Friday, February 25, 2011

This Far and No Further

(or Why I Don't Leave Home When It Snows)

I ran out of hay at the top of the hill, so I got out the trusty farm van and drove down to the lower hay shelter. Getting down wasn't a problem. I loaded the van with 4 100+ lb bales, 2 60 lb bales, and a bunch of alfalfa. Stopped mid-way to drop off 2 bales to the mid-level fields. Then I had a problem.


Half way up the last stretch the wheels started spinning and slipping.  The van absolutely refused to go up the steepest section. There isn't a lot of snow, but it's very icy and it's very steep.

So now I have much needed hay in the van, that needs to get up a steep hill, across and back down to my far field.


It's quite a long ways. It's quite steep. Never as far or as steep as when carrying a 60 lb bale of hay in the slippery snow.  Tonight is supposed to get down to the mid-teens again. If it doesn't clear off tomorrow I'm going to let the horses out of the back field so I can feed them down below. Then I only need to carry hay up for the sheep.

Some days this all seems like harder work than other days.

2 comments:

Mary Ann said...

Oh my gosh, we just had another four inches of snow last night and I COMMISSERATE! We are so sick of carrying water, hay, etc. etc. in the snow, stumbling over our own tired feet. Makes us want to move into town and relax, sometimes! (NOT). Be careful on the ice!

Judy said...

We've actually not had much snow this year, so I try not to complain :). It is one of the times living on the top of a hill is a problem. The drive was mighty icy tonight! At least when this happens in February, we know there's an end in sight.