I love winter in Montana as long as the cows stay where they belong and the waterers don’t freeze. We’ve had an interesting winter this year. Usually the big storms come in February, but they started in December this year.
When we went to pick up my daughter and family at the airport in Bozeman for their annual trip home for Christmas, the thermometer on our car read this:
That is 36 below zero at 9:16 in the morning. I was impressed until we drove a little farther and it read this:
Factor in the wind, and that’s chilly.
When it snows in the mountain, we usually get new neighbors. Elk can play havoc with winter pasture and haystacks, so we like them to stay on their side of the fence. (They’re still there, a stone’s throw from the house.)
As you can see, they ignore No Trespassing signs.
The wind here is something to behold. It scrubs the pastures bare, which is great because my cows can still eat the residual alfalfa from the previous summer and not have to be fed. They are fat and sassy.
That scrubbed snow has to go somewhere, and that happens to be my driveway. Here’s a shot early one morning when, thankfully, we didn’t have to go anywhere.
And here’s the driveway after.
My dogs were no longer contained in the yard because it was easy to walk over the fence. Note how there is very little snow behind the drift.
The snow forms amazing drift patterns:
This is my back driveway before being plowed.
And this is Fiona, enjoying a little sun and waiting for the next storm to hit.
I hope everyone is having a safe winter!
Cheers!
Jeannie