Sunday, January 17, 2010

Slow Going

One of the things that makes winter bearable in the far north of Montana is the occasion thaw. We've been in thaw mode--over thirty five degrees every day--for the last ten days. If you've stopped by recently, you may have seen some pictures from early January that looked like this:



Ah, what a difference a week of warm weather makes. First thing this morning, the view across the same hayfield looked like this:



What? You can't see the difference? Look real close. There are patches of bare ground showing. I swear. Unfortunately, the snow that's left has either compacted into solid ice, or is packed into drifts so hard even the horses can stroll right over top:


That stuff isn't going away any time soon. Then again, you probably wouldn't want to be downstream if it all melted at once. It also helps to remind yourself that a few months from now we'll have grass like this thanks to all that snow:

2 comments:

angsamp said...

You have to remember that as miserable as all this snow/freezing temps are, it will make for wet, green pasture this spring. That's the only way my family is getting through such a hard winter anyway.

I wish we could fast-forward to April and some warm temperatures!

Crystal Posey said...

Personally, the first picture is my favorite. Heeee