Winter Storm "Rocky"

Winter Storm Rocky, Thunder Snow, Blizzard of Oz, Snowapocolypse 2013...whatever you want to call it, it seems to now be OVER.

The first round found us with 14 inches of snow, give or take. 2 days later, we got another 6-8 dumped on us.

My boys have been out of school for 4 days, home now for 6 straight days, if you count the weekends. I am pretty sure they have NEVER used this many snows days in a year, and certainly not right smack in the row like this.

I have enjoyed having them home with me. I cringed at each snow day, not because of them, just a bit more of the "we are trapped" feelings and disruption of our routine. I am finding the older I get, the more lost I become without that. 

*I* actually took a snowday yesterday. There was no way anyone was getting up to our door, and I just thought most of my families shouldn't be out anyway. What does one do with a snow day? Well, if your a teenage boy in my house, this means spending a lot of time in your underwear, playing games in the basement. Bedrooms did get cleaned, and Jacob made a double batch of no bake cookies for us.

Front yard, after all the storms were over

(I do have plans to make them get dressed today and make...er...suggest they work on thier 4-H record books just a little bit. And Tristen has a 4-H article to write for the paper.)

For Danny is meant pulling up radar every few minutes, snoozing on the couch, while catching up his TV shows, trips out to the barn to make sure no snow was blowing in on the rabbits, and trying to keep the sidewalk clean.  He had made sure the cows were safe and had plenty of food, having to have a tractor deliver a bale for us, because there was no way he was getting on in with a pick up.

Back deck, the morning after.

I stewed a bit over our cows--we have a new baby, and 2 heifers due to calve in a couple of weeks. Danny keep reassuring me they had taken cover in the barn. Thankfully he was right and everyone kept those babies in!

A snow day for me involved lots and lots of food. I made 2 loaves of beer bread, which were fantastic! I made one with chili beer, the other with plain beer. Easiest bread I have ever made!! I also made cherry pie bars, and potato corn chowder and cooked a pound of bacon. Had plans to make Snickerdoodles but got sidetracked and didn't get it done. Maybe today! I also sat by the window and just watched a lot. I put out a pie pan of bird seed on our swing, and it was pretty popular with the birds, even with the wind blowing.
My day also involved a lot of Facebook and Pinterest time, but after a while you start to feel brain cells start to die from too much social media. I read a book...The Long Winter  by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Fitting, huh?) ...and began to be thankful I was not waking up with snow in my bed, or having to burn hay for warmth. ;)

I think one thing people who aren't in Ag, or didn't grow up in Ag, do not understand is what a double edged sword this was for our area.  Yes..we are SO very thankful for the moisture. But this storm came right smack in the middle of when a lot of ranchers calve.  Do you know what happens to a calf when its born during a snow storm? =(
Nature tells babies to hunker down low in the grass, but what happens when snow drifts over the baby? Or when it gets lost in the storm?
This storm meant most farmers and ranchers I know were working extra hard keeping everyone safe and sound, and warming up cold babies and taking lost babies in to safety, hauling in hay,  while they themselves are cold and tired. Because its what they do.  Everyone loves the "God Made a Farmer" commercial that aired during Super Bowl, and I thought about it again, while people were posting about losing calves and sleeping in barns on Facebook and I would cringe a little bit when I'd see someone else post "Bring on the snow!"

Here it is:

So God made a Farmer

And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said I need a caretaker- So God made a Farmer
God said I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk the cows, work all day in the field, milk cows again, eat supper then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board-So God made a Farmer
I need somebody with arms strong enough to wrestle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild; somebody to call hogs,tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to await lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies, then tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon, and mean it-So God made a Farmer
God said I need somebody willing to sit up all night with and newborn colt, and watch it die, then dry his eyes and say maybe next year. I need somebody who can shape an axe handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make a harness out of hay wire, feed sacks and shoe straps, who at planting time and harvest season will finish his forty hour week by Tuesday noon and then, paining from tractor back, will put in another 72 hours- So God made a Farmer
God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain, and yet stop in midfield and race to help when he sees first smoke from a neighbor's place-So God made a Farmer
God said I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bales,yet gentle enough to wean lambs and pigs and tend to pink combed pullets;who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadowlark. It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners;somebody to seed, seed, breed, and rake and disk and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church. Somebody who would bale a family together with the soft, strong bonds of sharing;who would laugh and then sigh, and reply with smiling eyes when his son says he want to spend his life doing what dad does-So God made a Farmer
By:Paul Harvey
From his address to the 1987 AFBF Convention