Day 15: Stuck in a Minnesota blizzard

Mrs Payne had warned me that I might hear a bit of a stampede in the morning, and sure enough at some ungodly hour of the morning I heard many small feet sprinting down the stairs. I woke up a very leisurely hour and looked out the window to see a completely white world; was pretty amazing! Went down stairs and found Anna in her PJs lounging on a radiator, keeping an eye on the fridge. Emma was nowhere to be seen, but apparently that's normal teenager behaviour :-)

Had some breakfast and Lori, Anna's mum, started baking like mad. She asked with a little glint in her eye if I'd ever tried rhubarb pie, thinking that she was about to unleash a whole new world of culinary delights on me; unfortunately for her I'm already a rhubarb addict!

Anna tried unsuccessfully for a while to "passively" wake her sister, but her sister wasn't too keen on playing outside with us (despite Anna's "worst sister ever " comments!). So just the two of us rugged up in all sorts of super duper winter gear. The Paynes have a basket of gloves and mittens larger than most log baskets!

We set off and tooled up, ready to make snow caves. How exciting!

Anna had the upper hand here, but then she does have the benefit of a few more Minnesota winters over me. We dug for a good hour, and in the process I managed to uncover Anna & Emma's last snow cave. I first figured I might be onto something when I found fairy lights under 3 feet of snow. Hmm… something tells me blizzards don't normally come with fairy lights!

It was quite hard work and the layer of ice didn't help, plus the older snow was quite thick. I managed to make a tunnel, with a hollow big enough to sit in at a rather bent angle. Anna's had 3 car garaging, a mezzanine floor, Jacuzzi, and full marbled-topped kitchen! Ok I exaggerate slightly, but I think this winter I will have to practice cave making ready for a rematch.

Meanwhile, it was still snowing fairly seriously. Add in the wind and it wasn't just snowing, but it was snowing uphill! We canned tobogganing, on account of how we would probably get blown up the hill.

Once Anna was satisfied she was the winner, we went off to feed the critters and let them out for the afternoon.

Here is their barn. Isn't it beautiful?

 

We let the horses out, however their initial excitement very quickly turned into "why do you hate us Anna" type behaviour; in some cases before they'd even made it outside.

The minis especially weren't impressed and made certain to make Anna pay for this by going anywhere but the lower paddock.

Pitiful or what?!

At long last all horses were where they should be and she could bring the llamas out. For a breed of critters that originate from extreme winter climates, they sure don't seem impressed with Minnesota winters.

At long last everyone was out.

We went back and checked on the snow caves and in the time we'd been gone, about an inch of fresh snow accumulated. At my insistence we went and checked on the smaller critters. They were excited to see us!

Hi!!!

It's quite fun in this barn, it's general chaos everywhere with chickens wandering around, roosters crowing at any hour but dawn, goats continuously trying to escape, and so on.

 

Taking photos of the goats was tricky. I'd be busy facing one way trying to get a photo, and meanwhile someone from the other side would be trying to eat my camera strap, or go through my pockets! But would you expect anything else from a bunch of goats?

We decided to call it an afternoon and went back inside. The girls went off to plough the driveway and I tried to comfort 13,000 cats and dogs. Actually the animals thought it was fantastic and they'd have the entire place to themselves.

Like something out of Fargo…

I went out to make sure I wasn't missing out on too much fun and was only spared from a to-the-death snow fight due to holding a camera. Out here in Minnesota they take snow fights pretty seriously and both Anna and Emma had armed themselves with massive snow shovels!

The fight begins! (isn't it a pretty house?)

 
Emma getting attacked / Emma recovering from a face full of snow

 
Did I mention that Anna fights dirty?

At long last they called a truce and made snow angels instead. I was waiting for one of them to give the other a face full of snow, but they behaved, miraculously.

Meanwhile it hadn't warmed up at all, though the wind had died down and the snow eased. The trees were all coated in a layer of ice, which meant whenever the wind blew all the trees would creak! It was a very eerie sensation.

It was of course stunningly beautiful, and not too cold either; about -3°C most of the time (that's warm).

Back inside Lori had made an amazing lunch of corn bread, porcupines (not actually made from porcupines) and rhubarb pie. What better way to spend an afternoon than eating delicious food and watching Monsters Inc, surrounded by loving animals (some of them a bit too loving) and watching the snow blow outside. Yup life in a blizzard is pretty tough!

After a few not-so-subtle comments Anna finally remembered that all her horses were outside. They were rather unimpressed!

Amazing chameleon horses; they go out dark, and come back white!

I guess the "no smoking" sign is for the horses?

All was forgiven fairly quickly though once their bowls had been filled and fresh hay had been distributed. Anna then had to brush off all the snow and ice. I tried to write messages in the snow but the horses were convinced I had horse treats in my pockets and wouldn't stay still.

Back in the house we were all being sociable and hiding behind our laptops. By now it was just after midday in Christchurch and this is when we first caught wind that something had happened back home. It started with a few "wow that was a big one" comments on Facebook, and by the end of the evening it was headline news on Nightline.

So we spent an anxious evening trying to find out if friends and family were ok. Through the wonders of Facebook I managed to find out my family were all ok thanks to a friend in Wellington calling my sister for me. Slowly over the course of the night I managed to account for most of my friends. Went to bed fairly late, and fairly worried, although it wouldn't be till the following morning that I saw just how terrible things really were back home.