Posted By FarmerJ on January 13, 2010

After experiencing two blizzards and record-breaking snowfall in December, followed by record-breaking sub-zero temperatures the first half of January, it seems we are having a heat wave!  The forecast for the next week calls for temperatures in the low 40′s ~ even the lows are warmer [much warmer] than the highs were a week ago.  I’m stoked!

I thought I’d share some photos Darling Husbie took a couple of days ago.  The one above shows a portion of a very peculiar drift that runs all the way across the property on the west side of the barn house.  The bare grass you see is not the result of our doing ~ it’s just an example of the freak of nature the wind in these storms brought with it.  The front drift is nearly 3′ deep, while the ‘wave’ right behind it is nearly 4′ deep.  There’s at least one little evergreen completely buried at the end of that row of trees.

This is a ginormous drift located at the entry to the north drive ~ it takes you to the back side of the house and to Darling Husbie’s shop.  It is our current Farmstead placeholder ~ “Just turn right at the gargantuan snow drift.  You can’t miss it.”

This is a view of the ocean of drifts standing between the house and Husbie’s shop looking back to the road [and the gargantuan gate guard, which is way down there on the left].  My poor, poor Darling Husbie has braved the sub-zero temperatures in Tym’s heated cab with beverage in cup holder at least three times now trying to keep this drive open.  He’s got a week and a half before it needs to be cleared again so the guys can get their truck to the trash dumpster ~ I’ll have to see if I can coax him into getting some more seat time…it will be tough, though, so wish me luck!

Once you get over that ocean of drifts, this is the view of the slough located behind Husbie’s shop.  We saw it full of water our first summer here ~ now we get to see it full of snow.  The way the snow is level, you’d never know there’s the potential to sink into 4′ of snow if you were to walk across the slough!

This is looking at the walkway and drive between Husbie’s shop and the house.  If you were to “just turn right at the gargantuan snow drift” and if you were able to cross the ocean of drifts down that drive, you could keep on driving between the house and the shop and get to the west slough and the alfalfa field.  If you look at the extreme right of this photo, just about vertically centered, you’ll see a little black ‘thing’ sticking up out of the snow.  Well, that is the big stake the two boys-enberries stuck in the ground when they dug down to the snowmobile.  The snowmobile is somewhere near that stake, completely out of sight once again.

And this, well, this is all that’s remaining of the storm shelter.  There’s usually about 4′ of shelter above ground.  The vent tube is on the roof, and it has a twin on the other side…somewhere under the snow.  I guess the storm shelter was seeking shelter from the storm.  [Oy!  That was really corny.  Sorry.]

Last, but not least, the girls feel confident enough [Abigail without her sweater and coat, even!] to brave the snow in search of the elusive vole.  Trust me, no vole was harmed in the taking of this picture!

So, as you can see, we’ll have plenty of white stuff to get us through a few more weeks.  It won’t break my heart if no more were to fall from the sky, but that is just wishful thinking.  After all, we’re only in the middle of January…and this is Nebraska.

I will, however, be thrilled watching as much as possible melt in our 40 degree weather ~ and praying for patience…as here comes the mud.  ♥

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