Warm weather, and Rusty and Donna

What a temperature change from a few days ago.   After a low of -34 degrees last Thursday/Friday, today's high temperature was 39 degrees.  Above zero!   It was warm overnight and rained all night and morning.  Rain, not snow.

2022 is a crazy year.  For me the first half of the year was good.  The second half not so good what with tractor and pickup problems.  The first half of December was decent weather-wise.  The second half was/is crazy weather-wise.

This morning Donna took her car into the Ford dealership to get it repaired.  They said her appointment would be January 6.  But if she brought it in early they may work on it if someone else cancels their appointment.  I was going to follow her since her car has power steering problems.  She would drive by my driveway and wait for me to follow.  I waited at the end of my driveway, and waited.  No Donna.  I drove down to her driveway in case she got stuck there.  No Donna.  I drove to the Ford dealership.  There was Donna.  She had driven by my driveway but did not slow down or stop and I didn't notice her.

This evening was Donna's hour long dog training class for her dog, Rusty.  She missed last week due to the cold and snow.  I drove Donna and Rusty to the class.  I sat as part of the class and watched Rusty and the other four dogs learn lessons in the class.  Rusty had energy galore and was very active.  But he didn't bark.  Barking was done by the German Shepard puppy.

When I drove to Donna's place to pick up Donna and Rusty my pickup slipped off her partially cleared driveway and got stuck in the snow - even with a four-wheel drive pickup.  The snow was up to the underbody of the pickup.  I got Donna's shovel and shoveled and shoveled the snow from under the pickup, and then made a runway path back up to her driveway.  I backed up and made it out onto her driveway, and then almost over the other side of her driveway.

I spent this afternoon shoveling snow from my driveway.  The snow is solid wet and won't all melt before the temperatures go back below freezing in a few days.  Once the wet snow freezes it will get very hard and be very hard to shovel. I have more snow I want to shovel tomorrow to enlarge the snow-free on the driveway and backyard.

The rain and snow melt produces lots of water.  With the ground still frozen the water needs to run off to low spots.  I prefer that area to be in the hayfield and not the yard.  I'll see if the water eventually gets there.

Some of the water. And snow I want to shovel tomorrow.

The replacement heifer calves and their hay.

Cows and their hay.  Lots of hay eaten in less than 24 hours.