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Even MORE snow…and baking bread on top of the woodstove!

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Wowie zowie…that was a snowstorm!   On Sunday it began to snow, and snow, and snow… when it finally stopped on Monday (yes school was cancelled for the day) we had 11 inches of fresh, WET powder in the driveway and a prodigious snowplow pile.  The photo above is of our house, from the street.  Here is my handy dandy quilting ruler in the snow next to the snowplow ridge…that is an 18 1/2 inch ruler, dwarfed….:

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I always take pics of the St. Francis birdbath and the nearby pot.  The latter is large, and buried.  Here, you can see the snow is almost up to the basin!

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Paul and Joshua in front of the snow-crusted garage.  See that little bitty orange thing sticking out of the snow?  That’s the 3 foot post to show the plow guys the edge of the driveway…..

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Eli took Widgeon for walkies, cross country in the little woods across the street.  Are those not the cutest two things on six feet?  Widgeon LOVES the snow and doesn’t care if his tummy and dangly bits get all cold and red! Silly sweet dog!!

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And coming over the plow ridge…if we have much more snow we’ll have to park in the driveway or have a bonfire as there is nowhere else to push the stuff:

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Shortly after the Oscars began, the power went out.  For 21 hours.  Since we have a woodstove and gas range, this isn’t too big a deal.  Except the water pump is electric.  That means each toilet has one flush.  Ooops.  So what to do?  Well….melt snow! All this barely made a dent in the mound on the front porch steps:200902blogbigsnow008

Then there is the mailbox…see that lump in the middle…that’s it!

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The boys were at first at a loss without iPod (battery gave out), cell phone for texting (ditto), laptop (ditto), internet….so they got out the board games and I treated myself to reading a fluff quilty novel! Paul slept or read. Then, at some point, I discovered we had a scant half-loaf of bread, so decided to bake some.  I had forgotten that while we can light the burners (they have knobs), the oven does NOT have a knob.  So I had 12 cups of flour (4 loaves) kneaded, risen, punched down, and formed into rapidly rising loaves.  What to do????  Well, I figured if I could find a metal box (yeah right) I could improvise an oven…Paul’s thermometer on the stovetop tells him when the surface is 500, where he keeps it.  I needed a 375 degree oven.  So….I thunk on it….the canning pot!   Down to the basement.  But the bread would burn on the bottom…hmmm… my sad iron trivet…kinda like this … under the pan.

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And here’s the improvised oven:

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Guess what…It WORKED!

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And one of my favorite pics just because….the ancient bike on the deck:

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8 Responses to “Even MORE snow…and baking bread on top of the woodstove!”

  1. Shirley Goodwin Says:

    Wow! Amazing photos, and what a snowstorm! We are just finishing up summer here in New Zealand.

  2. Marie Says:

    WoW1
    Now THAT’S a snow storm !
    Great job on the bread too !

  3. Gari Says:

    We are finally beginning to experience Spring here in AL: I can’t believe you are still in mid-winter up there. Love your new oven. LOL

  4. Fitzy Says:

    The one of the front of your house looks like a Christmas card. Heavens, is this what you do when we’re breaking heat records? I’ve already set my “no hosery past 90 degrees rule” into effect, lol.

    I think I smell that bread all the way over here.

  5. LoieJ Says:

    I’m guessing your snow is wetter than ours usually is. We have lots too. Just think how good this is for the earth and plants. I’d rather have the snow last longer and the mud season last shorter.

  6. Lisa Coulombe Says:

    Wonderful pictures! They make me remember some of the fun times growing up in Maine. I do miss how beautiful everything is, but I don’t miss the cold or the snow! Thanks for sharing.

  7. Gretchen Says:

    WOW! That’s a lot of snow!!!! Congrats on you channeling a pioneer spirit and baking bread on top of the oven. YUM! It looks great.

  8. Priscilla Kennedy Says:

    Finally got to see these pics. What a cutie Wideon is and he loves the snow. Good for him! Our mini Schaunazer gets a spot shovelled for her…the snow sticks to her fur and she does not like that. Oh well.