I went out at dark to walk up the road and text Linda that everything was OK-there's no cell service at the house. Walking at night through hip-deep snow was an amazing experience but I got a little scared after I let her know I was fine - so I used my iphone as a flashlight and found coyote and bobcat tracks criss-crossing my tracks. Got back in one piece and woke to find coyote tracks going up the opposite hill from the bedroom and circling around at my bed level. Guess he was wondering if he could get into the warm house somehow.

The roof wasn't specifically designed for snow loads. Good thing structural engineers design with a x4 safety factor!

I couldn't figure out how to get off the roof without slipping once I got up there to clear the snow of the solar panels. Then I realized the best method was to simply fall into a giant drift of snow for a nice soft landing.

40" of snow and three miles of walking (no snow shoes) from my abandoned 4wdr Subaru to check our house. No one in our area has seen anything like this snow storm for 30 years or more. Because I knew the solar panels would be covered by snow, I wanted to get up there to jump-start the house so I wouldn't have any frozen pipes. The Sheriff's helicopter hovered in front of the house to make sure we were OK and airlifted out some of our neighbors even further down the road.