Surviving the Oklahoma Blizzard of 2011

The fence is 4 feet high

January 31, 2011.....The Fateful Day.....The Weather Bureau was forecasting a BLIZZARD...in Oklahoma....only the second Blizzard Warning since Statehood in 1907.  I was taking this pretty seriously....2 years ago Roger had been without electricity for 9 days and I needed to prepare!


When I got off work on Sunday, I went to the store and bought all that canned stuff I NEVER eat...Spam, Deviled Ham, Vienna Sausages, Dried Beef and Sardines...just in case I had no refrigerator.  Monday I filled a very large ice chest with water for flushing the toilet, secured gallons of purified water, bought a propane heater for indoor use and a 20# propane tank, moved the grill on the screen porch in case I needed it and folded a very large tarp to place over some grass (held down with bricks) so Chihuahua dog, Pierre, could have his 'personal place" when needed, filled the car with gasoline...I WAS READY!!!!!  :) :) :) :)


Monday night the Blizzard began....and continued all day Tuesday....the photos tell the story:

Looking out my office door

held the camera out the garage door for a side view of my front porch

Looking at front porch through the storm door...drift higher than the center bar on the door

This is the threshold of my door to my 12 x 20 screen porch.....12 feet from the porch front

my screen porch

The first thing I had to do was make about an 8" passageway at the corner of the 3 1/2 drift against my garage door..stick the snow shovel through to make a place on 'grass' for Chihuahua dog, Pierre! (Remember the tarp I folded, etc...well...it was UNDER 3 1/2' snow drifts!  Zero to 13 degrees for the next 3 days....no melt.......on Thursday my neighbor's grandson and a friend snow shoveled most of the snow from the driveway....then I had an additional foot of snow to remove, on top of what was there, to shovel in order to make a path to the front porch.  Friday it snowed all day.


We didn't have sleet and ice...so power remained in tact; dripped the water so pipes didn't freeze, didn't need to use the grill...looking promising...THEN the forecast was given last night for sleet and rain tomorrow, Sunday ...but..today is Saturday and the sun is out and the temp is going to be a balmy 34 or so.

 

Yesterday, I let out all the water I saved for the toilet...but thinking with freezing rain I may have to refill.  Have used the little propane heater for a boost to the Central Heating Unit.  Will eventually drink the gallons of water...now......it's all that food...Spam, deviled ham, potted meat, Vienna Sausages and dried beef???  Soooo....looked on the Armour site for help...NONE!  Looked at the jar of Dried Beef and is showed Pinnacle Foods Group...who knew???...there I was directed to Armour (with a Star added) and to my absolute amazement there are lots of recipes for all of the above..(except their product like Spam is called Treet).  Used the first thing for some Dried Beef Cream Gravy over toast.

http://www.armour-star.com

Well, spent way toooo much time here today.  I'm going to take the snow shovel and try to make Chihuahua dog, Pierre, a larger 'personal space'  :) :) :)