A Doozy
LeAnn posted this blog on Monday, December 10th, 2012 at 3:16 pm
We have been in a fairly severe drought here at Rural Route 2 since last fall. This summer, we only got 150 bales of hay off our five acre hayfield. Last year, we got about 500 bales off the same field.
Many other farmers in this part of Wisconsin have experienced the same decrease in hay yield this year as compared to last year. Some areas were not so bad and got a little more rain than other areas.
This fall has been extremely dry. One farmer said he dug some fenceposts in clay soil (which typically holds moisture quite well) and only found dry clay all the way to the bottom of the posthole.
Often in the fall we will get some snow in November. And in some years, October has even been somewhat snowy.
Not this year.
Until now.
In a 24-hour period over the weekend (Sunday, December 9, 2012) we ended up with 16 inches of lovely snow. Count ‘em. Sixteen inches! It’s really white around here now.
I don't think we will be sitting on the bench for morning coffee at any time soon after the snowstorm on Dec. 9, 2012.
My husband, Randy, plowed snow at 6 p.m. Sunday, and by the time I went out to check on the horses again later, we had gotten about another eight inches. It took me 45 minutes to shovel down to the barn and out to the pastures Monday morning. And that was after I had shoveled Sunday night, too.
After that on Monday morning, it took me another hour to shovel out around my little white truck and the hen house and to get my truck cleaned off and started so the windows could clear of ice. Randy did not get a chance to plow snow again Monday morning before he left for work, so I had a snow day and did not go into the newspaper office.
The snowplow went by about noon, and if the additional eight inches in the driveway was not enough to keep me from getting out, the snowplow certainly piled enough at the end of the driveway to keep my little S-10 from going anywhere. I have a meeting to cover tonight for the newspaper, but Randy will get the snow cleared from the lower driveway after he gets home from work, so I should be all right.
And here’s the crazy thing. I know perfectly well how to drive the tractor. I’m not that great with pushing snow, but I can do it. It’s just that the last time I tried it, the chains came off the tractor tires and there I sat. Fat lot of good *that* did. So I think I will leave that part to my husband. . .
The birdfeeder had a lot of snow Dec. 10, 2012.
Good thing the hens were safe and sound in all that snow (Dec. 2012)
The lilac will have flowers someday. (December 2012)
The barn cats like to climb the tree in the morning while I'm doing chores. Not today. (December 10, 2012)
Newspapers
The newspaper by which I am employed is owned by another newspaper in another town. For two years, the other newspaper was without a reporter, so I was doing double duty, writing for both newspapers. The other newspaper has finally hired another reporter, so I am hoping to have more time for the RR2 blog.
Soon, you will be sick and tired — and tired and sick — of hearing about Selena I and Seleena II, Isabelle, the cats, snow, the garden.
Speaking of the garden, it was pathetic last summer with no rain and two trees sucking what little moisture there was out of the soil. I am moving the garden to the pumpkin patch next year. The pumpkin patch is next to the hayfield. We did not water the pumpkins at all, and they did remarkably well. Now, if I can only figure out how to keep the deer from eating the garden when it is next to the hayfield. . .
LeAnn R. Ralph
Monday, December 10, 2012
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