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Say It Ain’t
Snow!!!!!!
According to the National Weather Service, the Swedesboro
area received a total of 30.5 inches of snow between Feb. 6 and Feb. 11. Now
add on to that the 22 inches we received in December and what do you have???
A frozen hell on earth.
As a child, I loved nothing better than a snow day. It
was exciting getting up early and listen to the radio for your school number
to be called.
Snow days meant sledding down East Avenue and Cemetery
Hill. It meant snowballs and snow forts. It meant skating on the Big and
Little Lake morning noon and night.
We never got cold and any crack we heard while skating
out in the middle of the lake was always laughed off as a “safety crack”.
I have since learned, much to my dismay, that there is no
such thing as a “safety crack”. A crack is a crack.
Those were the days.
Now snow only means misery to me. Even though I am lucky
enough not to have to travel to work, anyone who knows me knows I have my
other “work” waiting outside – my horses.
Now I love the country. I love living out here and I’d
never move. But I’ve had to keep reminding God that this isn’t Alaska. I am
not a character from Dr. Zhivago, nor do I want to be.
I may be wearing sunglasses outside but it’s for all the
wrong reasons. It’s so I don’t get retinal damage (which I thought I really
had) from the sun bouncing off the snow.
Taking care of the horses means donning the Carhart
overalls (they really should make women’s overalls in maybe a nice pink
color), heavy Carhart jacket, muck boots, double gloves, scarf, ear muffs and
hood.
I’m so bundled up that I look like the little brother
from A Christmas Story. When I fell in the snow, of course, it was
hard getting up. I covered this struggle up though by making a snow angel.
The plus side of this is that you get more exercise in
this get-up wading through the snow. It’s great for the leg muscles.
Snow means hauling hay around the barn to find a place
for the horses to eat out of the wind. Oh yes, first I have to dig out the
barn doors so they can actually get out.
Snow means hauling heavy horse blankets out of the house
to the pasture. I’m not big on blanketing my horses but after seeing them
shiver, I decided it wouldn’t hurt.
Some of my horses disagreed. And let me tell you, 30
inches of snow doesn’t allow for any quick fancy footwork to keep out of the
way of their displeasure.
Snow means accidentally grabbing onto an electrified
fence wire because the snow covered the normal non-electric wire I hold when I
climb through the pasture fence.
Snow means sharing my self-stomped paths with the horses
through the pastures during feed time. They aren’t stupid. Why should they
have to plow their own paths when I’ve already done all the work for them.
But with the ear muffs and hood, I lose peripheral vision
and hearing. I couldn’t tell until almost too late that one of my horses was
really hungry and coming up the path in a hurry behind me.
Snow means isolation. My car is the only one with 4-wheel
drive so of course everyone needs it to get to wherever they have to go.
I just figured if I REALLY needed to get to
WaWa for that life sustaining milk and bread, I could always saddle up a horse
and go. Then I’d be grateful for all the inches of snow, so when my horses
decided SHE didn’t want to go, I’d have a softer landing.
I want warm. I want sun. I want to see my horses running
across a green pastures, not wading belly deep in snow.
I want spring!
But wait a minute, spring means rain….and rain means
flooding. With all this snow I’m going to have to put floaties on my horses to
keep them from drowning.
I just can’t win.
Tell us
about your snow stories by filling out the short form above, I’m sure everyone can sympathize.
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