25 Jan Digging Out Our Farm After Winter Storm Jonas

Walking out to fetch the tractor

It took me 7 hours to dig out with our tractor yesterday. Without the tractor, we wouldn’t have reached the street for a week or more. The good thing about being on the farm is that there are plenty of places to dump the snow. We now have eight-foot-high piles that may not dissipate for a month. Tons and tons of snow.

As I plowed, a vulture circled overhead, watching to see what I might uncover. Lots of vultures out here, common as sparrows.

Winter Storm Jonas’s wind was so strong that it blew under and around latched doors, the result of which was a two-inch blanket of fine snow all over our stored and stacked furniture in the barn, my workbench in the shop, and so on. It took Jill two hours to bush clean our stacked and stored furniture.

The barn cats fared well in their house. They have access to the greenhouse during the day, where they bask in the sun. After the storm, they roamed with impunity — and classic curiosity — through the snow. They were able to traverse the snow by sprinting over the surface, a catty kind of snowshoeing.

Jill and I tried to sled today but the snow was too deep. Looks like we’ll need to build a run, maybe using the tractor. We couldn’t do any of this without a tractor.