Finally the power is back after the storm

The yard after the storm, Oct 30, 2011

Tree damage

After the storm, Oct 30,2011

The power has finally been restored to us here after being out for almost five days following the crippling snow storm of October 29-30th.  We lost power late Saturday evening and were completely cut off until late Monday.  There was no power, no phone, no water, no cell coverage for days.  Luckily we have a wood stove and kept the temperature up in the house enough to keep the pipes from freezing and keep ourselves somewhat comfortable.  The amount of damage caused by this historic early season snowfall was quite extensive.  The entire area was hit hard with hundreds of thousands without power in this state alone.  We ended up with about 15 inches of very heavy, wet snow that fell on trees still filled with leaves.  The trees could not take all the added weight and broke from the strain.  The entire night into the next morning was spent lying in bed listening to one tree after another break and fall to the ground.  It was certainly a storm to remember and hopefully will not be repeated any time soon.  I did very little birding during this time as I tried to clean up the yard and deal with the issues created by the storm.  The only bird of note was a fly by Pine Siskin on October 30th.  I hope to finally get out again this weekend a bit and see what I can find.  Here is a map of snowfall totals from this historic storm (courtesy of The Weather Channel).