B&B Happy Goats....journal

[Bruce]

We are currently having tiny snow pellets.

 

[thistlebloom]

No snow, no snowmen, no snow angels, no snowballs, no snow ball fights, no sledding, no kick sledding, no magical moonlight on sparkling snow, no snow shoveling, no snow shoveling your roof off, no snow shoveling your car out, no snow shoveling your sidewalk off three times in a day because the snow clouds are stuck directly over your house... clearly you are missing out!

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Been there done that, after 39 years I moved to Florida ...don't miss it at all

 

[Baymule]

Our once every 3 years or so is fine with me. Three inches of snow and that's enough, usually is gone in 3-4 days. THAT'S how to do snow!

 

[Mike CHS]

I spent three years in Michigan and decided never to be that silly again.

 

[Baymule]

My son worked a winter in Iowa and he will never do that again! LOL

 

[rachels.haven]

Hey...what's not to love about 12+ inches of dry, fridged, sharp blowing, drifting snow that never melts and compacts to hard ice everywhere and eventually turns grey over the weeks all winter in Iowa? And that light blue sky with the sun that is both not bright enough and too bright, never seems to rise all the way and is never far from setting? You telling me your son didn't just embrace the windburn and snow blindness? Blowing frozen snow at 10 degrees sounds so...sparkly... like broken glass. It's irresistible in a yearly post apocalyptic kind of way and all those closed highways and the isolated winter silence for 6 months straight out in the stubbly bean and cornfields where when you go outside all you can hear is the blood pounding in your ears and the wind blowing the ice crystals...

...I kind of miss Iowa. IDK why anyone wouldn't, lol.

 

[Ridgetop]

Absolutely what @rachels.haven said!
DH loves Hallmark Christmas shows and always asks if I would like to move to the beautiful snowy landscape shown in TV. I ways give a large loud "No!" It may be beautiful, but DH has never lived in snow, only occasionally visited. Vacation snow is different from living in and working in snow. Ski trips with his fraternity don't count. Besides they were probably all so liquored up they didn't realize it was even cold!

I like winter rain to grow the forage and grass for the sheep, but don't like extreme cold. Or gray slush that freezes overnight into treacherous ice, etc. I lived in Europe for 5 years as a child and we enjoyed the snow, but we were kids and didn't mind then, Now, I would hate to live where I had to shovel a path to the barn, or be careful not to slip on the ice, etc. Bad enough having to carry hay in the California climate, I would absolutely hate it in the snow country. BRRR!

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Back in the 70's we had a hand pump for water, no water heater and heated and cooked on a wood stove...having to fill and load 5 gallon buckets of water for the cows, pigs and goats twice a day in winter was a lot of work, having a baby in a carrier on my back made it more challenging....winter in New Hampshire back then was brutal and beyond cold, so the baby stayed in the barn to keep warm till chores were finished,...every day, twice a day.I did this routine, for five year's....when we ran out of wood,I would cut down a small tree and "thaw" it in the oven of the wood cookstove.....
Frozen water buckets, slippery walk ways, frozen cloth baby diapers, shoveling frozen animal poo and driveway, walk ways etc....well the magic of beautiful winters died, ..
.I see cold weather coming now and I remember those days as I walk over to the thermostat and turn it up to 74 , .....living in a warm climate is where I belong , 39 years of winter was ten years too many

 

[Ridgetop]

No matter how much we love our "country" lives, there was a reason why farm women and city women both embraced electricity, central heating, gas lighting and stoves, washing machines, and other labor saving devices. Plowing with horses and mules may be scenic, but using gasoline powered equipment meant a farmer could plant and harvest twice as much in half the time, and make more money to support his family. Progress may have meant the loss of a lot of hand jobs, but it also meant that men and women weren't worn out and dead by age 40. My father-in-law's first job after WWII was as a ditch digger in construction. He worked his way up to foreman with the L.A. Department of Water and Power Underground division. Now everything is dug by machines. One man and a backhoe does the work of 15 laborers.

While I deplore the loss of jobs to industrialization, I would not give up my HVAC, gas stove, electric lights, TV, radio, motor vehicles, vacuum cleaner, etc. I enjoy hand sewing, but having to make a complete suit or dress without a sewing machine? No Thanks! Knitting is enjoyable, but imagine having to shear, wash the wool, card it, spin it and then either weave or knit the cloth before being able to make a suit of clothes for your children, husband, or self! Even in the middle ages flock owners sold their "wool crop" to wooliers who did the washing and carding, and sold it on to spinners and weavers who spun it into thread and wove the cloth before selling it on to fullers for dying.

The great Guild Halls were built on trades that were taught through apprenticeships. These trades closely guarded their skills, but freed people from the burden of having to do everything for themselves. The ability to buy and sell goods made it easier for the majority of people to move up from abject poverty. Trade runs the world and when there is good trade, there is usually peace. War is bad for trade, in spite of munition sales. The great merchant banks of the early days first established prosperity and peace through trade.

Like B & B Happy Goats I love my heater in winter and AC in summer! LOL