I have to confess that a white day on a Saturday creates less stress than on any other day of the week. Kids out of school, no off the farm work requiring a road trip, just the normal craziness of the farm family to enjoy.
Last night it started snowing, oh somewhere around 9:00 or 9:30. Nobody was monitoring the clock. The kids and I were at grandma's house and Wyatt was just finishing up his AR reading for the day. Melody called on the phone and said to go run outside because it was snowing. Two kids and a grandma went out side and the report was 2 flakes per minute. This was enough to slow the final pages of reading down considerably.
Then Melody and Clayton came over about 15 minutes later and they had snow in their hair! At that point Grandma went into sergeant mode. We must move the horses, no waiting, no discussion, the horses have to go to the barn. So she rounded up some troops and moved them from the pasture to the barn.
I don't recall a single mention of the goats who do have dog igloos in their pond enclosure to weather it out in. I also don't think the chickens were given too much consideration. However in defense of the situation, if the chickens are tough enough or dumb enough to roost in the oak tree rather than the 2, count them two, chicken coops we've made for them, then they must be ok to fend for themselves.
So in the light of the car headlights we used to move horses, we decided that it was a good idea to go ahead and have a snowball fight since the white stuff would not likely last until morning. By that time Jonathan was out there too so there were 5 adults and 2 kids all raising the snow up off the porch, the fences, the grass, the cars and so on just about as fast as it was coming down.
We started with those big, no huge, fluffy white flakes floating all around that are about half the size of the palm of your hand. As it was coming down, it was rapidly turning the ground white. This, for around these parts, was a bit unusual as snow typically melts to water as soon as it touches anything. The fluffy snow lasted for as long as we played outside. Then when we came in, it changed to the small, straight down, more like sleet than snow. I was convinced it would be gone by morning and that it was a good thing we had taken the time to play in the dark.
Not sorry to be wrong! The kids got me up this morning with questions about where their snow boots were and did I have a ruler so they could measure how deep the snow is.
Oh, I see the first two brave goats under a tree and now that the corn is out there, I see ducks coming up for a sneak attack. Guess they all survived their first snowstorm. And what else do I see? The horse briggade moving the horses back out of the barn and back to where they were last night. Hmmm. Some things just don't bear too much contemplation.
Got any snow stories or experiences you'd like to share? How about the brainless decisions folks make in the snow? Got any of them?
I can start: I worked at a building supply company the last time we had a big snow. Was that 1989 or '90? At any rate, three very diligent delivery drivers, who had not heard from the boss, made their way into the shop in about a foot of snow. One slid out on the way and had to get roadside assistance (to the tune of $150). Once they all got there, the place was closed up tight. They couldn't understand why they shouldn't have reported to work since the boss didn't call and tell them to stay home. Hmmm. Let me think. Foot of snow on the roads. Ice underneath. Building supply deliveries. Well you can guess how that ended. A week or more of no work for any of us.
Anybody want to take a guess on how much bread and milk is currently in Food Lion? Or did the snow start late enough in the day to nix the trip to the store for emergency rations? Hmm, maybe.
Ok, gotta go. Everybody is outside without me and I don't want to be the only warm body in the house.
Have fun in the snow, be careful, stay home, play outside and enjoy it while it lasts. It'll be another couple of decades before we see this much snow here again!
Melissa
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