anna shologan: Keeping Warm

This winter has been a difficult one so far.

Last winter was fairly mild as far as Saskatchewan winters go (so I hear, it was my first Saskatchewan winter, so it was a welcome change from a Northern-Alberta winter). So when this winter hit early and hard, it made for a bit of a shock. Not to mention it's our first winter out on our acreage, two former Alberta farm kids fending for themselves, and it's been a bit of a learning process. For example, in November we bought ourselves a quad with a blade on it to push snow, and scoffed when we were told "with no tree cover you'll need a snowblower, you won't get by with just a blade".

Psh. Come onnnnnnn. We are from the wilderness of Alberta and even with way more snow than southern Saskatchewan can imagine, no one I know has ever needed a snowblower. For their driveway. Snowblowers were for city folk who didn't have a quad with a blade.

And as usual, humility will be provided.

We arrived back home from four days at our parents before Christmas, and came home to such a blown and drifted mess of a driveway, we got stuck and trying to push it out with the quad was like running into a brick wall the drifts were so hard. So we had to invest in a snowblower for the quad. And it has indeed been a lifesaver. The last winter storm we had a week and a half ago blew drifts in overnight that were higher than my waist. I've been avoiding taking my Nikon out too much in the frigid temperatures, but managed to snap some crappy phone pictures...

Nova and I with the monster drift that had taken over our driveway.

Markus promptly turned lemons into lemonade and made a fort our of our monster drift.

We were able to go snowshoeing still!

Frosty fun :)

Markus and Allison came down last weekend to celebrate my birthday. It was a laid back and quiet weekend with no real agenda but it was absolutely perfect. I wouldn't have wanted to spend my birthday any other way.

Usually I am a fan of winter. I love winter sports, I love skating and snowboarding and skiing and snowshoeing and toboganning and pulling the calf sled around behind the quad, I love it all. But. It feels like it's been a long winter so far. And today it is -29C outside and I was planning and going to chip frozen dog poo from the icy ground, but with a windchill of -40C I've decided I'm better off safe and warm inside. And what better way to warm up than to look at warm memories of summer time?