Preparing for Snow

          "What do you do to prepare for snow?" a fellow student at yoga class asked me, knowing that I live in the mountains, remotely.

          Ah, yes. Snow is coming. The weather forecast puts the snow line above my 2600-foot elevation, but I feel snow in the air. I wouldn't be surprised to have snow on the ground when I wake up in the morning.

          So I've been thinking about Evelyn's question. I used to drive my car the half-mile to the paved road at the first sign of possible snow and walk back up the hill secure in knowing that I could always walk to my car and get to the valley because the main road gets plowed. In the last few years, though, I've just taken my chances. If I'm snowed in, I'm snowed in. I can always ski out if I need to.

          But Evelyn's question reminded me that there are things I should do to prepare for snow, so this morning I hauled four wheelbarrow loads of firewood to the front porch.

I took my snow shovel from the tool shed and put it on the porch, in case all that firewood doesn't see me through to snowmelt and I end up wheelbarrowing wood to the porch over snow, after all. I did a week's worth of grocery shopping yesterday, so I have plenty of food. After I hauled the firewood, I tried to charge my emergency battery, but for some reason it wouldn't charge. Mike asked me, when we were talking about Evelyn's question after my yoga class, what I would do if I didn't have any light. "These are long, dark, winter evenings," he reminded me. I would get tired of sleeping so long. Couldn't read. Couldn't knit. Couldn't use the computer. I lived for more than forty years without electricity, but things changed once I built a house with electricity. I no longer have kerosene lamps and don't want to ever use a kerosene lamp again. I do have candles. I wouldn't be entirely without light, but that talk with Mike spurred me to find my large flashlight and charge its battery this afternoon.

          My former neighbor, Sylvia, taught me to fill the bathtub with water as soon as the electricity goes out and to fill pots and bottles, too. That seems smart. I can cook on the wood-burning stove if the electricity goes out, but I think I'll make that beef stroganoff tonight so if it snows and the electricity goes out, I can just heat it up on the wood-burning stove without having to cook a whole meal on it. I do have a backpacker's butane stove, with fuel, but you're not supposed to use it in an enclosed space, and I doubt that I would want to go to the back porch to cook. 

          So I feel pretty prepared. The only other thing to do is make sure my skis are waxed and my ski boots laced. And then, let it snow!