Snow, snow and more snow!

[Nanno]

I cut firewood on Friday and Saturday and all went well until yesterday afternoon. By then the snow was so soft and slushy that I got the tractor stuck! I've never gotten it stuck before. Phil came out and between the two of us digging it out with shovels and throwing tree branches under the tires we were able to get it out. The only problem is that I've only brought back about 1/3 of the wood I cut, so I'm hoping for either much colder or much warmer temperatures these next couple of days so I can fetch the rest in before Wednesday. We're supposed to get another 6" or so on Wednesday and if that happens it might be 2-3 weeks before I can get the tractor into that pasture again, and we need the firewood NOW! We ran out this year for the first time. We've never had such sustained cold in this part of Colorado. We haven't had super low temps, but it's consistently stayed below freezing for most of the winter. Usually we have snow and then it melts, and then more snow and then it melts. This year we've rarely seen the ground. It's been nice, but I guess I didn't cut enough firewood for that kind of winter. And here I was thinking all last summer and fall that I was way ahead of the game! I cut and split three dead trees in mid-January and we blew through them in a month. I'm hoping the two I cut this weekend will hold us for the rest of the winter. One of them is really big. The only problem is that most of it is also green. I wish I had time to let it cure!