Blizzard and Hunter's Widow Weekend

South Dakota received the first blizzard of the season on Wed. night. When I went home I fully intended to go sewing Thurs. night like I always do and had everything packed. I also packed for the weekend as mom and I were going to my parents for a long weekend of sewing. I woke up Thurs. morning and we couldn't see across the street and barely out the window. The house was shaking because of the wind and the snow was horrific. We stayed home all day an enjoyed a big breakfast, naps, and I sewed the remaining blocks for my Bistro quilt. Paul took this pictures Thurs. night through the front door window.

When we went out Fri. morning you couldn't see this trashcan that blew over, it was completely covered.

This is our backyard Fri. morning looking off to the Northeast.

This one is more toward the North looking at I-90 which is right over the hill. The drift is up the top of our chainlink fence. The pastures behind our house to the North and East are cattle/horse pastures.

This is from our front door. The house across the street is a normal residential street width away from us, but we are at the end of the development so it drifts the entire street between us.

From our bedroom window.

We have a 3 foot bird bath, but it's completely covered next to the tree.

We woke Fri. morning to a 6 foot tall, 15 foot wide, 30+ feet long snow bank behind/on top of our vehicles. There was not a chance we were going to be getting out. The schools were called off and no travel was advised either. The interstate I-90 closed early Thurs. morning and remained closed until late Fri. night.
The cell phone tower by my parents was finally activated the beginning of the month, so my dad has a cell phone now and was calling everyone he knew just to visit Thurs. because he didn't have electricity from Wed.night on. This is huge for my parents as the cell service was patchy to non-existant in their area. They had to shut them off or they would die with in an hour and you couldn't make a call unless the wind/clouds/air was just right and only standing outside on either side of the house. On the east side you might catch a Central time zone tower and on the west side, you could maybe catch a Mountain time zone tower. It was horrible! Now my dad can sit in the living room and call anyone he wants! He was keeping the generator going so the corn/pellet stove would work and keep the house from freezing up.

Friday around 11 we went out and started digging ourselves out. It took over an hour to get around the car and then we worked on my pickup and Paul's pickup. The backhoe/front end loader came and moved the huge drift on our street behind the vehicles and got it all piled up. We had the hoods up melting all the packed snow that was completely packed under the hood.


Paul pushed snow with the 4-wheeler plow while his mom and I shoveled, and shoveled, and shoveled!






Paul got his pickup out as he was going hunting. The car got out too. We left my pickup to melt as it was completely covered underneath and packed in there. We went out to his work on Fri night in 4-wheel drive and that was all that could get around. He picked up stuff he needed for his hunting vacation.
Sat.morning we were up bright and early and he packed up to go hunting and I packed to go sewing with mom. He dropped me off at work and then picked up my little bro. They planned to go to my parents for a week of hunting deer. Sat. was the opening day of the season and they both took a weeks vacation. Paul had Buck Fever ALL week! He was so excited! This is the first year he is going hunting.
Mom and I worked at the store on Sat. for PJ day. We had a lot of demos and a great time. My new friend stopped in with her mom, so I was really excited to see her and meet her mom. Mom and I are helping her with her first quilt. It's beautiful! On a whim mom, a friend, and I decided to rent a suite at a local hotel for the night and sew! My parents were still without electricity, so we couldn't sew at home. We went out to eat, then went back to the suite and sewed till after midnight. We laughed, drank, sewed, and were merry! It was so much fun. We were up at 7 yesterday and sewed and sewed and sewed. We had to be out of the room by noon. At 11:56AM we were out. Mom and I did some shopping and then spent Sun. evening sewing at my little bros house.
My parent got electricity last night, but my brother and his wife, Uncle, and cousin's places don't have electricity yet. They are all running generators to keep the cattle fed and watered and the stoves going. They had to go to town for more fuel once to keep the generators running.
Mom and I are going home to my parents today as it is my little bro's 23rd birthday and the whole family will be together for supper tonight.
So what you might ask did I sew?? Sat. night I finished my Bistro quilt top, just need to add borders. Sunday I worked on piecing the back of my Happy Hour Quilt. I have all the strips made, they now just have to be sewn together. Since I have a plan, I know I'll quickly finish it at home. I took a couple bags home with all those projects since I had way more than I needed. I picked up my serger and last night I made PJ pants for my Little bro out of the Camoflage girls from Alexander Henry. I read the pattern to say I needed 5 1/4 yards. Since he's a big guy, I though maybe I couldn't get two pieces from the 22" width of the doubled fabric, so I didn't question it. I just bought what was left on the bolt...6 yards. I went to cut out the pattern last night and it was for Pajama's - the 5 1/4 yards was for a top too. He wouldn't wear that kind of top, nor did I want to make it, so I have 3 1/2 yards left! So my dad and hubby are each getting a pair of shorts out of the deal. I had been to Hancock's and gotten elastic yesterday, so I cut them out, sewed them with the serger, did hems, and casings, and put the elastic in 3 pairs of shorts/pants last night in under 4 hours. Paul has the camera so he can take pictures of the "big one" but so far it has eluded the mighty hunters... good thing they have all week.