SNOW and other ramblings.

I felt that deserved all caps. It's official - I live in a high elevation. We woke up this morning to almost two inches of snow, with more falling. Yesterday I was worrying about still having my snow tires on. Today I'm not. Even though I know there is always a chance that it will snow before May - and sometimes during - my Pollyanna forecast failed me. Now I have to pull my down jacket out of the to-be-washed pile, boots out of the closet and go back to winter mode. Bernie loves the snow, so she will be especially perky this morning. Scrappy - not so much. And I will have the usual conversation about the weather when we walk by the dairy barn. I am always surprised at how much there is to discuss about the weather when you're talking to a farmer. They start at the day and project through the summer. Farming is not for wimps, that's for sure. And, while I type this, I am listening to our governor call for furloughs, cuts and tightening of belts. I wonder how much more we can ask of our farmers. Milk prices have plummeted, grain prices are still high, fuel prices on the rise again. My neighbor said he doesn't even consider stopping dairy farming - what other job would there be? Better to just grit your teeth and go day-to-day. I never realized how hard a farmer works, especially dairy farmers. There is no vacation. There are no sick days. You are in the barn two times a day, seven days a week, twelve months a year. All holidays, all weekends. Cows don't care if you have the flu. Any romantic ideas I had of myself as a dairy farmer (especially at this age) are long gone. But I still have my cow, thanks to the farmer. She resides there and, after she freshens this coming January or February, I can milk her on the weekends. It's the best deal ever. Sorry for the rambling.