First Snow

Never a welcome sight but this was kind of a scenic view this morning in the sun. The poor old 49 Merc had a good coating of snow on it. The engine still seized up solid. I have to admit I have been neglecting it lately not even trying to turn the motor with the big wrench. Though I am pretty sure it is not going to loosen up and I will end up removing the heads to finally loosen it up.
At least the snow will not catch any crops still waiting to be harvested. Thanks to the dry conditions everything is finished. No flax on this farm this year or else that might be waiting on me.
The ground is almost too dry to freeze. What little rain we have had has barely been enough to dampen the surface and done nothing for subsoil moisture. More snow will help that situation but it can wait a while yet.

Spring (and hope) Deferred

I was reminded of one of great Uncle Arthur's old sayings "hope deferred maketh the heart sick" while considering the latest weather forecast. We are already way late on the spring thaw and the latest forecast is for more precip, rain or snow, and clouds for the next five days. Not much hope there at all. The window of opportunity for getting our crops planted in a timely manner diminishes further with each passing day.
A late melt is usually a fast melt meaning more runoff and flooding. I guess I can count my blessings to not live on a flood plain. All our water drains to the Qu'appelle river eventually, after all our sloughs have filled up and run over , so we can usually count on seeding a few acres that stick up amongst the sloughs.
I really should count up the number of times I have had to open my driveway this year.I would suspect it has been one of the busiest winters for the snowblower in nearly 40 years of snow blowing.
We broke record low temperature levels the past couple of nights but I won't comment on global warming or climate change. There is already a good discussion on that subject over at the contrary farmer
This photo is from my latest driveway dig out. Even with that much snow its hard not to be at least a little hopeful when you have this much sunshine and blue sky.
Meanwhile, far to the south of me, the real lazy farmer has been rained out of the field.

Step Back Into Winter

Snowing, again! Visibility has dropped to less than half a mile. Not that we were making any great strides in melting the snow from the past five months but we sure didn't need any new snow added. Well we were hoping for a slow melt this spring and we are certainly getting it. Might just prevent major flooding but of course that can all change overnight. More through good luck than good management I had a good supply of hay bales to feed the cattle through this long winter. For all the talk of deep snow and starving deer I have not seen any sign of them raiding my hay bale stacks yet. In fact these two that stopped in for a visit the other day looked just fine to me.

40 Years of International

I'd been waiting for the day to do a photo shoot 40 years apart showing the old IH pickup in the same loctation as it was in 1973. Unfortuntely in 2013 the ground is still covered with snow that is only just beginning to melt. Spring  was a little further advanced in 1973.
That is actually my little brother in the original photo from 73 but since he was not available today I had to stand in for the photo.
The old truck still runs good. Brake pedal a little spongy but definitely stops when I want it too. The heater core is starting to drip anti freeze into the cab. The scene is a little reminiscent of Jed Clampett's truck with Granny's rocking chair up in the back but of course around here any empty space gets used for storage so the old IH has accumulated a lot of 'junk in the trunk" as it has sat in the shed over the years. Including the bench seat from a newer Chevy.
Stay tuned for the driving video. I've got a mountain of snow to move out of the yard as it starting to melt today and I want it out of here while the ground is still frozen.

Out In The Woods On A Snowy Evening.

Ok, I sort of was inspired by the Robert Frost poem, Stopping by woods on a snowy evening" the other day when I shot some of this video. It looks nice but means lots of shoveling, staggering through deep snow and spinning wheels on tractors trying to carry hay bales out to the cattle feeders. I may yet have to install the snow blower this winter.
I can't believe my luck getting 3 semis loads of grain hauled out on Tuesday, just 24 hours before this new snow fell. There wasn't a lot of snow around that day but being mild it was very slippery and the big truck needed a pull at one point to get going. That farm is pretty much cleaned up now so I should not have to push any more snow there. But never say never.
Highways are reported to be a combination of frozen rain, packed snow and dangerous driving. My old 2 wheel drive pickup has summer tread tires and likely won't get past the doors of the garage before getting stuck. My 4 WD has developed a gas tank leak and I don't want to push my luck too far driving it but may have to at some point. At least I am not dealing with mud and flooding like Budde Shepherd so I will be thankful for that.