, America might have many allies in the war, but I’m feeling pretty darn isolated lately.