A February Blizzard

February 20. 2014, the calm before the storm.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  Lindsay Nettell delivered 11 cords of firewood to us that morning.  He was trying to make as many firewood deliveries as possible that day because the forecasted storm would fill all his logging roads in the woods and he would be unable to get logs out for some time.

I thought the mat on our road would be hard enough to support a logging truck with no trouble, but the tires dug deep ruts, particularly at the end of the driveway.  Since we hadn't had a thaw all winter, the snow had just been compacted.  In a normal winter with several thaws, the mat would go through a couple of thaw/freeeze cyles and be much stronger.  Fortunately, Jonathan was able to blow away the broken snow with the tractor and remove the ruts...

....because the next day we got this.

A foot and a half of heavy, dense snow.

Blizzard?  No problem if you're properly dressed.

The sheep must be fed.

But first I had to dig out the drift in front of the hayshed door.

Forking hay into the feeder

Visibility during a snowstorm isn't quite what it is on a sunny day.

Once I put fresh straw into his doghouse, Kalevi was happy to go into his doghouse.

Fetching fresh eggs from the henhouse.

Looking out the window in the old kitchen. Claustrophobic beauty.  Kinda like admiring a big snake that is swallowing you.