NO WE'RE NOT IN ALASKA---IT JUST LOOKS LIKE IT!!!!

We were told numerous times by the "locals" that the winter this year was a record snow fall and freezing temperatures that they hadn't seen forever!!  Hope this posting helps cool you down.  That says FEELS LIKE -15 just below Cloudy.  This wasn't our coldest day by any means!!  Our record "feels like" low was closer to -35!!!!! 

We always started our day with a look at the weather report and found a new way of looking at it.  Yes, the temperature is 3 degrees BUT it "feels like -15", that is minus fifteen! The wind chill report was what we went by for our physical preparations for the day, not the degrees. We found the real value and importance of layering ourselves. 

  There was literally no place to put all the snow.  This was a typical double home right off the street where there is usually lots of parked cars up and down the road.  As you can see, someone dug a small brake in the wall of snow to get to their stairs.

No, this is not a huge carrot.  This is an icicle growing off of one of our recent converts home (Ray Dudkiewich).  Icicles were very typical, sometimes as tall as the two and three story homes.  It was always amazing to see.  

This wall of ice was amazing and there was a matching one on the other side of our interstate road.  That ice is a couple of feet thick and twenty to thirty feet tall.  There were beautiful colors of blue that the camera just couldn't pick up.  Ice forming out of the rocks was not an uncommon site.

This was not an uncommon sight.  People would work and work to dig their cars out, shoveling the snow into the road and the snow plows would come along and bury them again.  This poor guy just gave up.         

  

On the right is where our Spanish Elders live.  There are four apartments in this double home. 

Ross is trying to work his way to the front door to deliver food for the Meals on Wheels.  It was interesting that with the combination of the snow and wind, we could have three or four feet of snow on the ground after a storm and very little on the roofs.

This is the front front door of our cozy little apartment on the top floor. When we enter this door, we climb up seven steps.  I am very grateful to be on the top floor because the windows of the bottom floor were covered with snow for a lot of the season. 

We always thought it was interesting that the STOP signs here are a little taller than at home and that they are mounted many times on the telephone poles.  Now we understand why.   This is one of the wider streets because it ends up at the high school.

It is a law here to brush off ALL the snow of your car and we found out why.  Many times we would have ice fall before a storm, covering your car and then the snow would dump.  With a little bit of sun, the hard ice with the snow on top, could fly off doing damage to other cars and drivers.  It was rather dangerous.  We broke three ice scrappers, it is very different ice here.  We quickly caught on to raising our windshield wipers before retiring for the night.

The end of Jan., we went to the DC Temple with some friends in the Branch the Fairalls.  This isn't an easy task this time of year.  It is a four hour trip one way but we were determined.  In some ways it was great because we were just about the only ones on the freeway.  We left early (very early) in the morning and arrived just in time for the last session of the day.  They were closing the temple due to the weather conditions.   We were glad we went, it was the first day that the newest of the new films was played, even most of the temple workers had not yet  seen it.  On the way home, we tried several times to stop at a restaurant for dinner but everything had closed down.  Wow.  We finally found a "favorite " one of the Fairall's that served us a delicious dinner, it was George's birthday.  We thought we would never make it home, what an experience to remember.

This is what our car looked like when we finally arrived home, safe and sound.  They use salt mixed with tiny tiny rocks on the roads to give cars traction.  We've even had our headlights ice over on some evenings making it very difficult to see very far ahead.  Please notice that you have to look very close to see Elder Wilson's golf club wrapped around the plate!!!

Another view, another day but more of the same with a new storm that added 14" of snow.  We took  this picture right  in front of where we are assigned to park our car and you can see our front door to the apartment (just a short walk!!)