Go to the homepage of this site.
Click on Photos - top menu.
Look for Album Titled -
4HR BLITZED BY RECORD SNOW STORM

More photos will be posted.
Please feel free to post your own!

Sherrian

AWESOME! - Thank you Sherrian! We had of course heard of the storm. And while for now Im grateful to be here in FL. - We look forward ( believe it or not ) - to the days and nights that we will spend in 4 hills.
You see...We WANT to be there and cant - so for us - your pictures are a little glimpse of our future! THANK YOU!

I could not open the web site. Could you write it out along with having the hyperlink?

Thank you,

Mark

Dan,
I've got more photos but lately there's no time to upload them. We're having serious water pump problems and frozen water lines. Bruce has been working on the problem for days (since before Xmas) and so far he has had limited success restoring the water to the house.
He told me to find a plumber but so far no success there either -- they're all busy!

It's beginning to look like we will have to replace the water pump but before doing that Bruce is going to replace the pressure switch.

We're melting snow to wash dishes, water the animals, flush the toilet, and take bird baths. We may be riding into town soon for "hot showers" - before we're slammed with another snow storm which is predicted for today or tomorrow or the next day!

We have plenty of electricity and firewood.
But no running water really makes you feel like you're living in the 1800's!

Talk at you later...

Mark,
Look at the top of the forum page and you will see a link that says "Return to website". This will take you to the homepage on this site. Look at the top menu bar for "photos" - click that - a page will open with several photo folders.

Home Page link: www.4hillsranch.net

Hope this helps!

Sherrian

Thank you for posting the pictures :) Looks pretty. We have not been able to get back to the ranch due to family illness. Is the snow still deep??

Oh man... Im sorry Sherrian! I realized after I posted that how self centered it was. I Understand how difficult the cold an be - once I posted it there was nothing I could do.
If I were there I would offer help, Im pretty good with plumbing and pumps and such. Its what I do for a living. Its difficult not being there - not being able to SEE what the trouble is, but if there is any question I could answer I would certainly do my best.
Feel free to contact me through direct email if ya think I could help: fixit9112010@yahoo.com
Good luck - Obviously dont sweat the pictures. The one you posted is beautiful and is my new background wallpaper on my laptop. Good luck!

Thank you very much.

Mark

This response goes to Darleen, Dan and Mark:

The snow is beginning to melt slowly. The roads are getting slushy and slippery. The one snow plowing we did helped but we really needed to have plowed again after the second snowfall. This would have allowed the roads to dry out faster.

The grader guy attempted to plow Latigo/S. Rising Sun after the second snowfall but encountered problems when he got to Cataract Canyon.
Patches of snow had turned to ice and the grader simply could not make it up the hill.

It looks like we may have to divide the plowing work in the future and hire two differenct contractors to plow the roads so they don't have to deal with crossing Cataract. This would make the work go faster and possibly save us some time and money.

For those of us who live here full time we have learned it's important to get the snow off the road to prevent serious road damage to the existing road beds (roads which the POA has already spent tons of money on). If we remove the snow it's for sure we can reduce the amount of repair work when we begin our Spring blading.

Yesterday another owner/neighbor (Winifred Jordan)and I drove to Williams. We took Espee Rd. out to Hwy 64. Espee was in excellent condition because the county cleaned off all of the snow - we didn't encounter any muddy areas!

We took a detour on our way back home via Pronghorn Rd. and found that road was just like Espee - clean and dry.

I took some photos of Espee, Pronghorn, and 4HR and will post them soon.

We still have plenty of snow on the ground maybe 2 to 3 inches deep depending on where you are on 4HR.

Our plumbing saga continues.
Bruce has been working with the plumbers for days now. We thought the problem was resolved the other day (12/30) after they installed a brand new pump and fixed the leak from a control valve under the house that had broken loose.
We had water for 18 hours!
Then nothing... the plumber, Gabe, came back out and was baffled. He finally decided the pump was defective and said he would return Jan. 2nd with a new one.

Bruce started monitoring the water level in our cistern after we lost 2000 gallons of water in 4 days. So far the cistern does not seem to be leaking.

We have our fingers crossed that Gabe will be able to resolve our problems soon!
Gabe is a local guy - very friendly and patient.
He came highly recommended by other locals who have worked with him over the years. He acquired his skills from his dad, Gabe Sr., who retired a few years back.

We are hauling water from our above ground tanks. Each evening, Bruce hauls about 40 gallons from the tanks to the house for us to use for drinking/cooking, washing dishes, flushing toilets, and taking baths. We've been filling a 2 gallon kettle with warm water and showering with that. If we don't get running water today then I'm going to retrieve the old solar shower bag from the storage area. This should make bathing a much happier experience for all of us.

Dan, we appreciate your offer to help and Bruce may call you if things don't get worked out soon. Hope you continue to enjoy warm/dry days in FL... Let us know when you're headed this way again.

Sherrian

Just a thought there is a camping shower that uses a small heater and a water pump connected with short sections of hose that you could use at home drawing from one of your portable water containers to shower.
I know some of the RV and camping stores have them.
It works when there isn't a regular shower available.

Dirk,
Thanks for the tip. Sounds like a handy device.
I'll look for one to have on hand just in case we have to do this again.

Finally on Jan 2nd our running water was restored.
The plumber replaced the first new pump and no one could find any other leaks. Thank Goodness!

Correction on my previous post:
We still have 2 to 13 inches of snow depending on where you are standing. The snow melt is going slow because the tempertures are in the 40's during the day.

Roads are a bit slushy with a few muddy patches that make it difficult to drive through. So far no one has reported getting stuck.

HMR is going to begin blading their roads this week, then the contractor will head over to 4HR next week to clean up our roads.

I posted a few more pictures in various folders.
Hope to get the most recent photos uploaded this week.

Thanks again and stay warm!

Sherrian