I suppose I should give you the Christmas update:
Sunday started our first blizzard of the year. We barely got evening chores done when the wind got nasty and the snowfall got heavier. Shortly after 5 PM, the electricity was flickering off and on and off again. By 6 PM it went off and stayed off. The storm just got worse. I think our low temperature was around +4 degrees, but with gusts to 70 mph, that put the wind chill somewhere around -30F and with no lights, we had no choice but to just go to bed. Even though the snow stopped Monday morning and the blizzard was officially over, the wind persisted through the whole day and you still couldn't see for all the blowing snow. The electricity came on just after 7 AM and went back off around 9 AM and stayed off. Getting out of the house Monday morning was a real chore. Because neither the north or south doors could be opened against the snow drifts. I took the glass and screen off the north screen door, shoved a step stool out into the snow outside and climbed through with the aid of a dining room chair, then shoveled my heart out to get the 2-foot drift off that door so we could get out. The drift against the south door was almost four feet deep and harder packed, so getting the dogs out to potty was a real chore. The snow blower broke on Sunday and the Bobcat can't be started without electricity to jump-start that antique (and about three hours of Mr. Heater because the block heater no longer works, and hey, that requires electricity anyway...), so we waded through some truly nasty crap to get to the barns to feed the critters. (Some of the drifts are about 8-feet deep, but luckily we didn't have to climb those.) The wind, of course, was blowing in our faces at about 40-50 mph and it was rather like standing in a sand blaster. And, of course, with no electricity, the water troughs for horses, cows, and chickens had no heat and the water was frozen. No way to fill them either because our water comes from a well and the pump doesn't work without power. The old generator, by the way, doesn't work and the new one has yet to be connected to anything. Lannie's OCD was rising to fever pitch by then because she could not care for her critters as she demands of herself and her aging knees couldn't climb the drifts and... well, back to the house... no coffee... light the gas burner with a match and heat water (luckily we keep a few gallons for such occasions), but no oven and no microwave... sit and fret for a couple days...
The power was restored about noon today, but I cannot say things are back to "normal" yet. I managed to give all the critters water and food and no one died from this, but I am still thinking we need to move our tired old butts farther south...
It was NOT a Merry Christmas for anyone in North or South Dakota. I-90 was just reopened this afternoon (which is the only part of this storm that made national news), but many many back roads are still totally impassable.
Sorry Eskie. 
