One of the things I love about living in southwesten part of Missouri is
the fact that winters are usually short. Most of the snow we get starts late
December through mid February. The week of Valentine's Day, in a normal year,
we've been known to get a few substantial snowstorms. Mind you, I don't
particularly like having to break ice for the animals or tote water, but I can
live with it.
Ask anyone and you'll hear that the weather has been caddywumpus
the past few years. Last year we barely got any cold weather and not much more
than a dusting of snow and my tulips and daffodils were budding by this time.
This year, however, we've had many of the big storms (10 plus inches) passed us
by—either tracking a bit north or south of us. We've not escaped the snow
and have gotten 3 or 4 inches, which is usually gone in 36 hours. Valentine Day
came with a dusting. Whew!
Well, I breathed too soon. Two days later we got hit with thunder
sleet. That's when the weather starts out warm with rain and temps drop
dramatically and you end up with icy sleet. Thunder and lightning with,
not rain, sleet pebbles. Very strange to hear thunder rumbling across the sky
and snow and sleet falling. They closed down the Fort except for keen and
essential personnel and the kid missed work too. Hubs has had 4 snow days in
the past two weeks. Driving out here, on rarely plowed country roads, is
hazardous.
When it was all done we had probably 3 inches of white on the
ground. Nothing fluffy about this white stuff. It promptly froze into solid sheets
of ice. You know its ice, and not snow, when you see a 1200 lb horse gingerly
walk across it without breaking through and UPS drives up your driveway and
slides to your patio—without breaking through the stuff. You should have seen
him trying to go out my drive. I thought for sure he was going to keep
right on going and end up in the middle of the pasture across road. I was envisioning either an over turned
truck or one of those huge tow trucks having to pull him out of the field. He
merely slid; nose first, into the bank. He got real cozy with the shrubs but
managed to stay upright and with some careful maneuvering, to slip-sliding his
way down the road. Yeah, I was hearing echoes of Paul Simon. It was a real
Kodachrome moment. J
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I watched fresh snow falling while
I worked. The sheets of ice were almost gone but ended up with a few inches of
wet snow on top. In the past two weeks we've had about 3 or 4 days without
snowfall. It could be worse. Forty minutes north they got 19 inches of
snow.
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| Cardinals watching the cats below |
The poor Robins, who arrived just recently, were confused. I don’t
think they got the memo that spring has been delayed by snow. Feeders have had
tons of birds and more than usual. Of course nothing starves at Sia’s house. I've had suet bars for all the feeders and my usual peanut butter bark for the
woodpeckers. I buy cheap peanut butter and stir in sunflower seeds and smear it
in the bark crevices of the huge oak tree out front.
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| Blue Jays thru the window |
The Blue Jays and Woodpeckers argue loudly over territory and the yummy peanut butter. The birds love the snacks and my cats love watching the show perched on the window sills within the warm house.
Today, all the snow is gone (except for some ice piles), but we’re
expecting more tonight. I think spring will be delayed a few more weeks with
all this white stuff and the deep-freeze temps.
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| Last year's apple blossoms. |
