The Blizzard of '24

Kris and the girls made snowmen in the front yard. . .

'Sup gang.

First of all, before I even get started with this, let me state for the record that if I had a nickel for every time some Goddamn Boomer brings up the Blizzard of '78, I wouldn't have to teach anymore. I'm so f***ing sick of hearing Boomers talk about how much snow they used to get back in the day.

Congratulations on growing up in the years before Global Warming was a thing (thanks a lot for causing Global Warming, by the way.)

Anyway.

We got a random snow day on Wednesday - our first of the year - due to a few inches of snow/ice that came overnight and prevented the school buses from running as usual. The roads were a little slick, but I ended up going to the gym in the afternoon, then Lodge in the evening, without an issue. This would ultimately end up being the Prologue to the main story, however - Friday evening would see our first legit storm of the year roar through, and nobody was expecting the havoc it would wreak.

My school district didn't have students reporting to school on Friday, as it was scheduled to be a 'Records Day' (a day following the close of a semester when teacher input student grades.) Most other districts throughout mid-Michigan were closing their schools in anticipation of the big storm, which was supposed to hit us some time in the afternoon, but our superintendent was adamant about staff reporting to their duty locations for the day. This, obviously, pissed a lot of people off, and folks had their eyes glued to their weather apps throughout the morning. Fortunately, by about 1:30pm, they let everyone head home in order to get ahead of the impending weather, so Yours Truly didn't have too bad of a drive back to Midland.

The blizzard was supposed to start up around 2-3pm, but didn't really reach us until 6-7pm. The temperature plummeted - and would remain below 15 degrees for days - and the snow kept piling on. 

Ice ended up being the chief catalyst with this storm, though - the wet snow/ice mix was heavier than usual, and brought down trees throughout the city. Thousands of homes lost power, but fortunately the Houghs never did (thank God.)  I ended up shoveling our driveway, like, six times over the course of three days, but we got through it relatively unscathed. . . with the exception of our large garden conifer in the back yard (which you'll see later on in this post.)

So here you go, America - the first great storm of 2024. Enjoy. . .

Samson makes his move.

I came home around 2pm and found the girls still in the process of assembling their snowmen with Kris (and the dogs.) 

Kris, once again, had the girls assemble a family of snowmen (representing each of us) in front of our house, like she's done in previous years.

Abby decked out her doppelganger with glasses and 'hair.'

The Cannonballs.

A selfie (of course) with their finished products.

(My snowman has clearly been hitting the gym.)

In the evening, the weather began to rear its ugly head. My buddy Collier texted our group chat this pic of his commute back to Midland from where he works in Clare. US-10 was a death trap.

As it began to get darker out, the weather intensified, and our family of snowpeople in the front yard embraced the coming chaos.

Fast forward about, oh, three hours or so. The first wave of snow and ice came through, and when we let the dogs out to use the bathroom one last time before putting them to bed, we saw our trees had taken a solid pummeling. The wet snow and ice weighed all of the trees and bushes in our backyard down considerably, and we still had an entire night of snowpocalypse ahead of us. . . .

The next morning, it was obvious we had gotten another six inches over the course of the night.

It might not look like it here, folks, but that snow was heavy. . . and it was not coming off the trees.

After some coffee, I headed out to shovel out the driveway (for like the third time over the course of the last 24 hours.) 

After finishing the driveway, I headed into the backyard with a rake and a ladder in order to try and remove this weighted-down branch from the power line running to our house. About 15 feet off of the ground, the branch was packed with ice and leaning out over the line, threatening to bring it down and cut off our power (not something we were looking forward to in 6-degree weather.) I was able to scrape off a lot of the snow and ice from the branch but it was still bowed over quite a bit.

Just to give you an idea of how bad the levels of snow and ice were, here's a Before-and-After pic of the large, conifer tree in our big garden in the backyard. Not sure what it's going to look like once all this crap melts away, but hopefully it can spring back. 

After I was about 90% done with the driveway in the afternoon (again), Kris came out to 'help' me. This more or less entailed her cleaning off the snowman family so they were once again presentable for people driving by. 

We've had much worse snow totals since we moved back to Michigan, but this snow was heavy and wet.  I don't mind shoveling when it's powder, but this stuff is a bitch on one's back.

It'd be awesome to get winter landscapes like this without all that tree damage, slick roads, and power outages nonsense that comes along with it. It's definitely scenic, though.

Even after freeing the hanging branch that was hanging over that power line in our backyard (from the garden bed tree that got totaled, as shown in the pics before), we noticed that an even bigger pine tree was hanging over the exact same line on our neighbor's side of the fence. Where that tree was leaning over was probably over 20 ft high, so even with my neighbor's willingness to let me attempt to fix it I couldn't possibly reach it standing on top of either of the ladders I own. We just had to cross our fingers and hope to christ we didn't get any more ice (or heavy snow.)

(You can kinda see what I'm talking about in this pic - just trace the line back to that giant tree in the background, just past the chain-link fence.)

Since we were snowed in all damn weekend, I figured I'd try out that beer recipe book I got from Mitch at that Christmas party last month and slow-cook one of the included meals. We went with the chili, which turned out pretty damn good after I added a pilsner to it.  Overall flavor was amazing, but I wish I would've had some jalapenos, hot sauce, or red pepper on hand when I made it - it could have used some more heat.

A common sight while driving throughout Midland the last two days (whenever a pressing need demanded it, that is) - fallen trees, blocking off several streets. Made commuting about the suburbs of our fair city a total blast.

Alayna felt the drive up our street was so pretty she had to document it (very 'Hough' of her, honestly.)

The last night of the weekend, as we all prepared for the coming work/school week, two different ambulances (you can see one in the street at the right, and one - identifiable by the bright, white light to the left - in the driveway) stopped off at my neighbor's house, two doors down, lights and sirens blaring. They were there for like twenty minutes but I couldn't see if they were bringing out body bags or anything. This weather is bleak enough to make one want to take their own life, but who knows what happened over there for certain. I'll keep you posted. 

- Brian

Back into the Woods

Trevor hooked me up with one of these upon my arrival.

Hey Internet.

So it had been a couple years since the last time my high school crew and I got together and camped out in the woods, and as such we decided it was high time for us to do so once again.  Being winter and all, none of us felt like tenting it out, so we opted instead to go up to Trevor's family cabin, out by Rosebush.  No running water and no electricity, but - like Rita's family cabin we stayed in a couple years ago - it ran on 'Amish Lighting,' powered via propane.  This meant it was nice and warm inside, and well-lit - all one really needs when roughing it out in the woods in the dead of winter.

I drove up after Abby's Girl Scout troop's World Thinking Day thing (I'll talk about that in a later post, I'm sure), so I didn't roll in until around 8pm or so Friday, and by that time the rest of the guys had established headquarters and were already starting on getting dinner together.  We stayed until late Sunday morning, and had a blast reverting to a bunch of stupid 16-year-olds for a couple days, with no wives, no kids, no responsibilities, and no connection to the outside world.

I could've definitely stayed longer, that's for damn sure.

Check it out, folks. . .

Trevor's family cabin in the woods.  Simple, rustic, and smells just as you'd imagine Trevor's cabin to smell.

Sean and his Dad, Tom, who came along for the weekend as well.

These propane lanterns do well in a pinch to create more light (and heat.)

Trying to figure out how to get the stove going so we can bake some potatoes and cook up the venison Trevor had brought up.

Scrunge tries out of the not-at-all-creepy hats that was hanging on the wall of the cabin. . .

Dinner time.

After dinner, we bundled up and trudged down a two-track path through the woods to a pond that was on the far side of Trevor's property, which had frozen over in the cold.  Scrunge set up a bunch of his lenses to take some pictures of the stars, which were ridiculously bright in the clear, cold air - we were far, far away from civilization, so there was next to nothing as far as light pollution goes.

Had to snap a picture of the crew to send out to all the other members of our high school squad that couldn't make it out this time. . .

Some late night snacking before bed (yes, that's a dog - Scrunge brought both of his up with him.)

The next morning, drinking some tar-ish coffee - boiling hot and bitter - before getting a start on the day.

Trevor's cabin.  After eating a hearty breakfast of bacon, tater tots, and eggs - courtesy of Tom - we suited up in winter clothes and prepared to explore the surrounding land.

This is what passes for a bathroom around these parts. . .

Smells like Sankpala, that's for damn sure.

The front porch (which was more or less a refrigerator this weekend - had to store the beer and food somewhere.)

I hadn't noticed it the night before (it was pitch black out by the time I rolled in), but the cabin sat atop a steep hill that overlooked a creek.

Sean decided to play with his shotgun for a bit - always a good time.

 

Scrunge's dogs were not big fans of this. . .

Down by the river, exploring an old sandbar that Sean had christened Seanlandia a couple years ago.  Of course.

This dead deer was located about 50 yards from the cabin, and was set there as bait for coyotes. . . which, I'm told, Trevor's cousins shoot from the comfort of the cabin's kitchen window.  We posed a couple pictures for the trail cams that were honed in on this location.

Returning to the frozen pond from the night before.

It was actually pretty warm out - mid-40s, thereabouts.

 

Can't take these guys anywhere. . .

Slainte.

Yes, Sean is always that guy.

Sean and his dad, walking the two-track back to the cabin.

Creating a fire pit for use later on in the night.

Too much damn walking for Scrunge. . .

What kinda Pet Cemetary bullshit is this???

This is some Injun spirit-conjuring nonsense, right here. . .

The back porch of the cabin, with the outhouse in the distance.

In the afternoon, a couple of the guys decided they were going to build themselves an igloo.

This is about as far as they got. . .

Evil spirits keep watch over the river.  Or so I assume.

Not entirely sure if this side porch here is up to code or not - I wouldn't trust it, that's for damn sure.

There was a dart board inside the cabin, but the darts were garbage.  Good thing Trevor had a blowgun lying around. . .

Scrunge has enough of Sean's lip at one point.  Hilarity ensues.

The evening's bonfire (my phone died for a few hours while we were walking about outdoors, so by the time I had an opportunity to plug it into my portable battery charger, it was already night.)

At the end of the night, exhausted from a merry time outdoors.  You can imagine how horrible we all smelled Sunday morning.

- Brian