' Never Picture Perfect: The Big Thaw

Saturday brought a slow, steady, cold rain rather than snow, thankfully. The temperature hovered right above freezing and it stayed a dreary, sunless day. I have several buckets and water troughs around that ended up with around 4 inches of water when all was said and done. If that had been the powder we normally get here, we'd be looking at 4 feet of snow. At that, I count my blessings! This is the wettest snow we've seen in our two years here. Normally the snow falls as such a dry powder, that one could potentially "shovel" the driveway with a leaf blower. But this snow was a beautiful, large-flake snow, the kind I love to watch.

As darkness settled in, I finished up chores and headed toward the warmth of the house. I stood quietly in the darkness and listened to the run off; a new sound, the sound of babbling steams filled the air. Soothing, it immediately carried me off to my childhood and the creek I played in as a kid. Catching crawdads, finding buffalo bones and arrowheads, and sifting fine gravel sure I would find gold or something equally exciting. I'm brought back to reality by the gentle mooing of Chance as she settles into her rest in the barn. The voice of the water makes me wonder if all of Blue Mountain isn't running down across my land.

Today as we headed to church we noticed some of the weather's effects. Like a voracious lion on a wildebeest, the run off has eaten deep ruts into the roads, in some places as much as 6-8 inches deep as it gathered its momentum. With incredible timing the road association had already scheduled road blading for today and the grader was busy at work by the time we headed for home. Hopefully the run off has slowed enough that the work will not be undone, as the dues that are collected only equal enough to blade it twice a year.

The sun has decided to come out after being hidden for two days...unusual for us. The snow continues to melt and I am happy that the retention areas are full enough that I don't have to haul water to the calves for at least a few days. With temps scheduled to be in the 70's for most of next week I think things will really green up by next week end. At times I have to remind myself that the storms in life are what bring future growth and abundance. I guess I'm happy for the snow after all.

We've rarely have water in here unless we've had a heavey rain. Its about 3 ft deep at the deepest. As of this afternoon, about 80% of Friday's snow has melted.

Another retention area at the south east end of the pasture. We've never seen water in here in the 2 years we've been here. Its a good 5 ft deep at the center. We're still in process on the fence. We've got all strands strung, but only the bottom two tightened. It looks a bit sloppy because of it.