Tuesday, February 28, 2017

White white and more white

We're having another blast of winter here. Yesterday it snowed the blessed day long; and we got a fair bit of snow the day before that as well. With a light wind whipping the flakes everywhere, we also have drifts. Whoo-hoo.


The beasties are in the "endurance" stage. As in, "Let's just get through this -- one more time."


There's a huge butte in the distance. Can you see it? Neither can I.


Whenever Lydia comes in from a walk...


...she has massive jingle balls of snow on her feet.


It's dramatic, yeah. It's pretty, yeah. But, well, we've seen a lot of the white stuff this winter.



By the way, here's another photo of that invisible butte in the distance again.


This morning we were buried. Again.



Drifts ranged from three to six feet high.




Sigh. The water tap in the corral was buried again.


The snow was up to the shop window.


But at least it's soft snow, so digging out the tap wasn't hard.


Don fired up the tractor and prepared to push snow around...


...but for the moment, our road is drifted shut. No one's going anywhere. "My online city friends are baffled by this,” observed Younger Daughter. “They say, ‘Well can’t you just take a bus?’ Aww, that’s so cute.” The nearest bus service is four miles away. By foot. (Or snowshoes.)

Yet the siren call of spring is starting up. Yesterday I stepped outside and heard robins, blackbirds, and wrens all singing amidst the snow. Doubtless they're even more impatient for green than I am.

These are blackbirds gathering optimistically in a treetop under a bleary sun.


Ironically the temperatures are supposed to rise to 40F for the rest of the week.


I guess all we have to do is wait.

20 comments:

  1. I know you must be inundated with projects as am I whenever anyone lives in the country, but as I see your photos it occurred to me that it is possible to put a connection for your spigot so that it can also be indoors as outdoors. It is already close to a wall and it could save a ton of time.

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  2. You said the birds were singing....
    How do you know they weren't swearing?

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  3. I learned many winters ago just how much I love the color BROWN!

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  4. When I was a boy on the farm back in Illinois, we used to welcome the snow. When it would melt and that usually happened slowly it meant moisture in the soil for the crops that year.

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  5. We haven't had much of a winter here yet - can you ship some of it our way?
    Chemechie

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  6. My husband always says it is good for the grass :(

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  7. My husband says it is good for the grass. I known he is correct but :(

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  8. Please send some snow our way in Virginia. It's been really mild here. Today is 70 degrees and two weeks ago I got stung by a bee! It's crazy that the bees are out in the middle of February. Enjoy the snow.

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  9. how about you erect a little a-frame over the spigot?

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  10. Like the comment about your "city" friends saying can't you just take the bus....Ha Ha Ha Ha.... It's that type thinking and sooo far out of touch with reality which is why they predominantly vote along liberal. And live in the city.
    Just think, it was not that many years ago what you're having was considered a "Normal" winter. And consider how lucky you are to have a tractor to push snow around with as opposed to moving it by hand, harness horses and struggle to pull sleds through it or simply wait till it melts. The beauty of snow it that you don't really have to shovel it cause it will melt eventually. Unlike dirt and rocks.....

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  11. What a timely post. You certainly mirrored my feelings. You have more snow for sure but we've had snow falling the last 4 of 5 days. Very unusual for our metro area and just enough to make a big old mess of things. And more snow coming over the weekend. On the bright side - maybe we won't have water restrictions this summer.
    SJ in Vancouver BC Canada

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  12. I'm moving my family to a 24 acre farm nearby in Kootenai County this summer. We're coming from Texas, where we might get an inch of snow once every few years if we're lucky. I show your snow photos to my boys (10 and 5y/o) who are absolutely THRILLED to be moving to a place where it snows like this. Keep posting. We love to watch what's happening there.

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  13. Wow - that is good! The closest bus route turns a corner off a highway to a street about 7 miles from here.....If you have to be at a "bus stop" it is around 8 miles. Natokadn

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  14. Very mild winter here ( Kentucky) though there have been some serious storms..typical weather for this time of year. A little warmer and stormier than usual, but not off the scale.
    I've rode my bike to work in 8 inches of snow. As long as you're in snow, you' re fine. Packed snow or ice-different story.
    I don't mind snow, really. It's ice I don't care much for.

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  15. Question: Why did your daughter choose a Pioneer Princess wood cookstove for her new house, instead of a Kitchen Queen? Would appreciate very much any comparative insights your family has about these two popular cookstoves.

    Comment: In following up on your remarks about canning bacon strips wrapped in paper, I learned that "masking paper" is used primarily in construction and is probably not food grade. Would suggest that you might want to amend your blog on whole strip bacon canning to note that food grade parchment paper is what should be used.

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    Replies
    1. ???

      I think you meant to direct your comment toward our neighbor Enola Gay's blog:
      http://www.paratusfamilia.com/

      - Patrice

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  16. Patrice, you really have a eye for photography.

    "Can't you just take a bus?" That's funny.
    We like to tell our city friends that the ONLY interstate is 140 miles from us. Imagine trying to convince them that it is the best 140 miles in Montana? City dwellers live in a whole different world.
    Montana Guy

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  17. I looked through the weather predictions in the Farmers Almanac for my area and it said we would have little rain and very little snow in the mountains. They sure got it wrong this year!! I really enjoyed seeing all the pictures. I lived in Ohio snow for 23 years and as I looked at the pictures I could feel the 'feel' of snow and temps. Good memories. COLD memories too! :-) I wonder what all our summers will be like? Sarah

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  18. Ohmygoodness! I'm with you girl! I cannot believe how much snow we have. My eyes are SO needing color. I think I'm suffering from "monochromatitis".

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