Valentine’s Day weekend we had a big snowstorm drop a foot of snow in southwest Washington. It snowed heavy for two days, the winds howled, and the temperature stayed below freezing. We do not typically get a lot of snow, and if we do, it rarely sticks around for very long. This was quite the adventure! It snowed all day and night Friday. When we woke up Saturday morning, the snow and drifted on the back patio and buried both girls’ bikes. It snowed most of the weekend until warmed up Sunday/Monday and then melted just as fast as it arrived.
Our cows seem to be pretty easy going and unfazed. They just seemed to follow business as normal and went about contentedly. We opened up the barn to them, but quickly realized this wasn’t the best plan. The mamas all went inside and took up all the room – leaving the young steers and Polly, the calf born in December, outside. We ended up luring them all back out with treats and shutting the door. Then they were all able to huddle up together and did just fine.
Despite knocking the snow off the tent tops during the day Friday, there were a couple broken tents at The Barrel Yard Saturday morning from the snow overnight. It sounds like we were not alone. Collapsed tents were a common occurrence around the metro area that night with the prevalence of outdoor dining due to the pandemic. When the snow melted, Brett and his dad were able to pick up the pieces. He is so handy, I think he’ll be able to salvage some of the broken pieces.
Arlo seemed to have a lot of fun running around and playing in the snow. We joked about him being in his natural habitat, since he looks like a polar bear cub.
Friday night I made cubed steak and mashed potatoes for dinner. It turned out really well but there are no pictures and I had to improvise the recipe. We had a pipe freeze and realized it when there was no water about halfway through making dinner. I’m hoping to be able to retrace my steps and post the cubed steak recipe. To be continued. I don’t have a mouth-watering picture of it either; by the time I finally got dinner on the table it was super late and we were all focused on how fast we could shovel it into our mouths.
As a family, Brett and I tried to enjoy the snow and make it fun for the girls. I heard that it hasn’t snowed like this since the 1940s, so chances are good we won’t have this much snow again until we are playing in it with our grandkids. We went for rides on the four wheeler. Grandma and Grandpa came over to go sledding. Hot chocolate was the drink of choice after each outing. Brett, Ruby, and Willa made two snow dinosaurs, Sparky and Sparkle.
When it stopped snowing, the weather warmed up quickly and the snow melted all at once. We had a river running through the pasture and a bunch of ducks paddling around between the cows.
