Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Jason, Good Canadian

As everyone knows Jason is from Canada. Jason has adapted quite well to life in the south and he has even developed a southern accent (much more noticeable than mine, the native southerner). The one area in which Jason fails as a southerner is his response to snow. It must be ingrained in him from all of his years in Canada, because when it snows Jason has to do something. This instantly gives him away as being non-native.

Actually as I mentioned in my last post we southerners do something in response to snow - rush to the grocery store. As far as doing something about the snow itself, well we generally do nothing. I've never owned a snow shovel in my life because it would never occur to me to shovel snow. Why bother when it is going to melt anyway? Schools are closed, anyone who thinks they can get away with it doesn't go to work, and snow is generally cause for a holiday. We eat all of the junk food we bought at the grocery store, go outside and play in the snow for a bit, snuggle under a blanket and watch movies and wait for the snow to melt. This generally does not take much waiting.

Not Jason. As soon as Jason saw snow in the forecast he didn't rush to the grocery store but instead dashed off to the feed store. Why on earth would he do that are you asking me? It isn't to get feed, we are well stocked, but to get bags of loose salt for the driveway.

The day it was supposed to start snowing (possibly up to two whole inches) Jason says to me "I'm going to do a pre-emptive salting of the driveway." It isn't even snowing yet and he already has to get out there and do something! I just said "ok" as it seemed to be really important to him. Whatever makes him happy.

Then it finally started snowing (they had already closed the schools before the first snowflake hit the ground) and Jason says "I'm going to go put more salt on the driveway." Ok Jason, knock yourself out. The next day after the snow had stopped the driveway was clear enough to safely travel up and down the hill without 4WD. This however was not satisfactory to Jason. He went out and put more salt on the steep parts so they would be perfectly clear and dry. He talks a lot about "bare and dry" when it comes to addressing driving surfaces after it has snowed. For anyone not counting we're up to three trips salting the driveway now.

Today he proudly pointed out to me that the entire driveway was clear. For anyone who has been to the farm you know there is a LOT of driveway around here between the barn and the two houses. I didn't have the heart to point out to Jason that the parts of the driveway that hadn't received any salt at all. (not the pre-emptive salting, the while-it-was-snowing salting, or the post-snow salting) were also perfectly clear. Because it had melted. I think it would have crushed him.

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I always take a lot of snow pictures. I think it is because everything looks so different with snow for a background. Here are a few of the 15 million snow pictures that I took.

Lightening and Noble were playing while it snowed



Lily and Missy
Spike, Lucky and O'Reilly

Faune and Asterik getting a drink of water. Trough heaters are great inventions. We don't need them often but they sure are nice to have a few days every year. I would like to thank Jason for putting the drain plug de-icers in 7 troughs for me - there are advantages to being married to a good Canadian!

Chimano

Darby and Ogie

Dutch, Wiz, Alex, Murphy and Fuzzy

Justin eating breakfast with Clay behind him (who was wishing he was still eating!)
Cuff Links and Missy

Harmony

Teddy

the cows napping in the snow

Romeo (with his signature one ear forward and one ear to the side), Faune, Winston and Gus

The new farm had a lot less snow, a little bit more than a dusting. Grand, Hemi, Leo, Trigger and Thomas

Levendi, Ivan and Apollo

Hoffy

Hemi and Thomas

Chance

A colorful picture; Ivan, Homer, Apollo, Tony, Levendi, Leo

Elfin

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think horses in the snow are always beautiful. Love Romeo's "skeptical" ears!

IsobelleGoLightly said...

We need a Jason around here!! He could be busy, busy, busy! Tee hee. As always, your farm looks really nice with happy horses!

Laura said...

I think I could easily come around to your way of thinking - if the snow will just melt, why mess with it? Although, here, you need to start working on the snow right away, or you could get caught with more snow that you can deal with.

We got our first real snow yesterday - 3-4 inches and no one even blinks. Too funny.

Some areas near where I grew up in Southern Ontario have gotten upward of 100cm or 39+ inches of snow recently! Now that shut down schools and pretty much everything else!

Stay warm... :-)

SmartAlex said...

Ahhh... Snow Management Syndrome. I know it well. Tim actually longs for snow plowing during the fall months. And he doesn't even have a heated cab on his tractor. He plows our drive, the neighbor's driveways (whether they want him to or not), the road side for a quarter mile to prevent the full snow plow from emptying in the end of our drive. He once drove his tractor two miles to plow his parent's city street to his own satisfaction. He shovels the roofs and knocks the snow off all the trees and basically ruins anything picturesque about the whole deal. But hey, whatever makes them happy.

Funder said...

Hahaha, I'm dying. You mean we're supposed to DO SOMETHING before it even snows? G and I are so proud of ourselves when we remember to buy snow melt stuff before it snows. And last time it really snowed, I made a path to the paddock with a manure fork!

We got an inch last night and it's all gone today. Proper snow behavior IMO.

Jason said...

Laura; Old habits die hard. I grew up in the middle of a snowbelt and I can't shake the idea that I have to get after it, no matter how little it actually snows !

The part Melissa forgot to mention is that there is a 200 foot elevation change between the bottom and the top of our current curved, paved, and extremely steep north facing, shaded 1/2 mile long driveway, so even a skiff of snow or ice turns the thing into a toboggan ride from hell. Believe me when I say I look forward to the day I no longer have to fool with clearing the driveway on top of everything else, or, alternately, parking my truck a half mile from, the house in nasty weather and hoofing it up the hill.

Isobelle; I'm available for hire, but only from May till September !

SmartAlex;

The more I hear about Tim, the more curious I am to actually meet him ! :)