The first day of February, Oklahoma was hit with a record shattering blizzard. Over 20 inches of snow fell in Tulsa in a matter of hours. I tried to drive the 2.5 miles to the store (in the worst part of the blizzard) to feed our poor animals. I made it half way when I was forced to detour through a parking lot to avoid about 11 cars scattered through the intersection ahead. In the parking lot, I wound up in a deep drift of snow while trying to avoid yet another stuck vehicle. I rocked my truck back and forth, taking breaks to let the transmission cool, for 45 min. When I finally got my truck into sustainable forward momentum, I was pointed toward my house. I took it as a sign and drove the treacherous road home. Two heroic employees of mine walked through thigh deep drifts of snow for a mile to get to my store and feed the babies. It took them over an hour and a half to walk each way! I spent the rest of that day at home with my family who were out of school and off work because of the storm. It is certainly an experience we won't forget soon. The weather stayed bitterly cold and we got even more snow in the following days. I spent my time shuttling people from their homes to work and back. We were open shorter hours due to lack of customers and for the safety of my employees. (The roads were even more dangerous after dark and I didn't want my people out late.) Joey, Joann and I shovelled the back of my building so they could get the door open to take the trash to the dumpster. Also, the back door is a fire exit and it has to be clear when we are open. The snow was drifted to nearly the top of our 8 foot receiving doors. And this was no simple drift. You couldn't even see my dumpster that stands about 4 feet from the door! It was buried in the snow drift that really didn't taper down until you got about 8-10 feet from the building. There it was about 2 feet deep. Even with 3 adults trading off shoveling, we had to take a few breaks to warm up and catch our breath in order to finish. We began about 10 am and cleared one half of my doorway to allow one door to swing out by around 4 in the afternoon. It was nuts! All in all we spent 2 days closed and 2 more days closing early that week. Joey didn't work the whole week and of course the boys didn't have school. In fact, before all the snow was done coming, the boys missed 2 weeks of school! Talk about stir crazy!! They had cabin fever in the worst way! We were all ready for them to get back to school:) We were very blessed through the whole ordeal, though. We had enough warning that I had stocked our pantry and we were not at a loss for food or basic needs the whole time. I was blessed to have all the experience I gained driving on the snow in Utah. I was not the least bit intimidated to get out and drive, even after getting stuck the first day. I had confidence in my truck and our ability to get around and help others. It was great to be able to help my employees when they would have otherwise been unable to work. I was even able to take one of my girls to the grocery store to pick up the birthday cake she had preordered for her son's birthday! It felt great to be able to do that for her. Her apartment complex hadn't been plowed and she had to climb (literally) over 4-5 foot drifts of snow to get to my truck in the road. Crazy! Truly a time we will always remember.
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