Snowbound on Rich Mountain
Today is Thursday December the 30, 2010. We have been snowed in since Christmas day. Luckily we had plenty of food and drink. If we had to be snowed in for almost a week this was the most opportune time for it. We had a fresh cord of wood newly dumped in t he driveway, a previously unopened honey baked ham in the frig, a frozen beef tenderloin, lots of vegetables from the fall garden, a peck of sweet potatoes, several bottles of flavored creamer for coffee, enough flour to make fifty pizzas, dog food to last a month, three unwatched Net Flix movies and an unopened bottle of Woodford Reserve bourbon in the pantry and club soda for mixers. There were three willing heating pads (although somewhat smelly) to lounge at our feet and/or sit in our lap, named Jesse, Moose and Brownie. Jesse was not all that willing actually and you never knew whether or not he would bite you at any given moment. J.D. would sit with you and keep you warm but if you took your hand off her she beat a path to the front door, wanting back outside, of course you had to go outside and catch her first.
I have seen movies and read books about people being snow or ice bound in the arctic, on huge iceberg seized English exploring ship, in Alaskan isolated cabins and on snow shrouded airplanes that had crashed on mountain tops and they fared nowhere as well as we did. I know it is silly to make a comparison with those dire circumstances but it is at least somewhat similar. Probably the best thing I did in the way of preparation for the snow storm was to stockpile dog food. At least that way the dogs didn’t have to eat Linda and me.
There still stands a six foot snowman in the driveway keeping sentry. He was tall and statuesque when Peyton first built him but now after suffering the wind, the cold and the melting and refreezing weather we have had, he leans precariously over like a melting ice cream cone. His long branch arms covered with grey lichen reach closer and closer to the ground every day. He is even more menacing than Peyton ever imagined him to be. I need to take another photo of him before he is sprawled prostrate on the drive way he has been protecting. The lower fourth of his body is now a shocking bright yellow from the dogs making frequent visits to the area to relieve them selves.
