you won't read it in the msm, but we're getting hammered here in Maine
Check yer maps. Snowmaggedon went east of NYC and Bahstahn. What's North-East of NYC Bahstahn? We are.
Of course, the msm doesn't care about Maine. I think, like Hawaii, they think we're furriners. Like an outpost of Canada, or something. Ayup.
Anyway, NOAA had predicted 2-4" overnight, and weather.com predicted 5-8 overnight. I stepped out at 8am and it was a minimum of 8". Actually, it was well over my boots, but from the drifting it's hard to say how much really. I'd guess somewhere from 8-12".
In the hour I spent down in the barn, a couple more inches came down, but the snowfall also strengthened in that hour. The wind is steady in the high trees now, with gusts lower down. In the house, I hear periodic howling. One gust early this am shook the whole house.
The ponies are hunkered in the northeast corner of the aisle. It's an "L" shaped aisle, so that corner is really protected for them.
Ha!ha! I called out at work. Their headquarters are in Bahstahn and I was surprised to have a human answer. I expected a machine. Apparently some of them spent the night there. They actually had the gall to send out an email yesterday telling everybody that the financial industry was included in the exceptions to the travel ban. They said if anybody was stopped on their way to work, we were to show them our work badges and tell them -- and I'm really not making this up -- "the mutual fund industry depends on our getting to work." 
When I was leaving last night, my fave co-worker quietly said to "drive safely." I whispered that "I'm not coming in tomorrow." He immediately said he isn't either. His wife is sick, his special needs child is sick. He wasn't risking getting trapped at work, losing power at home and having his sick wife bundle up his sick child and head out into the blizzard trying to get to her mother's house. I said if I get trapped, lose power and my back-up heat doesn't kick on, my animals will die. It's very cold out right now and supposed to be bitter cold tonight -- single digits or maybe below, I don't remember which.
What pissed *everybody* off there is that they have alternatives. There are 3 call centers and 1 of them is not in the path of the storm. They could have directed the calls to that center and put on a recording about experiencing high call volume due to the storm. They could have set up skeleton crews of volunteers, some of whom live within walking distance, and paid them a bonus or put volunteers up in a hotel. But noooo...they expect us to literally risk our lives and the lives of a families.
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We have a drafty old house and when the wind blows it's kind of awful. 
It can almost always be worse.
My snow plower will do my drive after the storm is done, not in the middle. I would have had to shovel 50' of driveway. If I survived that, there's a very good chance I wouldn't have made it there. Coastal 1 has long stretches of very exposed road. I've nearly been blown off that road before. Visibility is poor. Unless I got lucky and landed in the wake of a plow, I probably would have ended up stranded.
And no way I could get safely home in this at 10pm.
It's bitter out. I spent about half an hour setting up the horses, shoveled out the doors before I ended up trapped inside -- and I don't think I've ever seen my face so red once I got back inside. 
I looked like this 
but without the shades or weed 
If I lived nearby, I'd come and help.
I'm a good shoveler 
Delivered an extra bucket of water and warm mash to nosh down on, as a distraction while I dragged the loaded manure tubs out the door. Had a helluva time opening the back barn door. The front door looks worse.
I managed to drag the tubs to the manure pile. Snow was consistently up to my knees -- so somewhere between 16 and 20". But I have no idea how deep it was under my feet. At some point I'll measure my driveway, since that was plowed to the ground. But not until later today.
Anyway, Maizie was covered in 1/2" of snow first thing this morning, which I'd brushed off of her. She was blanketed in more snow, so I brushed it off and this time managed to get the rain sheet on her. The lining will wick out any moisture left in her coat, and then she'll stay dry.
I thought Dahli had been snuggling on me all the time because she was lonely. I figured once Maizie came, she'd forget about me. Turns out she just missed *me* and our "games." 
She's all over me more than before, and is clearly jealous of any attention I give to Maizie. Oh well...now I get loved on by 2 ponies.
Even with the snow.
although it was shirt sleeve weather here in Kansas and has been for a long time, not a good thing at all. Nothing like snow to make your daily farm chores nearly impossible but still, no matter how bad it gets I would not change a thing. Sadly getting older is complicating some of that but it keeps you fit.
Shuddered just reading your posts. I always put mine away so late because I hate the old mare to have to be in her stall for so long and I hate to close the goats in their shed too early and it gets darned cold late at night!
Be well and keep the buckets ice free 
please be careful shoveling--you said your face was red.
shoveling, as you know, can be dangerous (ie: heart attack city) so take it easy & go slow. you've got the day off--just take it easy with the shoveling.
i bet your little pony was glad you showed up to get the snow off her.
stay warm--all of you!
my poor face felt frozen solid! frostbite weather...
but thank you for the concern. when I start the dig out is when I need to be careful. another reason I knew I couldn't make it to work today. to much to dig out in too little time...
my motto is "as much as necessary; as little as possible" I've freed up the house doors. barn doors will be next. then various and sundry paths, with path to oil/gas first!
Hang in there! That's an immense amount of snow drifting. I'd like to see it. No, wait -- I'd like to see pictures of it.
Stay cozy! It sure helps to have the Internet.
I can't imagine a storm that awful--and many more hours to go.
I was flabbergasted when I saw the evening news and it showed clips of what you discuss in your post.
I'm just glad your power is still on and you have a kitty to hug on.
Cher
Glad the ponies are hunkering down.
"The mutual fund industry must go on! Sacrifice yourselves to the gods of trade!"
One of the best things about working from home is not worrying about what the animals get up to, or how you will get home to them in a case like this.
I think you should start a blog about the two mares. You can give daily updates, get feed endorsements and adsense clicks and then a book deal, and later a movie contract.
lol
Hang in there in Maineghanistan!!!! 
The snow piled back up against the door, so I could barely get it open. We followed our earlier tracks along the back of the house. And then they stopped. It didn't look like anybody had walked past the back of the house. The tracks behind the garden were gone. Down the hill, gone. The trench I'd dug dragging 2 loads of manure was barely a ripple along the top of the snow.
I headed into the garage to get a scoop of grain for Maizie. There was a drift against the garage door. When I opened the door, the snow poured into the garage. I couldn't close the door again.
Where I'd cleared snow from the gate was drifted back up again, worse than before. I could barely get the gate open.
Where I'd cleared snow from the back door of the barn was filled back in again. I headed back to get my shovel so I could get in the barn, and realized I was missing a dog. I called for Jake, but didn't see him until I was at the top of the hill. He was huddled in the bare spot next the house, lol. Never made it past the original tracks. So I took him back in.
After watering and feeding the horses -- I left them with a huge pile of hay -- I shoveled out the back door again, then I shoveled out the garage until I could close that door, then I shoveled out the front door again. 
There's no point in trying to clear any more since it just drifts back over.
The snow ranges from about 16" in the driveway to mid-thigh behind my garden and in the pasture. There are a couple bare spots by the house. There are/were 3'+ drifts in front of the front doors, the garage and the shed.
I just checked weather.com says 5-8" more tonight. Then 2 clear days. Then 3-5" on Friday. Then 2 clear days. Then 8-12" on Monday. Winter has officially arrived.
and I wouldn't call that getting "hammered".
They did predict up to 30" in my part of CT so, glad we didn't get that.
It sucks when they're wrong, either way.
Hope everything worked out for you.
I'm honestly not sure how much we got here, due to the drifting.
I'm stalling right now heading back out to work on clearing the barn. I'm not even trying to dig out the paths to the barn. Just hoping that enough traffic will move the snow out of the way and mash it down.
I cleared 2 3' drifts from one front door yesterday; I haven't looked at it yet today. Late yesterday afternoon/early evening I measure 16" in my driveway. I haven't checked it yet today. It runs knee to thigh deep in my pasture, but I'm not touching anywhere near the ground either, lol.
I called my plow-guy. He said it's taking him twice as long to do each driveway. He'll be here sometime this afternoon.
