We got the Big Storm a couple of weeks ago, with over 3' of snow. It's mostly melted now, snowed again a coupe of inches and now very cold for a few days. Sigh.

I looked on my camera and saw that I had taken this picture of 26-year-old Trip playing in the snow. I don't even know how he managed to do that, but I'm sure he had fun.

The wildlife is coping quite nicely with the snow, probably better than I am. The horses managed to mush it down enough to get around where they want to - which is mostly stand at the gate, or stand at the water trough.
The deer really appreciated it when we plowed the drive, but they also keep to the woods, where there is less snow. Thanks to a couple of days with above freezing temps and sunshine, the snow cover has shrunk back a lot now (thank goodness).
As you can see, the deer are in fine shape.

Big daddy deer


Some of the rest of the herd. There were about 12 of them all told.

Just when you think you see the light at the end of the tunnel, there's a train behind it. I went down to the barn this afternoon thinking that, while I had some clean up to do, the major problems were out of the way. However, when I got there, I saw that the snow had come off the entire 80' length of the south roof, so there was a pile of snow 6' high between me and the horses. Unf.
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Some of you have heard that the mid Atlantic region of the US was hit by a monster storm. We were right in the middle of it, winding up with about 36" of snow. I got the horses in just as it started on Friday afternoon. Then I was able to get down to feed and water them Friday evening about 9, but on Saturday am, I was faced with 30+ inches of blowing snow and about a 1/4 mile driveway. I managed to shovel my way down by hand (ARGH). It took me 3 hours to get there(!) So they got taken care of Saturday noon-ish and by the time I came back, my path was already almost filled in again.
We have a tractor, but it was completely overwhelmed.

On Sunday a friend came over with his big-a** Kubota with a loader and was able to mostly clear the drive. There are a couple of kids out there right now working on getting a path for the horses to go out tomorrow and then it will be done, except for the inevitable mud. But, wow what a drill.

Yet it could have been so much worse. I know of at least two nearby barns that collapsed, so I'm thankful that we're rated for well over this kind of snow load. So far the horses are fine, the main casualty has been my back, but that's what drugs are for. ;)

Sorry, the pics were supposed to go under a cut. Apparently I have html-fail, as usual.
I'll be darned. They did go under the cut after all.

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