Sun. Jan. 11th… Snow…………………………… How Nice……

Gee, we got some snow. Now that’s something new!! Add this to what we already have and we’ve got………… simply…… more snow.
Actually, it is rather beautiful out there and since we have no place to go…… there should be no hurry in clearing the snow away. It’s quite nice to just sit here in the house…… next to Vick, on the couch, in front of the pellet stove and suck up the heat and watch TV. We have a few good, old, movies like, Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption and one other I can’t remember, which we just bought in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart last week.
We just got in from feeding and watering all the critters, gathering eggs and wading snow. We went from the barn to the house, dropped the duck and turkey eggs, which we keep separate from the chicken eggs and then went out to the scrap lumber pile, where I scrapped off the snow and made a hole down into the middle of the pile of old board scraps and dumped a little diesels fuel in and lit it. I hope it takes, because that will end the scrap lumber pile problem and without worrying about it spreading into the woods, etc. It’s the only ugly thing lurking around the farm which is an eye sore that we don’t feel the neighbors should have to look at. So, if it catches and burns……… good riddance to it.
Ahhhh.. Haaaah!!! It burned…it burned… now the ugly pile is gone!
The wood took off and got hot enough in under the pile to overcome the melting snow on top. The heavy 15” snow cover on top helped to buffer the flames and kept the fire from getting out of hand. I’m sure the cars driving by as the flames reached twenty-five feet into the air and swirls of black smoke jettisoning upward at the height of the burning, probably thought the fire was positively out of hand, but I knew better. Being a fire chief for many years in Pennsylvania, in my younger years, taught me to assess the potential of BTU suppression with snow cover. All you must do to control a fire is to master the fuel, or the temperature of said fuel or be able to seal off the oxygen needed for combustion. I knew I could drop the BTU’s of the fuel in a heartbeat by shoveling snow into the fire…….and the availability of the snow far exceeded the amount of heated fuel to cool. I assured Vicki that everything was under control and that I could slow the fire at any given moment. That helped her to relax a bit and enjoy knowing that the ugly pile was leaving before spring and we wouldn’t have to burn it then with bare woods.
I guess I could go out and run the snow blower around the driveway so it appears as though we give a shit if anyone else comes for eggs. Really we don’t care….. Because the car is four wheel drive…… and we wade snow without complaint…… saying God gave us the snow and he’ll take it away when he’s ready, but other folks don’t feel like that and they expect you to clean things up. What a bore….. And it sure makes winter a little less pretty when everything is plowed open. When the snow melts and you have all the mud to deal with, you understand the sins of plowing. We don’t, and we can walk on clean white snow until there is none left and then there is only a short period we have to deal with mud.
Think about it……… I call it wise winter management, which is one reason we can enjoy the snow.
Our friend Robin, from Georgia is going to come on January 26 to stay for eleven days and we are elated!!! Vic hasn't seen her since 2005, so we are both extremely excited about picking her up at the Newark Airport and bringing her home to enjoy her company. We will tour the area and spend some time at Vick’s parent’s and brother’s house, laughing and enjoying her visit. Now we can look forward to Bill, Loraine and Andrew’s visit over the Martin Luther King holiday, and the Robin’s arrival shortly thereafter. We love entertaining and sharing our lives with family and old friends and can’t wait.






The opening picture is a place in Buffalo, NY recently when they go seven feet, one inch of snow in one storm. These pictures are a picture of our real snow fall this time.