Winter fun!

With large amounts of snow falling periodically for such a long while now, there are people out and about, cross country skiing in the farmer fields to the front and back of our property, enjoying the fresh COLD (-40 with wind chill) air, and getting plenty of exercise at the same time.

It's been interesting watching folks on their snowmobiles, their current mode of transportation when the roads allow for them to be traveling on their surfaces.

It's a wonder how some people finds ways to get around with these machines, and certainly when the snow ploughs run by and clear the roadways, these folks must be like James Bond and use their imagination to continue on with their travel towards their final destinations.

Snowmobile tracks through our front yard!

This past Sunday, in the late afternoon, one such snowmobile rider used all the front yards of neighbors down an entire block to get from one field to the golf course nearby. Here in the photos you can see the tracks made through our front yard of someone brave enough to do it to everyone along the street, and then the hillsides over at the golf course were well traversed as well, many tracks to give it away a snowmobile rider was having a terrific wintry delight riding spree.

Morning sun appears each day,
offering us a bright new day.

Actually come to think of it, I wondered if there was such a thing as renting a snowmobile for the day myself, as we have the perfect backyard to motor around all over, with packed snow still present in this winter freeze.

Much too cold lately for a longer dog walk.

The sun still offers it’s glowing rays to us each morning, and throughout the day, so it doesn’t feel as cold out as it truly is. But we can hardly fool ourselves when the animals water in the barn is frozen solid each morning, even with the heaters on all night. When a snow squall suddenly appears, or wintry weather so frigid, the dogs are barely able to have their daily walk, often just running through the back property for a quick sprint to suffice for the day.

Without warning, a snow squall appears.
They can be quite scary.
They often last only a little while,
then the sun appears soon afterwards.

On another front, after several more snow squalls appearing out of no where, with massive whiteouts in the area, and then sun and blue sky suddenly appearing as fast as the squall itself occurred, a good neighbor showed up to assist us with our driveway and its build of snow blown drifts, having left us several times, stranded at home unless a whole lot of shoveling was performed first before taking the van onto the roadway.

Our Good Samaritan neighbor sneaks over to help us.

As quietly as he has appeared twice now, this time I caught him on camera. We offered hearty thanks to him for being a Good Samaritan to us. There is and old fashioned blessing offered to those living in the country, with folks all around looking out for the good of others. I am deeply impressed with our neighbors quietly assisting us, without expecting a thing in return.

We had an abundance of snow to remove from the driveway, and our neighbor used his Kubota tractor to push it to the other side of the road, completely out of the way for us.

As an aside, being prepared for any type of weather makes life easier, and this past weekend we were being forewarned of snow squall possibilities and serious whiteout blizzards coming our way. The big event of the day sometimes, is just heading to the grocery store to prepare for such occasions and ensuring all will be well if left stranded at home for some time. We were prepared over here, as you can see below. Somehow though, even with a vast selection in the kitchen pantry, our teens still tell us there's not a thing to eat in our home! Why is that? (laugh)

Stocking up the pantry.