Winter is almost over (I think)

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.

35

It's my 35th birthday today, I'm not a big celebrater of birthdays - but it's just like a new year or something.  Time to look back and think about the future.  It's hard for me to believe at times all the crazy things I've had happen to me, some of them my own fault and others completely out of my control.  For the most part though my life has been pretty enjoyable, but for the last seven years I have always been contemplating how to make it better.  My search has lead me to do things I would have never thought possible, being a teacher, farmer, pharmacist, toxicologist, getting married, and a new father again (that's right my wife is due in June!).

I've met so many amazing people in the last seven years - an alcoholic bar owner who sold his bar so he could devote all his time to a charity which sends food to hungry people all over the world.  He is so concerned about putting as much money as possible into food, that he bought a minivan, cut it in half to make a car that would get better gas mileage.  I've met a US congressman that turned out to be one of the nicest people (I don't care a whole lot for politicians).   Another - Earnie Larson - who recently passed away due to pancreatic cancer - showed me how fulfilling helping others really can be.  I could go on for pages and pages, I'm just happy to have known these people, to get to learn something from them.  There are so many people who are so pessimistic about the future of this country and the world, I can say with some certainty that if they knew these three people like I do they would change their minds.  If the nightly news focused on the good that these people do I think that attitude wouldn't even exist, but for now the world focuses on all the bad.

Well anyway - I have to get back to celebrating, I think this year is going to be a good year.

Snowy weekend

Well it's been a pretty busy late fall, early winter.  No sooner did I finish bringing in the last of my potatoes and getting my snow moving things ready did it actually start snowing.  Then it snowed more, and then it got really, really windy.  Today has been sort of a long day cooped up inside.  I've seen worse storms in the almost six years that I've lived out here, but this one I actually had nothing better to do.  Usually I have to work or am gone for some reason.  It's sort of fun just to watch the snow blow and listen to the wind howl.

I keep having the feeling that I never have enough time to do all of the things that I want, I keep thinking that there could be something I could cut out of my life to make more time, but I'm not really sure what that is.  On top of that there is even more that I could do that I end up not doing because I simply don't have the time or energy to get them done.  There is a guy from Stewart who keeps coming after me to join the Lions club and while I think this would be a good thing it's just something else I would probably go into and do half assed and probably let down people just because I can't give it my full effort.

About the only thing that I really do now with any sense of accomplishment is my real job.  I go in there and give my best effort every time.  Even that though lately has been tough, my manager has been making it really hard to enjoy my job.  While I could sit here and complain about all the bad choices he's made and the seeming things he does just to piss me off, I really don't want to go down that road.  I only have to see him for a few short hours each week, but then for the rest of the time I'm there I have to listen to all of my co-workers tell me about all the rude things he does to them.

I guess my batteries are probably pretty low right now and I need something to recharge them what that something is though I'm not really sure.  I'll just hang in there and keep writing and hopefully before long the solution will be clear.

I have seen this door look worse, but not a whole lot.  What's funny is that we had 11 inches of fluff on the ground covering everything and the wind blew all that snow away and put it in piles like this one.

Super sunrise!

I guess I'm not much of an early riser, which is probably why I tend to always look at sunsets with much more interest.  I couldn't help but stand in awe for a few minutes before I had to tear out of the house to get the boys to school and get to work on time.  This was taken on 11/1 about 15 minutes BEFORE the sun came up.  I've seen the sun's rays do some pretty amazing things, but usually the sun is already up and shining.  I'm not sure if there is a name for whatever this is, but it's probably something that very few people ever have seen or if they did taken the time to stand and enjoy it.

Also living out in the middle of nothing like I do I get to see things like this.  My wife one night a year or so ago was very concerned one night when she noticed a big red fiery something on the horizon shortly after sunset.  It turned out to be a full moon rising - something she had never seen before living in the city.  She probably will hit me if she reads this, but I had a good laugh about it.  I wouldn't trade the small spot of heaven in Southern MN that I live in for all the tea in China.