Ominous

And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
Matthew 16:3

For once the weathermen were right! They all predicted a major winter storm with large amounts of snow. When the sun came up Tuesday morning I took this picture and knew we were in for something big. We finished our chores and made all the preparations we could. The snow and wind started after lunch and the rest is history. A good old fashioned blizzard. The wind seemed to start in the northeast then shift around to the northwest. This made for a lot of snow drifts in atypical places. Fortunately we never lost power. About 11:30 Tuesday evening (before I went to bed), I put on my down parka and went out for a stroll. The wind had blown open some hog feeder lids, so I had to find some concrete blocks to put on them to keep them closed. I almost worked up a sweat. It was kind of fun walking around out in the midst of the storm - knowing I could go into the warmth quickly.

It took me three hours to do chores Wednesday morning. It was hard to find a hog house door to enter, because most had huge drifts in front of them. I carried a shovel around with me all morning to get into doors, cross drifts, and check pigs. The snow had sifted into all the open sheds, hoops, and machine sheds. The sleeping pigs had a layer of snow covering them. In some of the lots the drifts were high enough that the hogs could walk over the fences if they wanted to. They mostly were just cold and hungry. We fed everything and in the afternoon bedded them all down good with extra straw. We also started the long process of clearing snow. It will take several days to get everything cleared, but we opened everything up that needed immediate attention. By evening the Township had our road open again.

After supper Wednesday evening, I put on my snowshoes and went out snowshoeing in the peace and calm of a crisp, cold winter night. There are not many years that I get to use them, but I enjoy the winter exercise and the ability to walk anywhere I want. The sunshine and calm today allowed us to accomplish much work despite the cold. It is a satisfying feeling to come into the warm house after a long day of winter work.
Despite the inconveniences, winter really is a beautiful time of year.