Let me preface this post with a little information: I spent my early childhood in Connecticut – where it snows in large heaps and then turns to hideous slush. But, i was small and got out of all snow shoveling chores to instead enjoy snowmen and snowball fights. I spent my later childhood from 8 on in southern Oregon on top of a small mountain in the desert. Though generally dry and lacking precipitation, the Winters generally brought a decent accumulation of snow. The best year i remember was 1992 when the snow was deeper than my knees and we used the old Ford to scoop together a most epic snow fort. Memories.
Here in western Oregon folks aren’t used to much snow. My dear husband, being from Houston, TX is most definitely not acclimated to it. Local infrastructure isn’t overly well prepared for snow as the valley rarely gets accumulation. We also happen to drive small foreign hatch back cars. Or own a snow shovel. And live off an unplowed dirt road with just enough of a grade to make driving up hill in slush nearly impossible. All that beign said – we made the best out of the heap of snow that arrived on our farm last week and stuck around for about 5 days. We measured 13 inches before it started to rain and turn to slush. We were very lucky not to have any out buildings crushed under the weight of the snow, and although our pasture is full of two seasonally streams and the basement has several inches of water in it, the creek is staying in its bank and we only lost power for a day – all in all – not bad for such a transformitive weather experience!
Pocket loves the snow, but even she got tired of it after it got deeper than her back. The ducks didn’t mind, but the chickens were fully nonplussed. Our neighbor spotted some cougar tracks along the creek…. so we’re shopping for llamas. And, all the flooding is causing me to change some plans about fencing locations and grazing patterns. Always good to learn before isntalling infrastructure! I am most thankful that the monsoon rain and winds haven’t convinced any of our massive fir trees to topple, and there have been some moments that scared me quite a bit. Cross fingers they all remain standing for the next 50 years!
How is your winter weather treating you? Do you love snow or live in the south so you never have to see it?
