How much snow? - Winter 2012

This picture of our camper and the pile of snow which we blew out of our driveway, was taken on January 17, 2012.

And then MORE snow came and came and came.
The pictures below were taken on February 29, 2012.

I wish I had thought to take a picture of my neighbor one day when he was out with his snow blower. He had on a Hawaiian short sleeve shirt (no coat) and was blowing 12" of snow off of his sidewalk! Only in Alaska!

Doug has tried to keep our little Ford Festiva unburied.

Doug stands head and shoulders above our mailboxes.
The packed snow he is standing on is about 2.5 feet deep.
Even I can see over top of the mailboxes right now!

We went to Thomas' house last week. (Remember Thomas? - many of you sent postcards to him.) Thomas has three brothers. He and his two older brothers built a cool snow fort in their yard. They just had to tunnel through the huge drift where the snow from their driveway had been piled. His older brothers also have a snowboarding jump ramp in the yard.

It was bitterly cold here for several weeks in January. But now that the temperatures are more moderate (in the 20's - I know you folks in Nebraska don't know what that is like this winter!), we have been able to get in a lot of cross country skiing the last few weeks. Having this much snow is great for outdoor activities like skiing and fort-building. Anchorage has had a LOT more snow that we have had this winter. They need only 3" to break their record. We are thankful that we haven't had as much as they have had. So far 14 roofs have collapsed under the weight of the snow - everything from loading dock roofs, to private homes, to church auditoriums. Two firefighters were hurt when there was a collapse at a fire that they were fighting. One of them was buried under an estimated 6 tons of debris and snow. Miraculously, he was only in the hospital for a couple of days.