Monday - 339th

Think of it this way: when the thermometer tells you the temperature outside is at the freezing point, you know it's damn cold. Now, subtract forty more degrees from that point (yes forty!) and you have the reading on our thermometer this morning when I go out to feed the animals. With a perky little wind to add insult to an already stinging day.

And I can't just go to the barn, the sheep shed, then home again. I have to fix the long driveway: we'd eyeballed it yesterday and decided it was just fine. What's another inch or two of snow! No more shoveling required. Indeed, I took the car out last night to do a food drop off. No problem!

Nonetheless, right after I had returned home, an Amazon driver texted telling me the driveway is not passable and please advise what to do with some package or other. So this morning, I set out with a shovel. (And oh, the irony! We had some food delivered soon after, and that driver drove into a snowbank. Ed had to push hard to get his car out of trouble.)

 

But here's something that (almost) makes up for the cold: We do have morning sunshine!

Polar air isn't nearly as menacing when there are streaks of sunlight all over the farmette lands. 

Still, it is substantially warmer in here:

Since we did not ski yesterday, the push is on to go out today. I nudge him, he nudges me and finally, just before noon, we head out to our county park. Typically we ski toward evening, to avoid people, but today's sunshine is slated to disappear in the afternoon. Too, we are not going to worry about other skiers on such a cold day. Indeed, even though we ski on the more popular, groomed trails...

... we see not a single other person out there! Could it be that it is just a tad too cold??

We are, of course, used to winter cold. It's Wisconsin, right? Too, we're approaching the tail end of the winter season. These are the last days for the warmest of your warm sweaters. Indeed, by next week, we expect to be up to a mere freezing temperature. (In other words, forty degrees will be added to our bounty!) So I don't feel especially bummed out by this persistent vortexian blast from up north. But I have to say, though it's a rare day that Ed complains of the cold, today, when asked, he responds -- I'm okay except for the numb fingertips and the wind blowing right through my cap.

 

(winter sunsets are often very dramatic...)

 

 

Hot tea, candle burning, grateful: for so many things, but at this second, most grateful for the fantastic furnace that blows delicious warm air out all the vents. Well, except for one vent -- a favorite resting space for the visiting Dance. Imagine warm air gently massaging your winter cold tummy! Mmmm!