Snow

Snow

I wasn’t going to do any more posts like this, the kind of humdrum pain-in-the-neck experience of existence. There were plenty of opportunities; The project to get underground power to the pumphouse at the Stump Farm so I could water the cows that I started last December and wasn’t able to finish until the middle of May, almost a month after I should have moved the cows to the Stump Farm; The tree that crashed across the fenceline in September and prompted half the cows to move themselves from the home place back to the Stump Farm; Etc. However, we got a little snow this winter and I thought it was illustrative of some of the aspects of life in the North Cascades: 

On the morning of the 27^th of December 2016, I was shoveling the snow out of mom’s driveway for about an hour in the dark from about 6:15 a.m. to  about 7:15. Our tractor isn’t set up to move snow so I have to shovel it by hand, about 150 feet or so (someday I hope to get a tractor that I can move snow with but I have other things to put my resources to at the moment). 

It had snowed a week or two earlier and I had shoveled the driveway then. It was on the weekend so I did it at a more leisurely pace in the daylight. Between that shoveling and the 27^th it had snowed a little more then rained, then frozen. I didn’t shovel that, expecting it to go away with the rain. 

The new snow on the 27^th was only about six inches but the accumulation with the little bit of unshoveled snow made it iffy as to whether mom would be able to get her car out. The biggest problem was the berm where the driveway meets the highway. As the roads are plowed, the plowed snow creates a berm at the end of the driveway. This berm was probably too deep for mom’s car to get through. 

I was on my way to work. Since it was snowing I took my four-wheel drive pickup and it was easy enough to get into the driveway and kind of beat down a trail through the snow. The most time intensive work was shoveling the turn- around and the berm at the highway. The rest was pretty easy, I shoveled out between my pickup tracks. All that being said, by the time I was done I was dripping with sweat. I had been dressed for the cold but a little overdressed for strenuous work and I didn’t have the time to take a bunch of clothes off because I needed to get to work on time. 

Mom had to get out that day to go watch the kids while Sacha went to a meeting. She could have probably used the farm truck which is four-wheel drive but it isn’t as dependable as it used to be. 

As I was shoveling the driveway, it occurred to me that I am quite lucky to have a good paying job that isn’t too far from home. I am able to afford a vehicle that goes well in the snow and getting mom out that morning wasn’t an absolute necessity. And besides that, we had other options. 

I am sure that weather like this has cost people who live in this area jobs because they can’t afford vehicles that go well in the snow and, when a heavy snow hits, they can’t get to a job some place far away where it isn’t snowing and the people in charge don’t care about the weather somewhere else. They only care that an employee hasn’t shown up for work. I guess in that situation, you better hope you have some vacation days you can use. Then again, if the job doesn’t pay well enough to afford a decent vehicle, the job probably doesn’t provide you with vacation days. I am very thankful that I am not in such a situation. It would be pretty rough to have to start your day by getting up an hour or two early so you can shovel your way out in order to commute an hour or two to work. 

Winter highlights some of the worries and cares of life out here. Getting stuck in the snow, navigating difficult roads when you’d rather be at home because you have to get to work. How long is the power going to be out this time? Is the hay that I worked so hard at getting into the barn last summer going to be enough to last the winter? Is the wood that I worked so hard at getting into the shed last summer going to be enough to last the winter? These are some of the worries and cares of year round life in the North Cascades. 

I am well aware that to many people around the world these worries and cares are trivial in comparison to their own experiences. I myself have had to deal with much worse conditions than I have encountered so far this year. And I know people whose driveways are much longer than ours. Some people here have to travel miles through the snow to get to a plowed road. While it is true that folks here are generally well prepared for this type of weather that still doesn't make it easy. The point I wish to make is that we are not on vacation out here. One of the most common comments I hear from visitors to this area is “It’s so beautiful here. You are so lucky to live here.” I know that this is usually meant to be a compliment. But there also seems to be some subtle implication that the people who live out here are on a vacation of some kind. I am not on vacation and I know many others who aren’t either.