HERD ABOUT IT? by ana grarian

This morning is an absolutely gorgeous winter morning. At 7 am the temperature is promising 30F, the sun is shining, the sky a beautiful shade of blue and the jet trails are pink. The wind down here along the base of the hill is negligible. The snow has been shoveled and melted clear so that walking in my Crocs is comfortable.
I must admit that as I get older, the struggle into and out of boots, making it through and over snowbanks, and the prospect of slipping on ice, becomes ever more daunting. I don’t know if it’s getting old that’s doing it, or if I’ve just become spoiled.
Our farmstead had interesting snow drift patterns. On the crest of a high hill, the wind blew our front yard almost completely clear of snow. The top section of the barn driveway would be clear except for what the plow dumped into it. But no matter which way you went, you had to wade through, or over a waist high snow drift, to get to the barn. If we had been sensible, we would have put up snow fencing to counter-act that, but since we had to be dressed in boots and coveralls and hats, gloves etc etc to do chores, we just soldiered through. While I milked and fed, my husband would get the tractor going, plow out for the milk truck, get silage out of the bunk, etc. Ah to be young again and able to manage all those things.

Actually, if we had been able to stay farming, we would still be doing those things and I wouldn’t have become so soft. Last year we had almost no snow and I hardly had to shovel, so this year I’m a little put off by the prospects of digging out my parking space from what the snow plow has pushed in – again. Especially after a freezing rain requiring chopping through the ice first.
Ah well – I am not here to complain, but to extoll the beauty of a crisp and clear winter day. We are forecast to have several days that reach near 40F. That will feel like spring. And though it is just past the New Year, the earlier mornings are already noticeable. Soon I will be up with the birds before 6 o’clock and taking my coffee on the front porch, albeit wrapped in blankets. Spring is holding out it’s promises even as we head into the heaviest snow season. From the snugness of my desk corner I can watch the birds at the feeder, and check out the trail conditions in the ADK’s from my computer. Heck – I can sit back with a mug of hot cocoa and watch the Iditarod, or dream of raising piggies in hoop houses and watching them play in the snow.