The weather has been quite warm for December/January in Kansas. While other people are freaking out, I am glad I don't have to deal with snow this winter.
Snow is quite beautiful (see photo above from last year) but we had snow on the ground for much of the last three winters and I am quite happy to do without it for once. On the warmer days we let the fire in the stove die out and use our winter store of wood less rapidly. The birds don't empty the feeders as quickly in warmer weather, which is good, since drought to the south has made the price of black oil sunflower seeds jump by almost 50 percent.
My husband has not put the chains on the tractor yet because he has not had to clear snow from our long and in one place quite steep driveway. At least last year we had the tractor to clear the snow, unlike the previous years. We bought the chains after the first major snow last winter, because our small tractor is not heavy enough get the necessary traction to completely climb the steepest part of the driveway in packed snow. It slid backward down the long, steep hill. Sliding backward downhill with no steering control, a pond on one side and a rather deep ditch on the other side is exciting, to say the least.
Anyway -- no ice storms putting the power out for a week (December 2007), no Christmas Eve blizzards (driving home in that was "fun"), no getting stuck in the new snow at the driveway entrance (fortunately, the wind had died and the full moon came out, so the quarter mile walk to the house was actually quite pleasant).
I will take this weather, thank you very much... this year. Just bring on a bit of rain, please.
2 comments:
I remember my father using snow chains on the family Singer Gazelle when I was a child - and I used them myself before I learned how to avoid having to travel in anything deep enough to need them.
It's been a windy winter here so far - mild but blowing gales. Peculiar!
Peculiar is the normal state of affairs for weather here in Kansas.
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