not so soon

I still look out of my windows onto a sea of white.

Saturday and Sunday saw the biggest storm in years, with another 52 (60? 60? 972?)cm covering the already high drifts and snowbanks. When the strong winds were added to the mix, we had what I think of as a good ol' fashioned blizzard. With all the snow falling and the truck with all the church's sound equipment here, D made a few runs up and down the laneway Saturday evening in an attempt to help move what he could. Sunday morning we were up at 5:30am, plowing the snow as it continued to rage and howl in the dark. Not as much was falling, but the wind made up for it. This is madness, I thought.

At 6:45am the very welcome call came that conditions were just as bad, or worse, in town (drifts 4 feet high in the roads, cars that got stuck and were simply abandoned in the streets) and so church was off. I called the band in case anyone else was so silly as to try to get in, went out to spell D off the tractor, and then realized we had a very rare thing: a day of pure family time and a quiet Sunday morning.

The snow did stop and that afternoon the blue sky blazed over all the new whiteness. And it proved that for me, the adult "enough snow already!" can still be roundly defeated by the child "whoa, look at THAT!" reaction to a big snowfall.

Our kitchen window, usually four feet off the ground, has had snow much snow fall off the roof in front of it that yesterday Archie the Wonder Dog was looking me eye to eye through the window as I stood inside. The drifts along the driveway are over the height of our tractor's snowblower. The snow fence that has been working so well for us and preventing drifts is now useless, as the snow is level with the top of it and simply blows over, laughing as it goes.

Sunday afternoon, Seren, RSH and Gaffer came over for some food and much hilarity taking the sleds up and down the laneway behind the car. It was our secdon time but this time D was able to take part in the sled surfing. Both he and RSH provided some spectacular crashes. Good winter fun.

RSH's comment, just before D did a header into a snowbank: "this driveway alone is worth the price of the place!"

For all the plowing and potholes, a day like this one really does make it feel worthwhile. I haven't laughed so hard in a while. Kids and dads (and the moms in the car) loved the outing.

Our banks and drifts are high, but nothing compared to in town where people simply have no place to put it. Banks there are over people's heads and by Monday, a good 30 hours after the storm's end, I drove in along our mostly clean country roads to a friend's house in town for a day of scrapbooking. Her street had not yet seen a plow. People only got out by following tire tracks left by the few who had four-wheel drive vehicles.

Spring? Not so soon. But when it does come - I'm wondering if I should start building an ark. There's a lot of frozen water waiting to melt out there.

And this week? It's March Break - no school but research for this year's Historica project is on the go. Yesterday morning was spent touring RSH's fire station and learning that I could have a job carrying firefighter's gear, if my duties required that I sit around. Otherwise - not a chance. The girls loved that visit and learned a lot. After that it was over to the Farm Show for all things agricultural. Then in the afternoon and evening, a final head-to-head editing session with Seren yielded the almost-complete-just-needs-a-check-for-perfection copy of her novel. And it's good. Not just because it has the word 'apiary' in it, either.

Today I really should order my seeds for next summer's vegetables. But really, it is so very hard to picture the green today. And much as I try not to admit it and be a truly adult person, I do think it's pretty and I want to go out and build a fort.