Saturday, January 18, 2020

Snow whomp

Whew, what a snow whomp we got over the past week!



It was no surprise when our driveway got drifted shut numerous times.


Ditto with the road leading in.


Don and the rest of the neighborhood men joined forces to clear the snow with tractors and plow blades. This photo is of our neighbor D., but everyone else pitched in over the last week as we got dumped on again and again.


Darcy did his part to "melt" some snow.


On one particularly dramatic afternoon, Don and Older Daughter and I took Darcy out walking during heavy sideways-blowing snow.



Can you see the white-on-white snow blowing beyond the tree?


We found out later that, at the height of this storm, our neighbor's cow finally had her calf.


Knowing this baby was due to be born at the exact wrong time of year, they had set up a cozy shelter for mama and baby, complete with heat lamp. The little bull calf is doing fine.



The neighbors' ducks seem to like the snow.


For some reason, the snow has triggered geese flying south. We've seen dozens of formations with hundreds (or thousands) of geese flying out in the last week.


Taking Darcy walking in the field once more required snowshoes.


After walking, it's easier to leave my boots strapped to the snowshoes. I had the bright idea to cover the top of the boots with plastic bags and rubber bands. As it turned out, that was wise.


Much of Darcy's twice-a-day exercise has been chasing snowballs, which means bounding over the fields.



This results in massive "jingle balls" of snow on his fur, some the size of cantaloupes.




Then he drags these into the house and spends the next hour chewing them off his fur, while we periodically scoop up the snowballs and dump them in the sink.



Right now the snow is about 15 inches deep.



So it's a winter wonderland out here, though we're on a slight warming trend. We'll see what the next couple of weeks are like.


4 comments:

  1. I keep our long-haired dachshund's rear, legs and belly trimmed fairly short in winter to cut down on the snowballs.

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  2. My Border Collie mix also has long fur at the back of her rear legs and she will bound into snow drifts and yet has never gotten a snow ball in her 8 year life. Maybe it is the texture of the fur (corse) that prevents this. We also live in N Idaho, boy what a storm we just had.The stuff you see in calendar photos.
    Rita Miller

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  3. I love deep snows. Not because I get out to muck and play in it but because it's time for rich stews, cinnamon rolls, roaring fires hot chocolate. Yes, we get those things off and on the rest of the winter too, but they seem so much better when the snow is deep and the wind is whistling.

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  4. Beautiful scenes. We don't get much snow but I did have a Maltese and he thought that he shouldn't get cold and would try to talk without stepping in the snow. Hilarious. And he would come in with ice/snow balls on his legs.


    Kathy in MS

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