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It has been snowing hard all night and all day long. To tell you the truth, when the weather reports started predicting we would get 3-feet of snow here in Twain Harte, I really did not believe it.

I have no way of knowing if the predictions of snowfall in San Francisco (Bay Area) were accurate but I can tell you that Sonora is getting rain and so far the snow hasn’t reached them yet. Cousin Dustin was sorely disappointed, he lives in Sonora and was really looking forward to some snow. If I could get down there, I would be most happy to share some of ours.

I sent my son out to shovel – to be honest, I really am not sure why – shoveling the snow at this juncture does absolutely no good. You no sooner bring the shovel back to make another pass, only to find more store where you just shoveled.

Even my son is getting into the act. Check out his snow report…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV7-3Wpism0
(his site is kidwarp.com)

As I’m writing, the wind has really picked up and if I didn’t know better, I would swear it was raining snowballs. I am fully expecting to see snowing cats and dogs any second now. We’ve all heard the expression, “raining cats and dogs.” Well, you get the idea.

I’m not sure what is going on out there but it’s ugly out folks. The wind is blowing hard and it sounds like hail hitting my second-story window. Whatever you do, stay away from the trees if you can — if this keeps up, we will certainly lose the electric.

Guess, I’d better sign off and fix something to eat while I can still use my stove. 

My 2nd attempt at creating a video with my iPhone (the first time I had the camera turned the wrong way).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xl58UXnbKQ

Stay warm and dry and looking out for, “Snowing Cats and Dogs.”

Gosh has it really been 4-days since I last posted. It feels like only yesterday.

We’ve been keeping busy with storm preparations and judging from the dairy cooler at the Twain Harte Market, so are you. The shelves were practically bare – it seems everyone needed milk today. Imagine that. We completed all our errands today and the topic of discussion was the coming storm. People are saying it’s going to snow all the way from the Nevada/California state line clear to San Francisco.

I’ve got my long-johns on and my heavy wool socks. The generator is gassed up and ready to fire, if needed — we sure hope it’s not.

I just popped outside and sure enough the snow has begun falling already and I’ve got the cold feet to prove it. Now for a little local news of interest — at least of interest to me…

I’ve been excitedly promoting the presentation scheduled for tomorrow night by Hardluck Lin (otherwise known as Linda Teigland Clark), unfortunately due to weather concerns the event will be rescheduled for safeties sake.

The Sonora OSH still had two 5500 watt Honeywell Generator’s and a 1,000 watt generator on the shelf when we were there this evening. Those won’t stick around long if the power fails again. Both OSH and the Twain Harte Market had a supply of wood and pellets for heat, as well as various fuels on-hand still.

I’ll post more weather updates as conditions progress. Be sure to tell us where you are and how the weather is progressing there, include your elevation if you know it.  🙂

Stay warm!

Saturday in Twain Harte

I just received a recorded telephone message from PG&E informing me that they are working to restore power to the affected areas and that many area customers will remain without power for up to 3 more days.

We were a little confused by the message — since our power was restored 36 hours ago. I hope PG&E wasn’t calling to prepare us for another outage. We are used to having our power interrupted each year about this time — what we aren’t used to are these extended outages. In the past PG&E would have our power restored within a matter of hours — not days.

On a brighter note — and I do mean brighter… The sun is shining, the snow and ice are melting. The current temperature is 40 degrees.  All in all, a beautiful day. What a difference a day makes. If you’ve been putting off your trip due to Twain Harte weather conditions, it’s not too late to make the trip for a nice outting for President’s Day weekend.

Sunday in Twain Harte

Don’t forget, the post office will be closed on Monday. Why not take the day and make a trip up to Dodge Ridge or even a trip to Yosemite. The roads — while I wouldn’t call them dry — we can at least find pavement under all that snow.

I’m enjoying this wonderful break in the weather. We are expecting sunshine for the next several days. Be sure to get outside and enjoy all the snow we’ve been blessed with.

Some residents in Columbia (1-outage), East Sonora (6-outages), Soulsbyville (19-outages), Tuolumne City (6), Ponderosa Hills, Phoenix Lake-Cedar Ridge (33-outages), Twain Harte (13), and Mi-Wuk (3-outages) are still without power.

PG&E Electrical System Outage Map — Tuolumne County reports:

182 outage(s) affecting 5000+ customer(s)
Start Time of Outage: 02/20/2011 12:49:00 PM
Est. Time of Restoration: Not Available
Last Updated: 02/20/2011 12:58:12 AM

This report shows progress over my last report…

194 outage(s) affecting 5000+ customer(s)
Last Updated: 02/20/2011 12:58:12 AM

MyMotherlode Reports:

The majority of the remaining power outages across the Mother Lode should be restored by this evening, according to PG&E.

Tuolulmne County currently has around 8,800 customers without electricity, and Calaveras County has 7,800. The East Sonora area, including Phoenix Lake and Cedar Ridge, has 3,430 without power, Twain Harte has 1,845 and Tuolumne has 1,630. In Calaveras County, Arnold has around 2,000 customers without electricity.