Northern Sierra Snow Storm

It’s mid February and Mother Nature has been extremely gentle on us the past month or so. We’ve had high temperatures in the 60s and very few clouds. This year our snow fall started in November, giving us 3 feet of snow in 1 storm, with a hand full of small storms following with little accumulation.
Everything around here thinks its spring.

I’ve been telling myself since this spring-like weather started in January “don’t get used to it because old man winter will surely return.” And he’s coming tomorrow! You’d never suspect it by the gorgeous weather today.
The storm is forecast to arrive tomorrow afternoon and will linger through the rest of the week bringing with it 30-50 mph wind gusts, freezing temps, rain, freezing rain, and snow.
We never know what to expect when a storm is headed our way. I guess most people could say the same thing with the frequency of miscalculations from the meteorologists…..but, seriously, we really never know what to expect. The forecast for our town is for the heart of the town which is 15 miles away and 1000 ft lower than us and when you live in the mountains, 1000 ft makes a world of difference.  Plus, we’re at the base of the next steep incline so storm clouds tend to get stuck and stick around for a while. Because of the school at the end of our street, our winding one lane street does get plowed. However, if snow falls farther down the mountain and occasionally when it falls in the valley all of “our” snow removal equipment tends the roads for the folks down there. Thankfully, we have our tractor and snow plow for the quad because we’re usually at the bottom of the totem pole. The same goes for power outages.
So, the preparations started yesterday. Husband built an enclosure for the exposed water pipes outside of the pump house. That project has been on the list of things-to-do for quite a while as it freezes somewhat regularly. He’s planning to post more details on that in the future.
Loads of fire wood have been stacked inside to get us through the storm.
Miscellaneous wood piles were covered and tied down with tarps.
We topped off our fuel supply for the generator.
And my dear plants in the beginning stages of spring bloom have been safely housed in the garage. The fruit trees, still in pots, were easy to move. Otherwise they’d be wrapped up to keep them from freezing.

I know the blueberries (pictured below) can tolerate the cold but with the damage they’ve already endured this year (I’ll be posting on that soon) I decided to bring them in where its safe.

I found this helpful chart to show the low temperatures different varieties of fruit trees can tolerate.

Now we wait.