I think things are finally back to normal here, at least as close as they usually come to normal. They had predicted 3 to 5 inches of snow and maybe a little freezing rain. We ended up with more snow than that and in the middle, a lot of freezing rain and then just rain, which of course, after it was on the ground, froze too. Judging from a container that was outside, we had almost an inch of rain. They had predicted wind overnight and we were pleasantly surprised when we woke up in the morning and the electricity was still on. By lunchtime, though, it was off and stayed that way. Some people around here still haven't had their power restored. Ours came back on a day before they had predicted it would so that was really nice. We do have a woodstove to keep warm, though this is a big house and we ended up using a kerosene heater in the other end of the house. Between them things were almost comfortable. I don't think they would have been if it had been off for another day since the temperature Friday night went down to 2 below zero. We carried all of the tender stuff in from the greenhouse (slipping on the ice) and it was quite nice in here with all of the plants for a few days. It looks kind of empty now since we took them all back 'home' yesterday when it got warm outside. We have dig wells, so we didn't have to depend on our electric pump for water and with all that snow and ice, we had plenty to keep our food cold. Freezer stuff just went in the car or on the sun porch where it stayed nicely frozen. Awhile back I used mostly kerosene lamps for light and still have them stashed away for emergencies. The one thing I enjoy about the power being off is the quiet. I don't think we realize just how much noise our electric appliances create in background hum. I got a lot of hand sewing , knitting and reading done and despite the inconveniences (no microwave!) I kind of enjoyed the whole thing, at least in retrospect.
This first picture is looking from near the back barn towards the greenhouse. You can just almost see the top of the roof at the bottom of the picture. I had hoped to get out to take pictures while we had just ice on everything, but it was raining so hard I didn't want to get soaked and get the camera wet, so these are snow over ice, everything coated very well.

This next one is looking up the hill from the daffodil/peony beds. One of the freakiest things about all this ice on everything was when the breeze would blow. It sounded like a million pieces of glass breaking. A kind of pretty sound, but scary since you couldn't be sure if it was just the ice or if something bigger was going to fall. We have a huge branch from a maple in the front yard down and it managed to do it without damaging anything as far as we can tell. It is about 30 feet long and a foot across at the wide end.
This one is looking towards the back. It is all pretty much gone from the trees and shrubs now, except in the deep shade. We had temperatures in the 40s yesterday, even down in this hollow, and lots of sun. As you walked around you got soaked because it was like it was raining out and you also got lots of mushy snow falling on your head. I just about gave up on wearing my glasses because they were always covered with wet mushy snow.

This last one is taken looking towards the root cellar. It was amazing to see how large trees were just bent over double with their tops touching the ground. As the snow came off, they slowly straightened up and by last night, most were almost back to normal. I was sure more would be snapped in half. There are lots of branches, large and small, to be picked up once the snow is off the ground. It will probably take several days to clean up this mess that is left behind. Since I still haven't quite finished my fall cleanup, it will just add to the mess that already needed attention.

I wouldn't mind having a little more snow this winter, but I don't want to see any more ice, at least like this.

Tomorrow back to 'normal' blogging and more of the ferns.

Jane