Boy, was I wrong about the snow melting yesterday! It didn't. Instead, we got a mix of more snow, rain and sleet along with high winds that made it look and feel like a January blizzard. Power was knocked out for miles around in the afternoon - according to the folks at Washington Electric, they had power outages in Cabot, Danville, Walden, Marshfield - and probably lots of others; a list too long to relate. We were without power from about 2:30 in the afternoon to around eight in the evening. We waited a while before building a fire in the wood stove, but the way the wind was blowing, we figured we might not have power for a day or so.
     Nobody mentioned this, but being the first day of deer hunting, I expect at least a few of the linemen were in deer camp - back in the woods where it would take them a while to get out, geared up and back in service. Nevertheless, they did a good job but it must have been a cold night for them - and frustrating if they were expecting a few days of hunting pleasure. 
    We have not had a power outage for a long time - at least not one that lasted more than a few minutes - so we didn't even think about having water in reserve for drinking and flushing. So now we are reminded. It's a bit early for a storm like this was, but just the same, there was plenty of warning about the high winds, and after so much rain and wet snow, we should have expected problems. Now we are better prepared - oil lamps refilled and emergency water on hand!
     So today the temperature has remained in the 20s here. Not much sun to warm things up, and what snow we had overnight was very light and dry. But everything underneath is frozen and I expect that makes some roads a bit slippery. Ours has been plowed and sanded very well, so I don't believe anyone has had problems - but I don't know how the paved highways were, especially this morning.
     It's still only 20.5F right now - it will be another really cold night, but there doesn't seem to be any wind registering on my weather station, although, that could be because the anemometer up on the roof is frozen in place. That happens pretty often, but we aren't about to head up there to thaw it out. 
     I've been hearing gunshots in the woods today, so the hunters were out there. There are reported to be lots of deer this year and I guess to keep the heard healthy it's a good thing to thin out the population. I'm still not a big fan of hunting unless it's necessary for food, so I hope the deer that are killed are put to good use to feed people who need the meat and like venison. 
     I noticed Jay Chatot going by on his bike yesterday and again today - at least, I believe it's Jay - he's about the only regular biker I see going by now most folks have left. He was wearing a nice bright orange vest - and that's good. I've seen some walkers with appropriate vests on, too. Good thinking. We want you to be safe!