Snowpocalypse 2021

I'm not sure if y'all know or not, but we moved to Alaska. Or at least that's what a week in February felt like!

Mother Nature was surely out to test Texas' mettle. Just a mere two days prior to our 5 degree winter chill, we were in the 80's. Mother Nature was definitely off her meds and needed a refill! Ha!

Just prior to the bad weather hitting, I was out wrapping pipes and John was trimming tree limbs away from the house. Once we finished outside we started out the snowpocalypse with provisions, fortunately, and hunkered down. We had some firewood on hand so I made a fire in the fireplace. Later that evening the rain started which turned to ice pretty quickly. It rained and froze through the night.

One of the things I remember hearing is scraping on the roof and a thud shortly after. The next morning revealed that one of our big oak trees lost a limb and I imagine it hit the house on the way down. Then, the wind picked up during the day and more limbs began to creak, break and then fall. The yard was littered with tree branches and looked like a war zone. It just broke my heart.

Our beloved trampoline fell victim to a strike from a huge branch. But, even through all that, I feel fortunate that none of our homes or outbuildings were damaged.

We lost power (which powers our water well), lost water and lost internet, but fortunately we had propane. We could cook.

My biggest concerns were not being able to get to my kids and grands to help them and to check on their safety. I was a hair's breadth from getting in my truck and taking provisions to them.

My biggest takeaway from the entire beautiful, yet traumatic, once in a lifetime snowpocalypse is that I will never take modern conveniences for granted again like running water which, we didn't have for a week; the ability to turn on heat and lights, which we were unable to do for a week; and, the ability to get in the car and go check on kids or run an errand.

But what I saw that made a huge impression was neighbors helping neighbors. If one neighbor needed firewood, supplies or even a place to stay to get warm neighbors were there to lend a hand. One of our favorite restaurants just down the road sent our a message that adjoining neighbors could come and take perishables and refrigerated items free of charge. This, to me, showed the true resilience, compassion and support of we Texans during a crisis.

I've included a few pictures of our experience.

Jules* / Nonni