Be Careful What You Wish For! 
February 22, 2018
This has been an unusually warm and dry winter.  No snow for Christmas.  Very little rain.  We have kept wishing for snow.  We would get a forecast for snow, but nothing would appear.  Disappointment after disappointment.

Not only have we been wishing for snow, but most of the county and a very large part of the state has too.  The ski runs at Mt. Ashland have been bare.  Diamond Lake has not been frozen, so no ice fishermen this season.  Worst of all, without a big snowpack, the river level for the summer looks grim.  In fact, the river was down to June level only a week ago.  Scary for everybody as well as the fish.

Our Workaway helpers left Friday the 16th and Sunday night we got a real snow fall.  YEAH!  But by mid-afternoon Monday it had all melted.  Then it snowed 3" Tuesday night.  Wouldn't you know it -- we had an early morning appointment in Roseburg.  Driving was not too bad.  But again, by Wednesday evening most of the snow had melted.

Well, Wednesday night it really snowed.  4" by the house and 5.5" out near the garden.  WOW!

We seem to have a memory problem.  Why would we wish this kind of work on ourselves?  That much snow means shoveling.  The supply of firewood at the house was getting low.  The forecast for Thursday night a balmy 15!  Yikes.  With temps that low, the snow on the driveway will definitely turn to ice.  So it was time to get into gear.

We needed firewood at the house, but first we needed to shovel the concrete apron.  Then it was off to the barn, to load up the trailer with a lot of madrone firewood.  We want the house to stay warm!





This should last us for a while, well at least 4 or 5 days.

Our driveway bend headed out to the road.
This is the most dangerous area we have to navigate.
The car likes to travel sideways when the snow is too deep.
Here comes the road crew - Nancy and JD.
Driving over the snow with the tractor repeatedly
beats down a nice path for the car.

Great tracks, clear down to gravel in places.

 
The warm weather had convinced the daffodils it was time to bloom.


As for me, I LOVE the snow!
It is just fun, fun, fun!
And is a wonderful thirst quincher.
 
I can dash everywhere.  I can outrun the tractor.  I am fast as a flash.

I run this way . . .
  
Then I run that way . . .



I'm so fast, you can hardly photograph me!

Once the road work was finished, it was time to pay the greenhouse a visit.  We have a few of the earliest seedlings started already.  The little plants were not cold.  For several days we have been running a small electric heater in there in addition to grow lights.  But the plants were thirsty.




Inside the greenhouse the basil seedlings are wrapped in a blanket, with warmth above and below.
The plants outside have a blanket too, just a different one.


You can see the snow is starting to slide off the greenhouse roof. 
It is almost toasty in there.
But not as toasty as inside