Stranded Houseguests

We're snowbound with houseguests. Marty stayed at Sadie's last night, but they came to get snow shovels today to clean her flat roof. Then when they brought them back, and Marty was going to leave again with his two passengers, he got stuck in the snow in front of the house. It took four people (me, Keith, Brett and Rose) to push and dig and get him out, after he was stuck in five different places, just in the cul-de-sac. Fortunately, the snow's not so bad on the other roads, and they were headed away from the worst of the snow depth. We're above Juan Tabo, nearer the mountains, and have like two feet of snow. The cars after Keith cleaned off all but the roofs today. We have a houseguest who drove down from Colorado Springs on Wednesday, planning to return Friday. We have a teen who was delivered here to play Encore Thursday night and is still here. Keith and Holly and I had planned to go to Alamogordo to see his parents, but stayed because of snow and houseguests. Starting last night we picked up another strandee, who couldn't get his car out but didn't have to work anyway because his place of business (and many others) stayed closed. It's been kind of like a party, though. We had enough food, and extra excuse to cook and eat together, and have been playing cards and board games. Last night five of us were in the hot tub and four (all but me) kept getting out, diving into the snow, rolling around and then getting back in the hot water. Or Holly would go under a tree or a stand of bamboo and shake the snow down onto herself. Earlier, I had thrown sticks of firewood up in the tree that's above the hot tub, hoping to knock the snow off the branches above the tub. I did knock a lot of snow off. I didn't want it to fall on us when we were in there. Unfortunately, some of the firewood is still up in the tree, though not right over the hot tub. So I reminded Holly not to play in the snow under that particular tree.

This is how much snow can pile up just on stuff like pipes. This isn't as fluffy as the last snow. It's settling and drooping. The shot below is the other corner of that frame, and in the background is the roof of the house, and some of the snow that can stay in a dead apple tree. Lots of snow.