Top Five Things You Need (Or Not) When it Dumps Two Feet of Snow at Your House

We love “top five” lists and think they are a fun way to learn a little something new about a wide variety of subjects. Well, as Central Oregonians, we learned a few lessons last weekend when our town had record snowfall over a 24-hour period. Our experiences last weekend helped us come up with this short list, have anything to add?

5. A snow shovel. Well, not really. Perhaps a John Deer tractor would be more like it. After a short and informal survey of neighbors, and perusing posts from our Facebook friends, shoveling had little to no impact on the conditions of our sidewalks and driveways. The snow was coming down faster than our little arms could shovel it out of the way.

4. A four-wheel drive vehicle. Yeah, it sounds like a good idea right? I mean, after all we live in the mountains. But the reality is that four-wheel drive had little to no impact on our ability to leave our homes. We were snowed in and even the most hardy of vehicles were getting high centered a few feet from the relative safety of our garages.

3. Hot chocolate. An absolute essential. No argument here. A little nip of something stronger to go in it didn’t hurt either – especially after trying to shovel snow and then having your efforts completely obliterated in a matter of minutes.

2. A toboggan, a rope, a four-wheeler and a big person. You see what we’re getting at here. This is what made the snowstorm and inability to leave the neighborhood bearable for the under 10 set. And the teenagers too. And the moms. Okay, everyone had a little fun on our street.

1. Cross country skis and/or snowshoes. With all our friends and neighbors donning handy sporting gear to go get coffee or other essentials, Bend started to feel like a small village in the Alaskan bush. We were waiting for the sled dogs to appear at any time. Then again, breaking trail through this amount of snow might have been more trouble than it was worth.

So there you have it. A few observations from the ground during the biggest snow storm in Central Oregon’s recent history.