Well it's been a truly busy winter, I usually have come to think that winter time is for resting - recharging the batteries or what ever you want to call it. Not so this winter. Every time I think I have a nice day of rest coming it snows and I spend at least a part of my day moving snow. I suppose it sounds like I'm complaining about the snow, but it's just that I have so many other things to do that the snow moving time is cutting into. Things like getting my taxes done, planning for my crops, getting ready for baby #3. I think officially we are moving into the top 8 snowiest winters on record and based on the forecast we could jump up a few more slots next week. I took a few pictures to illustrate just how much snow we have. The problem I run into is that taking pictures of something that is pure white is really difficult. I've tried the morning and evening, but even with some shadows it really doesn't do any justice to the situation. This picture is on the side of the shed. To give some perspective - the door to the shed is all the way open and it is about 11 feet in the air when it's like that. Also you can see two little heads poking out from the side of the drift. The boys had a blast digging that day.
This picture is of the dog kennel - it finally melted down some so the dogs have light during the day again, but for perspective the lower end of the shed is about 5 feet tall here.
This was my attempt to try and capture just how much snow there is out in the open fields. Unless you've lived out in the country for a while this picture doesn't really do any justice to our snow pack. Usually open plowed fields have black chunks of dirt sticking up all over. They only look nice after a fresh blanket of snow has fallen - this was taken after the wind finally calmed down and you can see it looks pretty flat. It almost looks like an ocean with frozen waves in it. Pictures just don't really capture the beauty of it.
Even with my truck in the picture the giant piles of snow aren't truly appreciated. This part of the road is totally flat - there isn't even much of a ditch here, but yet the snow plows can't push the snow back any farther and the road gets narrower and each time the wind blows harder and harder to get through until the plows go through. The few miles around me are like this for miles - on one side of the road there are piles five to ten feet tall, at night it feels like you are driving in a tunnel. I've even heard from people who have lived here for years that this is the worst they have seen it. That coming from Minnesotans who always talked about how it snowed more when they were younger or it was always colder when they were little. I get sick of hearing that complaining or bragging (not sure exactly what that is) and it's sort of refreshing to hear that this is now the worst they have seen.
This is sort of a typical drainage ditch. The way the wind blows out here all the snow ends up packed into these ditches. They are usually 30-40 feet wide, this spot is more unusual since many of the ditches are completely full of snow. I've seen these little caves hollowed out on the few days above freezing we've had this winter, part of me just wants to jump down there and explore inside one of them, but then I remember that the cave is made out of ice and the water at the bottom is probably about 33 degrees and it would probably be pretty cold. Just looking at all of this snow and all of the ditches so full is scary - the amount of flooding we had last year with much less snow was bad enough - I think in a few weeks I will have some even more amazing pictures to post.
So again - I'm not complaining about the snow or the cold or the winter. It has been a long one, but I know that the end is in sight. It's been fun for me to watch the snow I just wish these picture were more telling! It's just spectacular to see the effects of a little frozen water and I truly marvel at just how powerful Mother Nature can be. So even though it is frozen tundra all around me, I am thinking about much warmer weather and getting ready for it. One thing I have been doing is painting. I was inspired to paint my bees boxes a different color, I thought they would think yellow would be a fun color. This is my supply of honey supers which aren't put on until late May. These are the shorter boxes which are much easier to move around after the bees fill them up with their hard work. As for my girls, I'm not 100% sure how they did this winter yet. I do know that 1 of my 3 hives did not make it. They basically starved to death, they moved to the top box which wasn't quite full enough of honey and they got stuck on a frame that wasn't completely done and died on a cold night. The hive right next to that one is struggling for the same reason and I am hoping that they were able to make it through the recent cold snap. The last hive is doing quite well and also made it through last winter, so I'm less worried about them. It still amazes me how they are able to survive the bitter cold. What's even more amazing is that right now with the outside temp at 12 degrees they have small spot on the inside of their hive warmed up to about 85-90 degrees to keep the eggs they are starting to lay warm. I'm hoping to start writing more now that I have been doing more with my "farm." I hope I will have good news about the bees as well.
