Old Man Winter visited us early with snowy weather before Thanksgiving on November 23rd through the 26th. We also saw snow on December 8th, 12th, and 16th (but we did not have a white Christmas). The local school system had to cancel a total of 5 days for snow before Christmas vacation, which was rather unusual; it was a hint of things to come.
We didn’t see any interesting winter weather again until the middle of January. But beginning at that time all the way well into February, winter was not in doubt. There was a bit of snow January 14th and 15th, but the temperatures were the main item of note with a string of below freezing days until the 22nd. We supposedly had several nights below zero but the lowest I saw on the thermometer at Pure Water Hollow was 4 degrees on the 17th. The temperature, along with freezing rain and snow showers, canceled church on the 18th. The water pipes in our home froze up toward the end of the severe cold snap during the 21st and 22nd. In contrast, on Friday the 23rd temps got up to 66 degrees and our new chickens laid their first eggs!
After a nice weekend with sun and upper 30s, snow hit again on Monday the 26th. It wasn’t much snow, but it was enough to call off the local school systems again. The big news was the winter storm warning that the National Weather Service issued that evening. Most folks around here seemed to take it with a grain of salt. "Those warnings are always over rated," was the predominant sentiment at Wal-Mart that evening.
We woke up on Tuesday, January 27th with everything covered in ice. The radio confirmed that the road in front of our house was closed down along with nearly every other road in our county. Electricity had gone out for many the night before, but our power did not go dark until 6:25pm on the 27th. The power lines were covered with up to 2 inches of ice which was causing some electric poles to actually snap and the weighted trees brought down other lines! On the 28th we stood outside in the freezing rain (away from tall trees) and just listened to the trees all around us snap and pop. It sounded like we were in a war zone with gun shots going off every 20 seconds or so, as trees and limbs came crashing down! It was a very eerie experience.
This storm turned out to be the worst natural disaster in the history of our county! (According to the official dignitaries that keep track of such things.)
The roads were closed for days with the threat of arrests for folks trying to get out on them. Apparently it was impossible to drive on the roads due to the trees that were falling all over them. During the height of the storm on the 28th our volunteer fire department tried to respond to a wreck. It took the men 3 hours to go 5 miles down the road in front of our house, with two chain saws cutting the way. Trees were falling as fast as they were being cut, and it took the firemen another 2 hours to return back down the same road they had just cleared! At one time the radio reported that 5,888 trees were blocking the state and county roads in our county! 350 of those trees were reported down across our 10 miles of road in front of Pure Water Hollow, and 150 trees were down on the road across the 5 miles of road from the four-lane to Pure Water Hollow!
The power was out for much of the county and for many of our neighbors until February 8th! That was an incredible 14 days for some homes as near as just a few miles from us! Fortunately our power came back on at 10:25 am on the 29th, after just 40 hours. Our home is on one of the main circuits of a main line and we have almost never had our power go out during the 17 years we have been here, so this incident was easily the longest amount of time we have ever been without the power grid!
We did fine through it all, with our propane heat, artisian well water, oil lamps, a well stocked pantry and our grill on the front porch for cooking. Others did not fare so well. Matthew went with our fire department on Saturday the 31st to check on folks and bring water where needed. There were still so many without power and in need that they continued checking on folks on Sunday, February 1st. I went along to help on Sunday and I was amazed at how terrible the roads still were and how many homes were still with no power. The next week we started hearing of nearby casualties due to the ice storm! A man about 5 miles from us died on Feb. 3rd with no electricity to run his oxygen machine, and another man about 6 miles down the other road passed away after a heart attack trying to clear trees from the road! Thankfully those were the only two fatalities in our county related to the storm.
Amid all the danger an ice storm brings, there are always some interesting pictures to be taken. I wish we had taken some pictures of the damage done by the ice, but we weren’t thinking about it at the time. Erica did take several shots of the amazing natural beauty of a frozen world.
Here is an example of what nearly every pine limb looked like:
And here is an interesting shot of a red flower from an early blooming quince bush:
How about a close-up:
In this next picture you can see the sheets of ice that gradually slid off our metal roof as the sun warmed it:
In addition to the ice of January 27th-28th we also had snow on January 30th and on February 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th! The biggest accumulation of snow during this time was only about 2 inches on Feb. 3rd, but with the temperatures mostly below freezing the entire time and so much ice all over everywhere, all the new snow just added insult to the injury of the ice storm!
The cameras were back out on February 3rd and 4th for that 2 inch snow.
I thought this was cute of a Light Brahma hen drinking from her waterer without getting out in the snow:
This game-mixed mama hen was tough and raised a clutch of chicks she hatched in November right through all the bad weather!:
Here are the goats in front of the goat barn getting a drink after Matthew got some liquid H2O back in their trough:
Since I’m showing a representation of our various stock, I thought I would put up this one of Matthew taking care of our boar Rufus:
And here is an adorable picture of Matt and Christina on that day. I am so blessed to have children who truly love each other and aren’t afraid to show it:
Our local school system had classes during only 8 days in January and missed the first week into February! Our Sunday church services were canceled twice during that time. We then experienced a beautiful week of spring-like weather with days in the 60s and 70s from Feb. 7th -14th, and nice days in the 50s from the 15th – 18th. We had snow showers on the 19th, 21st, 22nd(2 inches which again canceled church), 23rd, 28th, March 1st, 2nd, and cold temperatures when there was no snow. On Feb. 11th we had a severe wind storm which knocked power out for most of the county (no school again) and on the 18th we had a severe thunder storm with a sizeable accumulation of nickel sized hail!
We had a string of wonderful weather from March 4th thru the 11th with four of the days in the 70s and 2 days into the 80s! It reached 84 on Saturday March 7th the day we attended a Christian music festival called “Winter Jam”. Winter was not finished with us yet, however.
After such beautiful summer-like days, our biggest snowfall of the year came on March 12th/13th. The 6 inches of sticky snow that fell overnight did not stay around long, but it sure was pretty while it was here! Since it came on a Thursday, we only missed 1 more day of school from that one. The last official week of winter was a mix of dreary/rainy days in the mid 50s and a couple of sunny days in the mid 70s.
Here are a few pictures of that wet 6 inch snow:
In some ways, the winter of 08-09 was not overly remarkable. We at Pure Water Hollow Homestead were not greatly affected by our severe weather this winter. However, when you throw in the devastation caused by the ice storm, it becomes one of the most remarkable winters in the history of Kentucky!
To summarize our winter this year, between November 20th and March 20th we saw 30 days with some snow, but only once with snow more than 2 inches. We also saw at least 25 days that were above the mid 60s. We had an ice storm that covered everything with 2 inches of ice, snapped power poles like toothpicks, closed all roads in the county, and knocked out power to everyone (some for 14 days). Later we saw a wind storm that knocked out power to many, and a thunderstorm that left piles of hail and knocked out power to some. Our biggest snowfall was 6 inches on March 13th (which didn’t cut out the power to anyone that we heard of). Throughout these 4 months of winter, all of our livestock did fine. It was a chore sometimes to keep the animals drinking water in a liquid state, but we managed. We butchered some of our chickens and hogs, sold many piglets, the sows were re-bred, the goats were bred for the first time, and our new chickens began laying eggs. Life at Pure Water Hollow kept right on going through winter, and the Lord helped us each step of the way!
Personally, I enjoy snow (but not the very, very cold temps). I would have liked to have seen at least one very heavy snow in the two foot range like we used to have in the 1990s. It would have also been nice if we had had several more decent snows in that 6 inch range. Overall, I thought the 08-09 winter was a pretty nice winter for us. At least we had many snowy days, which had become rare around here in recent winters. Perhaps in the meteorological history books, this winter will be the marking point of when the rough, snowy winters began hitting eastern Kentucky once again. One can only hope!
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5 comments
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Marcia on March 24, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Thank you so much for sharing.. I enjoyed your post very much…
God Bless,
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Trixi on March 24, 2009 at 7:28 pm
I also enjoyed your post. Thanks for sharing and I am so glad your family faired well.
Blessings,
Trixi
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Debbie on March 24, 2009 at 10:18 pm
You did a fantastic job on this winter write up and the pictures very very good to. I wish I could say our winter is over with but we are still getting snow. At least it's not sticking on the ground today.
Thanks
Debbie
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Judy on March 26, 2009 at 9:36 am
beatiful pictures of the ice storm. you made it look pretty. lol glad that is behind us know and hopefully next year it wont return!! God bless you and your family and keep those lovely pictures coming. I really enjoy them.
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karen in MS on April 14, 2009 at 10:46 am
I just stumbled across your blog and thought I'd leave a comment on this post. I live in South MS and have never gotten to experience snow like you have, but I have experienced an ice storm! We had one down here several years ago and I got some great pictures. It didn't stay cold very long (only a few days), but the damage the ice did took weeks to clean up. I also can remember the limbs breaking off trees and sounding like gun shots. I think we were without power about 16 days, but it really didn't faze us. We had plenty to eat and I cooked on my cast iron skillets over the gas fire in the fireplace. It was fun, lol.
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