26 Inches!!!

We woke up Saturday morning to 26 inches of snow.  It took my husband and me over an hour and a half to get to the barn to feed the horses. We were using his mighty new John Deere tractor with the world’s largest snow blower, but the drifts were shoulder high and the snow was so wet that it was hard to move it. All day, we plowed and shoveled and in the end, I must say we did a very nice job of clearing paths and runways so we can move through the white mountains.  Now, we are getting freezing rain, which is going to turn to plain old rain.

This is the recipe for true disaster around here. When we have a lot of snow and the rain can’t drain into the ditches, the barn floods.  So far, we are on the edge of the rain on the weather map. I honestly wish we would have more snow instead of the rain.  I’ve just mucked and fed and chopped up the icy patches, and it’s only 7:30 am, so I hope I’ve got a jump on it.  My friends in California are all checking in with wisecracks, but I was reading somewhere some quote about how you don’t know how strong you are until you  have no option but to be strong.  My right elbow and arm have held up through all the shoveling, although I was pretty sore on Saturday night.

Yesterday, on Sunday at the crack of dawn, my daughter and I had to go to New York City because she had a very important interview that she did not want to postpone. So, in the dark, we drove down unplowed roads to get to the 95 and brave our way to the closest open train station.  It took double the amount of time it would usually take, and I was loving our old Landcruiser with the four-wheel drive. I felt like it was some kind of dream. We got to Grand Central, walked to the interview, walked back and got on the train and were home in record time.  I was so happy to pull in the beautifully plowed driveway and see my horses standing in their little cleared off runway in the pasture eating hay and my puppy playing with my neighbor who had been babysitting her.

Stella is a riot in the snow. I need to shoot some video of her leaping in the deepest snow banks. She has no fear and as she gets buried over her head, she shoots straight up in the air and launches herself into the next deep spot. Boing, boing! She was loving it, and the best part is that it only takes about ten minutes for her to be completely exhausted. She sleeps on the couch for a few hours and then runs to the back door, ready to have at it for more playtime. It reminds me of how I was when I was a little kid and it snowed.

How many days until Spring?