Our first snow storm this year was a doozy.
First we had a nice dose of sleet and freezing rain along with winds.
Then came the snow/sleet. At times it was blowing sideways.
It made the trees creak and moan. It made me a bit nervous.
I helped hubby get the rest of the ice piks on his skid steer tracks and clean off some of the frozen mud.
The first order of business was to make sure everyone had lots of access to hay and heated water. Mustang Sally and Crickett chose to stand and watch me unwrap a large round bale.
They could have gotten out of the winds but thought I was more interesting.
Then, after all animals were checked and tended too, my super Hero Hubby started to plow.
I walked up to the top of the ridge to get the mail and check on road conditions....
Not very great and the visibility was awful. I'm glad I had my snow goggles on.
And then came the super hero with the skid steer!
I cannot say how grateful I am to have such a wonderful guy in my life! Well, okay I am grateful to have a husband who loves to plow the driveway. He even does it in the worst of weather.
Which it was at the time. After we finished with chores and had BBQ for supper we sat quietly together in the living room and listened to the winds howl above us on the ridge. The snow came down and the sleet pounded the house.
But we were content and tired.
And that was our first real snow of the season.
I've gotten tired of trying to figure out what exactly the different weather people are doing here. One weather service names the snowstorms, NOAA doesn't.
That doesn't change the fact that our winter this January has been fairly unusual even for Wisconsin.
We've had sleet/ice/rain/snow storms, bitter 'Artic Vortexes' [I keep waiting to get swept away in one of these Vortex's], snow, cold, bitter cold, and then nice winter days such as yesterday.
It isn't easy on our stock or on anyone else who has livestock. While at the grocery store a friend told me that a friend of hers lost her elderly mare in this last cold spell.
So far all of our animals seem to be doing just fine.
Our Dexter Cattle seem very unperturbed at all by the weather. They eat. They lay down together out of the wind and chew their cud as if they have no worries in the world.
Fred, Dinah, and Siera, run and play or stand in the sun. They are experts at getting shelter from the winds.
Although this last Sunday night the winds howled so hard that it blew whatever snow was left loose into a frenzy.
I couldn't see out my south window. When I did I could see the snow moving across the ground in waves.
Yesterday I took a walk. Well, a hike with my snow shoes on. In places the snow is over knee deep. I can vouch for snow shoes. They really do help although you must learn to walk a bit differently in them.
At least I wasn't hip deep in some of the drifts.
I found animal trails in the woods. Coyote, Deer, and all sorts of other animals are using the same trail to get around.
Of course I had to break my own trail. After that is done with a pair of snow shoes it gets easier as long as you follow the same path.
I guess I have a lot of walking to do then!
So yesterday's forecast was a mixed bag of precipitation.
The NWS called for snow, sleet, rain, and a thunderstorm warning with dangerous lightening.
Well we had it all.
Before I left for work, we had heavy downpours with lightening that cracked and sizzled.
When I got to our ridge road which is gravel, the rain was freezing instantly to the cold road.
It made for an interesting and somewhat white knuckled drive to the county road.
Once on the blacktop though, it was fairly good driving, if one didn't mind the flashes of lightening, and the heavy downpours.
Water ran across the road as the culverts are still filled with snow and ice.
Once I got in and out of town, I got bombarded by hail. Big nasty chunks, or was it ice pellets?
I didn't know.
I made it to the wayside where I usually stop and call hubby to tell him that I've made the drive to work just fine. Another coworker was there too. So we sat in her vehicle and chatted while watching the Mississippi River.
There were fishermen in a boat just below the dam.
We thought they were nuts!
The thunder and lightening then combined with a heavy 'downpour' of snow. Within minutes we couldn't see more than 40 feet. In 20 minutes the wet road in front of us became a hazardous highway of snow with vehicles crawling.
Thundersnow is an interesting phenomena according to different sites I've looked at, they are supposed to be rare.
But ever since I've moved to this area in 1996, we've had one every February without fail.
It is quite disturbing to have heavy snow fall combined with flashes of lightening and deep rumbling thunder that you can feel.
As with most storms at this time of year, it was short lived and the sun shines today.
