December was cold and windy. It was too cold for little Ian to be out at all, and Joseph and James were not allowed to be outside for very long. Usually they got bundled up and then played a little bit on their walk over to Grandma’s house. They had fun but were quite sad that it was too cold to play in and on the snow mountains Grandpa John or Gregory had pushed up with the tractor blade. They had to plow or push snow nearly every day.
The cold wind seemed to blow one way one day and then blow the other way the next. The corrals were filled with snow almost as soon as they had been cleaned up. The JD 4840 with the Leon blade was used almost every day to open up feed trails to feed the horses and the cows. One day all that Gregory could see of the wire gate to the cow pasture was the top four inches of the dancers in the gate. He had to plow for hours just to get into the pasture.
We did brave the weather for just a few short minutes to get a Christmas tree. Usually, we wander around for a while in our little forest between our house and John and Barb’s, but this time we walked around once and then made a quick pick. Most of the snow was too deep for James to walk in. Thankfully Grandma Barb was watching Ian, so I was able to carry James. The boys were very happy with their tree and they had lots of fun decorating it.
Cold day for repairs
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On Dec. 22, Gregory took the snowplow over to the neighbours’ place to clear their driveway. Afterward he came home and tried to clean up the driveway to our house. All of a sudden it started “raining” on him. The valve stem had finally rotted off and fluid from one of the rear tires was squirting out. Gregory limped the tractor back over to the yard and then jacked the tractor up and put blocks under it so the tire would not freeze out of shape.
The next day Integra Tire from Biggar came out to fix the tractor tire. It was -35C but Gregory was able to make a decent work area with a portable windbreak panel, some plywood, an insulated tarp and a diesel heater. The tire was fixed in just a short time. We are very grateful for the prompt service and the good work done as this is definitely not the year to try to go without a snowplow for long.
We had a wonderful Christmas and a wonderful learning opportunity for the boys. Barb was making Christmas supper so after Mass I made brunch. On Christmas Eve we learned that Gregory’s sister and her family were coming up and were going to join us for brunch. Our house is quite small so we had to scramble for ideas a bit, but we were finally able to “make room at the inn” for everyone.
We were able to bring in the New Year with our good friend Josh. We ate too much but had some good laughs, which is a good way to say hello to 2023. We hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and that the new year will bring great joy and love.
