Shovels and Snow Drifts

For the past several days we have been having some serious wind in Chevak.  For whatever reason, it seems like the weather choices here in the winter are either extremely cold (like -50 degrees) and calm, or warmer (that's relative of course, warmer means like maybe 0 to -10 degrees) and super windy.  Both have their advantages and disadvantages.  

When the weather is -50 degrees and calm, it really can be very beautiful.  We have had some amazing (but absolutely freezing) sunsets.  And at night it is so crisp and clear, and the stars are super bright.  However, when your heat decides to go out at 50 degrees below zero, it gives you a whole new appreciation for having a warm house.  You don't realize that it's a luxury until you have to go without it.  Falon and I got to have that experience a couple of weeks ago.  As we were standing in front of our oven trying to warm up, we realized how blessed and fortunate we are for the things that we have.  It's amazing the things you can take for granted without realizing it.

Now on the other hand, warmer, windy weather means wearing goggles to school so that you can see.  It means trips from the post office are 3 times harder because walking against the wind hauling a sled full of boxes is no easy task.  Windy weather means weird noises in the house and the carpet blowing up under your feet.  But most of all, it means SNOW DRIFTS and SHOVELING!  

When the wind blows, so does the snow...and it can leave behind some crazy drifts.  It can be weird because the landscape changes from day to day.  One day there will be a drift in one place, and then the next day it will move to a new place.  It makes for very interesting walks to school in the morning when it's dark.  I have been surprised by a new snow drift on more than one occasion and fallen into the deep snow.  It can be very difficult to get back up again, and probably rather humorous for an observer.  I tell myself that no one has seen me when this happens, but I'm not entirely sure that's true.  At least no one has told me they've seen me...

Many of you may be familiar with snow drifts, but I'm not sure that you are familiar with the kinds of snow drifts we have in Chevak.  The other day, my brother told me that they were having bad wind and drifting snow at home.  Now that may be true, but I highly doubt that it was causing anyone to be trapped in their house.  I say that because just yesterday the 5th grade language arts teacher was trapped in her house by a snow drift covering her door.  Here are some pictures to give you an idea of what things look like around here because of the wind.        

 This is the snow in front of our apartment.  

It's actually worse than this now, because this picture was taken a few days ago. 

 These were our stairs.

 The snow in front of our window and on the side of our house.  

I really think I'd like to try sledding down one of these drifts. :)

 The snow in front of our next door neighbor's window.

 This drift is covering the entire door of one of the teacher apartments.  

Luckily there was no one in there at the time, or they would have been stuck.

 Here is a better look at the snow drift blocking the door.

 Our row of teacher housing.  As you can see, most of the apartments

have snow drifts in front of them with differing degrees of craziness.

 Our stairs again.  Now they have completely disappeared.

  

This is how the snow started out in front of our door...easy enough to step over.

         And then it grew...                

 

 

And grew....

 And grew....

 

 And grew until we had to use a kitchen chair to get out of the house.  Let's just say, it's a good thing the doors open in instead of out, or we would never get out of the house. As you can see, the imprint of the door is in the snow.  If you look closely, you can see that the snow moved up to the second set of rectangles outlined in the door and you can see the spot where the door handle went.

And then finally.....  

 

Yesterday when we came home this was what our door looked like.  Somehow the neighbor's door seemed to be completely clear of snow drifts....so unfair.  We had to dig ourselves in instead of digging ourselves out.  Falon dug enough of the snow out so that we could get in the door, which took a while....as you can see from the picture, there was quite a bit of snow to clear out of the way.  We still had to jump down off of the snow drift to get inside.  Then once we were inside I tried to dig from the inside out so that I could clear a spot in front of the door.  Let me tell you, shoveling snow is no leisurely activity.  It's a stinkin' workout!  My arms and back were pretty sore the next day.  I actually felt kind of pathetic, because for as tired as I was after digging and digging....I really hadn't made that much progress.  So....we gave up and called some of the high school boys and paid them to finish the job.  They did excellent!  They did a WAY better job than what I would have done myself.  I would have been satisfied if I could have just gotten the door to close.  But they got all the way down to the porch and even cleared off some of our stairs too!  It was so worth it.

 

Today it is much less windy, and I'm hoping it stays that way for a while.  I am ready for a little break from the snow drifts :) 

So the moral of this story is (you probably didn't think you were getting a moral, but I've got one).....leave your shovel inside in case you have to dig your way out!