Arctic Blast Storm 2008

I wanted to post these pictures yesterday so, you all could see the icy storm that we got Saturday night but the Internet was down. I can't complain since throughout the area there were people without power. No power or no Internet? I'll pick no Internet. We didn't go anywhere yesterday. Would you? You can't even leave the front porch without slip and sliding down the driveway, into the street and right down Main Street. I risked my life for these shots! OK - so I was really careful and found a dry spot on our front porch and then stepped onto the "lawn". This is not snow! All ice! The snow from Friday had begun to melt when this second storm came in. Portland and Salem got inches and in some place feet of snow. We just got some freezing rain out of it. I just had to show you the fence line behind our property. Check out the barbed wire & fence! Frozen solid!

Ice flocked Christmas trees anyone? This is one of our neighbor's property. Every strand of grass, twig, weed, etc. are all frozen with a thick layer of ice.
Josh was trying to leave work Saturday afternoon and couldn't get the gate open. He works at a storage facility. It had frozen shut and after several trips back and forth to the water cooler getting cups of hot water, he was able to melt the ice enough to get the gate open. As he was doing this the temperature dropped ten degrees and the he said the rain was freezing and it felt like ice cubes were pelting him in the face. This is not hail! Check out the small cube like shapes of ice!
All of these pictures were taken right outside our house from our front or back yards. I didn't dare step onto concrete or cement! Remember in the movie Home Alone when Kevin pours water all over the steps? I didn't want to reinact that scene...
Crunch, Crunch, Crunch... anyone want an iced drink?

Josh was such a good sport. At first he stayed inside watching from the window to be sure I didn't fall. He ended up coming out to explore with me and held the cold ice in his had whenever I wanted to get a picture!

These icicles were hanging off Josh's BBQ! Crazy huh?

This is a string that divides our property line from the lot that is still up for sale. Frozen string!

Cocoa had fun too. As soon as we went outside she started to slip and slide on the porch and path to our front door. Once I made it to the lawn, the first thing she did was start to eat the ice. All I could hear was her crunching. She shivered the entire time but she was just as curious as we were.

I knew I had to capture these pictures to show you all what it was like. It was truly unreal!