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Let It Snow!

Reader Contribution by Leah
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It’s amazing what a little snow can do to lift your spirits. Its been dark and gloomy for a few days here at Old Home Farm. Then on Sunday morning this week, we got up to softly falling snow! Suddenly it felt like being a kid again. We haven’t had much snow here in a few years now, and this was a real treat for us.

Greg and I pulled on our Carhartt coveralls, grabbed hats and gloves and plunged out the door headed for the barn. It wasn’t much of a snow for us. The weather radar showed we were just inside the edge of a real snow storm. But it was enough to enjoy and be thankful for.

At the barn the sheep were all waiting inside the sheds for their grain and hay. You can see Bea in the lower shed munching her grain. The little rams are both black, so they don’t show up as well. The back half of Bea’s shed is blocked off for Bill, the mini horse. He was snuggled down in his bed of hay and was quite content to let the snow fall.

On the walk back, the dogs raced ahead sniffing and challenging each other to play. Even they seemed to enjoy the change in weather.

One lone car braved the road past the house. He slid a little on the curve, but with his four-wheel drive he was in no real danger.

Across the road our neighbor’s cows munched their hay and seemed unconcerned about the snow. Our neighbor takes good care of his stock and he was out much earlier than we were feeding hay, breaking ice on his pond, and doing a head count.

The chickens remained in their houses, only venturing out to get a drink of water. I keep cedar shavings inside and it helps to generate warmth. They seemed quite happy milling about inside when I filled their feeder. Then, I filled my wild bird feeders and put a new suet block out for them.

Every farmer looks for at least one good snowfall. It puts nitrogen back into the soil and helps to kill bugs — both insect and viral. This time of year the garden always looks sad and neglected to me. But the snow made it look prettier, and made me anxious for spring. It also gave us the opportunity to burn the pile of old plants to put ash into the soil.

All told, we only got about half an inch of snow, while others a few miles northeast of us got 4 to 7 inches. But our little snow fall was welcome and did much to lift our spirits and chase away the wintertime blues.