Here We Go Again...and Again....

Should I be tired of Winter already? It is only January and to be honest, Spring won't get here soon enough.
We are under a blizzard warning...again!
The good news is that we made it home without incident. Getting out through the drifts tomorrow morning will be a different story.

Nothing To Whine About

For more than three weeks we have been getting blasted with an unusual amount of snow and drifting as well as temperatures approaching -30 degrees.
After seeing these pictures, I have determined we really can't complain too much about the weather.






As a Minnesotan, we have earned the right to complain about the weather. We just have to be careful about how much we complain.

The Blow is Over...Kind of

Yesterday, last night and this morning gave us nine inches of new snow. The bad part was the wind and drifting. We had a few five foot drifts that needed our attention after the 35 mph winds re-arranged the snow for us. The winds have died down to about 20mph and with the temperatures in the single digits, we have wind chills of minus 20 to 30.
For now I have all the snow blowing done. Of course, that wasn't without incident. Each Fall I put up reflectors that stand about four feet tall that line our one-third mile lane. This year I forgot all about them so while on the tractor I had to guess where the lane was. With the big drifts and blowing snow I had to guess where I thought the lane was. Needless to say, I ran the tractor off the lane and buried it. We hooked up the logging chain to the four wheel drive pickup and Sue pulled me out.
I wish I would have gone to work today as it would have been a whole lot easier!
The pictures really don't show the drifts, but at least you will experience a bit of winter at Coyote Ridge.

Let It Fly

Our son and his wife Anna joined us for supper Thursday night. There was a catch though.
It is that time for our annual ritual of switching from grass cutting-leaf chopping mode to snow removal mode. Work for food?
It is always tricky timing the leaf chopping and the blower installation. You sure don't want to get caught with snow that needs removing and still have the mower deck on.
We timed it pretty good this year. The leaves are 99 percent down and most of them chopped. Now the 42 inch blower is on and ready.






Thanks again Ben for your help!
Just as we were finishing up installing the chains on the rear tires we heard the dinner bell.
What a great feast we had. Chicken, meatballs, stuffing, squash, banana bread and beer. Perfect!
We all pitched in and did the dishes and then had some time to relax and chat.
Tune in again soon for another edition of "Now What Are They Doing?"

The Hauling of the Wood

This past weekend we did a little wood splitting and hauling.

Son Ben and his charming wife Anna were over for beer and BB-Q last week and commented that they were out of firewood for their outdoor fireplace. well, guess what? We just happen to have plenty.

I split some of the larger pieces and loaded a couple of rows into Sue's truck to take over to their house.

And of course, we unloaded it.

With three people unloading, we were done in a flash without even breaking a sweat.


I can remember living in Northern Minnesota years ago and we heated with wood almost exclusively. The only time the furnace came on is when it was -20 outside. You talk about going through the wood. We had a very efficient stove, but even still we would go through about four cords of wood per season. Considering a full cord is 4'X4'X8', that is a mighty big woodpile. The wood was "free" but the trees had to be cut down, de-limbed, cut into sections, split, loaded. hauled home, unloaded, stacked outside, brought inside and eventually loaded into the stove. Now I know why we said that a single piece of wood would heat us 10 times!

Now we have a gas fireplace that is actually rated as a furnace, so we can enjoy the flames without the mess.

We keep the wood burning confined to the outside these days with a campfire pit that we really enjoy.

We really enjoy sitting out there at night with a fire listening to the coyotes howl.

Most of the leaves are off the trees now with just the oak leaves hanging on for dear life.


Won't be long now before we have the snow removing equipment all set for the season. That is hard to believe as it was 77 and sunny yesterday and 70 again today. Go figure!

Tune in again real soon for another edition of "Now What Are They Doing?"