Chapter 28

The next mornin’, we woke up to a heavy snow. It were comin’ down purty hard and the wind sounded like a banshee a wailin’ through the trees.

I had to fight the wind, just gettin’ to the barn to feed the horses. When I got there, they were all parked up next to the south side of the barn, outta the wind.

When I got back from the barn, Lisa were sittin’ at the table, sippin’ on a cup of coffee.

“Looks like its bad out there.” She said, as I entered the room.

As I shook the snow off my coat, I answered.

“Yea, it’s blowin’ purty hard. The snow is already startin’ to drift heavy on the south side of the barn.

She nodded her head, and asked, “Are we going to be able to get out today?”

“I doubt it, from the looks of it, it’s gonna be a purty good storm. We’d best just park ourselves inside til it blows over.”

I poured myself a cup a coffee and sat down at the table.

“I guess we ought to call the office and let them know we’re out of commission up here.” Lisa said, as she stood up.

I nodded my head and she went over to the phone and called.

I took another sip of coffee and went to hunt up Angel. She were still in bed, all snuggled up, under a pile of quilts. I stood there and watched her for a moment, then went back to the kitchen.

Lisa had just hung up the phone when I came in. She sat down at the table, took a sip of her coffee, and then said, “I talked to Dave. He said they’re not getting much snow down in town. He agreed with you, we don’t need to be going out, unless we really need to.”

Well, unless someone were plum crazy, they wouldn’t be a goin’ out in this stuff, no way no how. I just nodded my head.

We lost the electric a bit after noon, so I had to fight my way to the barn and get the generator started. My dad had put it in while I were in the Army. I’ll say one thin’, it sure beat the hell outta freezin’ to death. The propane tank were near full, so we could run the generator and heat the house with no problem; we could pro’lly go three-four weeks with what we had.

It finally quit snowin’ early the next day. There were pro’lly a foot and a half of snow on the level spots. The wind had pushed a six-foot drift across my road, leadin’ to the highway. By ten, I’d hooked up the plow and the front loader to the old tractor and dug and plowed it out.

When I got to the highway, the county snowplow hadn’t been by yet, but I thought I could get out without much problem. The wind had been out of the north, and the road usually only got covered with drifts if’n it came from the west. Actually, the road had less snow on it because the wind had blowed much of it away. I figured I could make it into town without too many problems.

After I put the tractor away, I took the truck to the barn and put some bags of sand in the back to give me some extra weight so the back tires would bite into the snow better. I also made sure that the chains for the truck and Bronco were loaded and ready to use in case we had to go somewhere.

When I got back, Lisa were already dressed in her sheriff’s outfit.

“Now where you a goin’?” I asked, as I came in the front door.

“We need to get out and make sure everyone up here is OK. You think my Bronco will make it through the snow?”

“Yea, just put ‘er in four wheel drive and take it slow. You should be alright.” If’n you start sliding around too much, you’re gonna have to put the chains on your Bronco.

She nodded her head and headed for the Bronco.

I hunted up my badge and figured I’d do the same. When I got to my truck, Lisa was just gettin’ ready to pull out.

I walked up to the Bronco, and she rolled the window down.

“Hey, I’m gonna check with yah. Why don’t you head for Hahn’s Peak and I’ll check the road south towards Clark.”