We had about two months in our new house before the snow started. Moving was a whirlwind. This is the biggest move I have made since the 90s. It was made under extreme duress. I was trying to walk after work in the evening to get my bearings learning our new neighborhood and area. On these walks, I noticed a lot of sand.

I didn’t think anything about the sand. I have lived in various places throughout the country. Different parts of this country have different kinds of dirt. When I was in Virigina, the dirt was red clay. On Cape Cod, we had sand. When we were on the New York – Pennsylvania border, the dirt down there was brown – traditional dirt you think of like mud.

Seeing sand, I just figured that was the type of dirt up here. The sand here is different than the sand on the Cape. The sand on the Cape is lighter in color – more tan. The sand here is darker in color – more brown. I just figured that the lighter sand was beach sand and the darker sand was mountain sand. 

No matter what color of sand, it still tracks in the house. I was constantly sweeping the floors before the snow came. 

Now that we are four months into our first North Country winter, I know the sand is not the natural dirt up here. Sand is used on the roads in the winter. 

Our snow total thus far is 22 feet. Our biggest storm dumped 4 feet, followed by another 2 feet two days later. Who knows how much sand has been used on the roads. But there is enough of it being used every winter that it makes it seem like the dirt up here is sand, no matter the time of year. The sand doesn’t ever leave. It just sits as another layer on roads, yards and driveways. 

The snow will melt (eventually), but the sand remains. 

We have a brief warm up this week. We will be reaching the 30s for the first time since November. This is also the first time we have gone more than 48 hours without a winter storm warning for 6-7 inches (or more). 

It is now February. I will admit, I am getting some cabin fever. It has been a long, stressful winter. There were medical appointments that had been scheduled for December that I have had to push to spring due to the weather. 

For the past three months, it has been a challenge to get around. I have struggled to even get my mail from the post office. 

Two weeks ago, I was finally able to get to my preferred grocery store for supplies. It was the first time since late October / early November due to the weather. The location of my preferred store gets hit worse with snow. 

Now that we are more acclimated up here, I have three grocery stores I use depending on the weather. 

The first is my preferred store. My preferred store offers pickup and has all my allergy friendly specialty items for my multiple food allergies. Unfortunately, this store is in an area that tends to be the hardest hit with snow and is the furthest drive for me. 

My secondary store is closer.  The challenge is that I must go in person. While they have some allergy friendly items, they do not have a lot of them. It’s just hard on me physically to do all the shopping in person, especially when I shop for several weeks and the cart is completely full when I go to check out.

My third store is my Hail Mary. It’s the local market, which is close. It’s near the post office and the library. The local market does not have any of my specialty items. It does have basics. For the local market, it works best for me to get about two bags of groceries. I went in an emergency when the roads were too bad for me to get anywhere else. 

A priority I had when we first moved into the house was restocking our emergency supplies, since we used our emergency supplies for the move. Not only did I restock the emergency supplies, but I increased our normal emergency supply by about 50% to try to take in account how much more severe the winters are up here compared to what I am used to. It was a good estimate. 

Many times this winter, I have just done what I call the post office loop because the car needs to be driven. I can’t let the car sit too long. I must get it out and drive it. I drive to the post office because I need to check my mail. The library and local market are nearby. If I can make it to the post office, I do a little loop between the post office and home. I repeat it a few times because the car needs to be driven. That way the car gets out even though either the visibility or the roads (or both) are too poor to really go anywhere. 

Winter is not over. We are only halfway through February and still have all of March to get through. We are doing ok though. 

We are surrounded by snow. Once the snow is gone, we will be left with the sand. Let’s hope for a slow thaw so that melting snow does not flood.