, but I now realize that my day dream of living in a little log cabin in Montana or Alaska, while still living in Texas because I LOVE Texas, probably wouldn't be very realistic and an entire winter covered in snow does not make for fun ranching.
This kind of weather is hard on livestock. We've had a rough year as it is with no rain and extreme temperatures that fluctuated from -17° to 117°, we are hoping 2012 will be a bit kinder. With 10" of snow, the cattle can't get to feed and with 200 sections, we can't get to all the cattle. DH hauled hay to what he could.
When it started to thaw a few days ago, he would drive around to feed in the mornings and ride horseback, checking things in the afternoon. Thankfully it did not get crazy cold and we didn't have ice everywhere. I did my part by keeping the feathered critters fed:
And our canines are thankful for a fresh bed of hay:
And broken ice:
We really wanted to take the kids skiing, but there was no way DH could get away.
On Christmas Eve, he and DD went to feed and he called. His transmission line broke so DS and I loaded up transmission fluid and the funnel and plowed his way.
Poor guy threw down a tarp and lay in the snow fixing his line:
The road between towns (72 miles) was closed.
The kids turned the situation into a bit of fun until Dad finished mechanic-ing:
I think these 2 have missed each other:
When DS is sweltering in Afghanistan, I will send him these pictures and hopefully they will make him smile:
Back to work:
Since we didn't get to go skiing, we improvised:
This was on the 23rd. It snowed for 2 days after this:
The phone rang again on Christmas day. Christmas day or not, ranchers are on call and DH got stuck while feeding:
So we plowed through the snow once more and pulled him out.
8 comments:
I live in the Estancia Valley, and we finally had temperatures up in the 40's yesterday--meaning where we had 16-20 inches of snow, we're being joined by 6-inch mud. I too am hopeful for more moisture, but two weeks of snow made me really glad for Winter break!
Happy New Year!
Wow...what a beautiful snow..if you get to sit around and look at it. I totally understand the choring in the snow frustration. Thankfully this year, we have not had to plow around in the snow...just mud(again thankful for moisture) and today is inbeliveable weather...60's, sunny and windy. More like March and April!
Have a wonderful New Year's!! Love all the pics too;)
We are enjoying such a nice brown winter here in South Dakota. It has been 50 some days too! It's crazy, but we are loving it. It's so much easier to do chores and takes so much less time. Snow is wonderful moisture-wise. We can wait until later to get ours. I'm so glad you enjoyed playing in it. It was wonderful that your kids were both home for the holidays.
We had a brown Christmas, but got alittle rain the other day. We sell our calves on Mon wish us luck:)
Look how cute those two are! I enjoyed seeing the photos of your children, and all the snow and scenes from the ranch, too!
Love your improvised skiing!! Didn't love seeing your poor dh in the dnow fixing a truck - he has my sympathies and respect!! That is when I think I should be inside sewing LOL - Happy New year!! Let hope its a great one for you!
I so loved this post Karin, especially the photos of your kids..
It looks so cold. We have been having very hot days, in the low forties(celsius). I don't do heat very well, so I had lots of sewing time in front of the air conditioner..
Hope you all keep warm, and hope the animals are okay with all that snow..xx
AH! A white christmas! It is SO beautiful, I miss snow quite a lot. But, I can definitely see how it would make everything you do a lot harder.
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