Frigid Air of Winter

Another snowstorm? We still have snow piled everywhere. Drifts that aren’t going away.


A driveway that is impassable.


Paths to the barn.

Christmas night, the wind blew drifts high into the country roads. Electric went off that night until noon, the day after Christmas. Snow plow went down the road on Sunday. Roads were clear to go to work on Monday.

New Years Eve Day had rain and sleet. More snow came New Years Day. Tom was able to go to town Sunday for Caden’s birthday party, as I was recovering from bronchitis.

Then the weather decided to change on Wednesday. The wind was blowing. Snow accumulation was to be 3-6”, which I think we had the higher amount. The wind blew all Wednesday night. I went to sleep hearing the mild train sound outside the window. During the night, I was awake to hear the wind still blowing, and that train sound was still there. We woke to sun.


But that was deceiving.
We woke to blowing drifting snow. 3-6” of snow can still make 4’drifts! Who would imagine that?



Tom tried to go to work. West of our driveway is always drifted, so he decided to go south. North to south roads are always blown clear by the north wind, so why was there a 3’ drift, 20” long, that high centered his Tahoe? He was stuck good, as it only took 2 hours to dig out.


He would no sooner dig out a tire track, then it would blow shut. I guess I knew why there were drifts - the wind came out of the north west! Brrr.

Tom had to take breaks from digging out his car. The wind was frigid on his face. He wouldn’t let me help dig, as he knew the cold air would enter my lungs and make me cough. I was wearing a scarf and still coughed.


The air was frigid. There were ice crystals in the sky. The sunlight reflecting off the ice crystals caused the Sun Dogs.


We didn’t even talk temperature and wind chill. Actually, the day was balmy, at slightly above 0. But with a 35 mph wind, we had deadly wind chills of 35 mph.

Regardless of the temps and wind chill, the horses needed to eat. Micah was to come up tonight to help put out round bales to the big lot and to Duke. But without the grader clearing the road, he was not going to make it home. I bundled up, and went outside to help Tom. We both wore overalls, insulated boots and gloves, and our heads and mouths covered by scarves.



Round bales took longer than expected, as the draw bar handle was beginning to bend and break. We are going on vacation on Saturday, so we wanted to put out 4 round bales instead of 2, plus a reserve. We got the last 2 round bales into the lot, with the help of a screwdriver and pliers to help lower the handle.

Instead of an hour’s worth of chores, we had 2 hours. We were warm until the last ½ hour. The sun was setting and the wind was getting stronger. The wind was frigid on our faces, even though our faces were covered. I started coughing, as the cold air came through the balacava and entered my lungs.

There were more Sun Dogs this afternoon. I didn’t have my camera, but I knew it was cold enough for the phenomena.

I was glad to be done outside. It is amazing how your energy level is decreased when you have been sick. I was cold. I was sweating earlier as I filled the water tanks, but the sweat had cooled, and so had I.

We have had a wood burning fire going since the day after Christmas. We brought in the last load of firewood tonight. That is all we would need for the night, as we are going on vacation Saturday. I’ll blog about that later. I was just glad to stand in front of the fireplace, soaking up the heat. Tonight is to be a -14, with a -4 as a high tomorrow. Tomorrow night is to be a -20+. The weather is so treacherous that they are recommending people to stay off the roads. That’s fine by us, since we are homebound by drifts!

Will it ever quit snowing so we can ride again???