Better Late than Never

We finally got some snow last week. Up until then we hadn't really had enough to be worth mentioning. It is a little hard to tell up here on the hill exactly how much we had because it blows around so much, but I guess it was about 20 inches. My biggest trouble when we have snow like that is keeping the lane down to the barn open. After I plow it for the first time the snow banks create a great place for the wind to dump more snow into. After the snow banks are 3 or 4 feet high the plow on thé truck can't throw the snow up over the bank. The obvious solution is to push the snow banks back with the front end loader tractor, but I had a little trouble there too. I don't often use the tractor in the winter so I never thought about putting anything in the fuel that would keep it from gelling, which is what diesel fuel wants to do when it gets cold enough. Anyway, I was able to get the thing started without much trouble, put the tire chains on (tractors are supprisingly helpless on snow ontop of frozen ground without chains), then promptly got it stuck. While I was digging it back out the wind was able to hit the fuel lines at just the right angle to gell the fuel and the thing quit running. After a day with a heat lamp on the fuel tank and a jug of magic jelled fuel rescue potion I was able to get the tractor started and open up the lane again.

Yesterday and today feel like Spring. Sunny and 40's.