Hazen Wrestling Tournament

Jacob had a wrestling meet in Hazen yesterday.  He won second place in his bracket.  As a mother,  I'm pretty sure that I prefer wrestling to football.

Match 1-Round 1

Match 1-Round 2

Match 1-Round 3

Match 2

Match 3

Jacob won 2nd Place.

I'm REALLY Glad That I Didn't Go To Work on Friday!

County worker pushing the snow into the neighbor's field.



The bank before it gets pushed into the field.



Photos are courtesy of Aunt Marian from her Sunday afternoon drive.

Friday a full fledged blizzard moved in.  I did not go to work because I was scheduled to have a final home visit with the social worker. I went to Garrison at 7:30 AM to get groceries. Around 9 AM, I received a message from the social worker cancelling the visit, as there was a NO TRAVEL ADVISED, UNLESS IT IS AN EXTREME EMERGENCY advisory announced on the news. 

As I was driving home, it began to rain and the wind was very strong.  It lifted my windshield wipers right off of my windshield, so it was difficult to see.  As soon as I turned south, my wipers worked fine.  Shortly after I arrived home, it started to snow.  It was the strangest snow that I have ever seen in my life.  It looked like it was snowing cotton balls.  Soon it was difficult to see the tree on Aunt Marian's driveway.  That tree is how I determine how bad things are up on top of the hill and whether or not I venture out.

I  called the principal and told her that if my sub needed to get on the road, that I could go into work.  I would leave Baby with Aunt Marian.  One of the neighboring school districts put a message on KX news that they were dismissing school at 10:30 AM.  The principal told me that she was going to go for a drive to check things out.  While I waited, the tree disappeared and it was getting difficult to see the barn.  When I cannot see down here in the coulee, I know that it is really bad out and that I need to stay home.  I'm soooo glad that I decided to stay home.

School was dismissed at 12:30 PM and it was already too late for people to travel safely home or for the busses to get the children home safely.  It took my colleagues 3 hours to drive 20 miles.  Most ended up in the ditch.  They travelled in a caravan using cell phones to help guide the lead car.  There was zero visiblilty, but the lead car made enough of a wind break so that the car behind could see if and give directions so they could stay on the road and out of the  ditch.  I was really glad I decided to stay home.

Saturday morning, Aunt Marian and I ventured north to check things out.  Mom said to me, "You guys are crazy."  There were a few drifts just north of the curve, but no anything that we couldn't drive through.  We had to stop and turn around when we got to the trees by our old place, because there was a bank of snow that extended well past the end of the row of trees and was as high (or higher in some places) than the hood of my Suburban.

Saturday afternoon I received a call from the Storm Home Matron and was informed that the stepfather of two of her charges told her that he saw the county plow coming off our road and that he would bring Jacob home.  I decided that I would go and meet them at the highway.  I was stopped by the same bank of snow that made us turn around in the morning.  The plow had  not gone down the road.  I tried to go across by Crawford's to meet them at Emmet.  I found out that old Maurice, my Suburban, can go through a drift as high as the hood.  Mind you that it wasn't by choice that I discovered this trick.  The drift came up out of nowhere, I put on the brakes and slid right through the drift. It was like I was in slow motion, but I came out on the other side only to be met by a drift almost twice as high as the one I had just slid through.  I managed to get turned around, backed up as far as I could (which wasn't very far) and drove back through the drift.

I then went back to the approach at the old place and saw the pickup of Jacob's ride coming down the road.  They got stuck by the Rice place turn off.  I didn't have his cell phone number so I had to wait for the Storm Home Matron to return my call.  Jacob's driver told her that he and Jacob were going to walk to meet me and that he thought if he had a shovel that he could get out.  I drove back to the house to get a shovel and they started walking the mile to meet me.  My Babe was tired after his hike through and over the drifts.

Sunday morning the plow went through. I went to town and saw a county worker pushing  the snow into the ditch with a Bobcat.  I got groceries and gas.  I bought the county worker a cheeseburger, fries and a long john and gave it to him when I returned.  He was suprised and we visited a bit. He told me that it took the plow about two hours to plow through the bank of snow.  It was 5-6 feet deep in some places.

I am REALLY glad that I decided not to go into work.