We had a snow, slush, and ice storm last night. No big deal, but with five inches of new wet, but very clean and white snow, icy trees, and sparkling air, it was pretty out this morning, especially on the high ground between here and the town of Brooks, Maine, where all the ice was heavy and glistening on the trees.
And warm. Above freezing almost as soon as the sun came up.
So it wasn't so terribly unpleasant to have to plow all that snow out of the way.
As reported earlier, it's taking longer to move snow with the tractor, because I have to go further to find a snow pile small enough that I can reach over it with the loader. This means making a lot of three point turns in our dooryard.
As you can see, the tractor can pick up a couple-three wheelbarrow's worth of snow at a time, especially when it's wet like it was today and so sticks together well.
If I had a full-size tractor, with a more powerful engine and a wider loader (and a modern, cushioned tractor seat), this job would go faster. I'd get one with a backhoe, too, so I could grub up stumps, to landscape around the farm and make new gardens and the like.
That purchase is probably going to have to wait a while. I don't think Aimee would agree that we have money for a second tractor, even if it would save me from a numb bum.
I needed to dig a pathway over to the oil tank filler. We are down to a quarter tank and need to get it filled. The tanker truck driver probably won't want wade through four feet of snow to do that job. I dug a snow trench instead.
That was enough exercise for a morning. We'll wait for a couple of snowmobiles to go by on the trail, and then walk to dogs this afternoon.
This tank hasn't been filled in three years because we use it so little. I expect the oil truck driver has forgotten where the filler cap is.
It's our Pittsburgh Steelers versus the Green Bay Packers in the Superbowl tonight. Two working class teams. Should be a good game. Aimee bought in extra chips and avocado pears (for guacamole).
If the Steelers lose, better not try to talk to Aimee for a day or three.
According to the Internet, 100,000,000 Americans will watch the game.
More importantly, between them they will consume 8,000,000 pounds of avocados during an average Superbowl.
It didn't say anything about how many chips or how much beer.
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Welcome to our Farm Blog.
The purpose of this blog is for Aimee and I to communicate with friends and family, with those of our students, and other folks in general who are interested in homesteading and farming activities.
The earliest posts, at the very end of the blog, tell the story of the Great Farm, our purchase of a fragment of that farm, the renovation of the homestead and its populating with people and animals. Go all the way to the last post in the archive and read backwards from there to get it in chronological order.
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