To Snow or Not to Snow,

Harland will tell you that I am not fond of snow on the ground.  I hate driving in the snow or ice.  I especially hate trying to get in and out of our driveway when it is on the ground.  I find it troubling to hear of all the terrible accidents and injuries due to bad roads.  It's nice to have 4 wheel drive, but some folks think having it makes them invincible on the road. 

When I was still working it seemed snow and ice always came at the most inconvenient times.  Especially when snow came in January.  Since January 31st was the end of the physical year for my employer, it was somewhat frowned upon to hold on to vacation hours until last of the year. Everyone can't be off work the last week of January. But you needed to hang on to a few hours in the event there was a weather emergency.  A true catch 22.

When I was a little girl, we lived in Indiana and Illinois.  I remember that we had a lot of snow.  I am not sure if it now snows more or less than it did then or if it was just my little girl memory of the weather.  We lived in the country, pretty far out on a long dirt road.  If you have never been to that area of the country, let me give you a brief description of the countryside.  It is beautiful gently rolling black dirt farm land.  In the summer, you can drive for miles and miles and all you may see are rows and rows of crops, usually corn.  But, in the winter, the fields are bare.  When it snowed and the wind would blow it piled the snow against the fence rows along the road in deep drifts.

                                                                                                     (Good representations of my descriptions)

                       

 On those occasions when there was a large accumulation of snow, my dad would have to park his car on the paved road and walk the few miles down the dirt road to get home from work.  Then, walk back to the car to go to work.  At the time we were living in eastern Illinois, but near the Indiana line. I was probably in the first or second grade about that time.  On one particular afternoon after a lot of snowfall,  daddy was preparing to go to work and I decided I wanted to go spend the night with my grandma, his mother.  They lived just outside of West Terre Haute in west central Indiana.  After
much ado and my insistence momma and daddy gave in and said I could go.  Momma wasn't feeling well and wanted me to stay with her. But, I was determined.  I could go, but daddy said I had to walk to the car, he would not carry me.  I remember being excited about getting to walk with my dad in the snow.  Of course once I got to Grandma's there would be lots of playtime in the snow with my cousins.  They lived next door to Grandma.

So I was bundled up in my warmest clothes, snowsuit, rubber boots, extra socks, coat and gloves.  Yeah you've seen this picture.  I was bundled up where I could barely move.  After we set out walking toward the car, daddy's instructions were for me to follow directly behind him and step into his footsteps he made in the snow.  He says he doesn't want me to fall into the drifts.  Okay daddy, whatever you say.  I remember thinking I don't want me to fall in a drift either!  You know it was hard with my little short legs trying to pick up my boots and step from one of his footsteps to the next one. We hadn't gone very far before I was tired.  It was about 3/4 of a mile to the next house on our road.   I made it about that far before my feet were freezing and I was crying to be carried.  So daddy ended up carrying me the rest of the way to his car.  I was cold and still crying, but I was happy.  I was on my way to grandma's house.  Now I realize how terribly hard that must have been for him.  Then he still had to go work all night.  He probably knew the outcome before we took our first steps out into the snow. 

  Remember this picture from A Christmas Story!
                                 

We've had a lot of fun here on the farm in the snow.  We have lots of good hills here to slide down.  When the girls were young Harland would get the old tractor out and pull the us around on the sled.  He would sling us around in a circle and we would laugh until we couldn't catch our breath.  Good times, good memories!  Last winter (2010) when we had that great snow on Christmas day, all the girls and their families were here.  Harland built a fire in the pasture in front of the house.  We pulled everyone around on the sled with the four wheeler and slid down the hills.  Charlie was bundled up.  Once again, so many clothes you can't bend an arm or leg.  But we pulled her around in the wagon.  She was precious.  Again, these are precious memories.

So far this year we haven't even had a dusting of snow at our house.  The next few days are fore casted to inch the daily temperatures into the upper 60s this week and dipping only a little later to the 50s over the next 10 days.  It has been a mild winter so far.  I am not complaining, but the rain has the barn yard a mess with sticky mud.  I can hardly keep my rubber boots on walking through it.

So, this has even me asking, where is winter, where is the snow?