Record Storm "ATLAS" Hit The West

Can you see the birds?

Saturday A.M.

The wind was blowin' pretty hard leaving drifts of snow everywhere

Sunday A.M.

The wind took all the snow away to leave us with Mud!

We were not spared on this storm either although we got the light end of it! We ended up with about 3" of snow and temps dropped into the high 20's with no power for 28 hrs and still have no phone. The only reason I have internet is because of Hughesnet! Yesterday the wind came thru and wiped out most of the snow we had on the ground. The surrounding areas not so fortunate, I hear down the road (Gumbo Lily's House) about 32 miles they received 12+" of snow and when we were able to get a signal on cellphone, high a top a hill, Boss' house (Gillette, Wy) had 2 ft. of snow. Here is the rest of the records taken from the news:
Here are more noteworthy measurements since the storm started early Friday, according to Pojorlie:
- 21.5 inches in Rapid City as of 6 a.m. Saturday
- 31 inches one mile southwest of Rapid City as of 7 a.m. Saturday
- 43.5 inches in Lead as of 7:30 pm Friday.
- 26 inches in Spearfish as of 8 p.m. Friday
- 24 inches 8 miles southeast of Bison in Perkins County
- 24 inches in Martin in Bennett County as of 7:20 a.m. Saturday
- 12 inches estimated 4 mile southeast of Faith as of 7:38 a.m.
- 15 inches Wright, Wyo.
- 10 inches in Buffalo
- 9 inches 9 miles southeast of Gillette
A few more articles from the weather center news....
The power is still out for most of the hit areas in South Dakota as they could not get into the main stations to fix the problem. This snow was not a light fluffy snow either, very wet so much so that it caused damage, havoc and chaos! I even read somewhere last night that as much as 80 people were trapped in their cars overnight in Rapid City due to the storm. This same storm brought tornado's to the Nebraska and Iowa folks. One heck of a storm if you ask me!! Welcome to winter!!!
We are expecting lots of trucks to come in and out of here on Tues to pick up cows for the sale. But at this rate that may be postponed for a week. :(

All the while this was happening, we lit up the oil lamps, that are standing ready at a moments notice, built up the fire and settled in for a long night of waiting. Hubby slept out by the fire to keep it going thru the night so we wouldn't freeze up the house.
I made use of the wood stove and baked some oatmeal/raisin bars which didn't last past the next morning.
Recipe:
3/4 C Butter
3/4 C Brown Sugar(I used Splenda Brown Sugar)
1/4 C Granulated Sugar (Again Splenda)
1 C Flour
1/4 Roasted Coconut
1 1/2 C Oatmeal
Cream the sugars and butter together

Mixing by hand, slowly add the flour

Add Oatmeal and Raisins

I ended up having to mix with my built in "mixers"

Spread out by hand "smooshing" the mix into the bottom of the pan (9x 13, greased) *note this will be a thin bar almost like cookie thin*

I baked on the wood stove until I felt the top of the mix was no longer soft....I covered this pan with tinfoil to make better use of the heat.

Took about an hour with temps on the stove sticking around 325-350*

Cut into squares and watch disappear!!!!