I'm tired of snow

I didn't come to work yesterday. Not because I or one of the kids was sick, not because I had a day off, not because I didn't want to, but because I couldn't get here. The wind blew all night Tuesday night, and yesterday I'd bet it blew 30 mph.

The wind always blows in Kansas, but this year, we've been "blessed" with over 2 feet of snow. This last snow was pretty dry, so it blew, and filled in our drive...again.

Yesterday was the third time that Kevin has spent ALL day on a tractor. I know for a fact, that yesterday, he spent 13+ hours on a tractor, looking over his shoulder, twisting in his seat for over 13 hours trying to move snow.

He went out yesterday at 7 to start. At 7:30, he came in, asked me to call Lynn to come pick up the kids at the highway to get them to school. I chose to stay home until Kev got us dug out. We anticipated that to happen around 9:00. I called in, told my staff I'd be late, and then I puttered around the house, while keeping an eye on him. (Yes, I could have ridden to town with Lynn, but I didn't think it was necessarily safe for Kev to be at home alone, on a tractor. If he got it stuck, or if it rolled, well, he wouldn't have any help. I'd rather miss work and know he was safe than to worry about him all day while I was at work.)

At 9:00, I called in and told the girls it would be around 10 when I got to work.

I called at 10 and said it'd be 11.

At 11:30, I went out to check on Kev and to take pictures of the blowing snow. It was really whipping around (and if I had a digital camera, I'd post pictures, but I don't, so I can't.) He hadn't made any progress, and from what I could see from how quickly my footprints disappeared, I didn't have much hope that he'd succeed.

I called at noon and told the girls at work to forget it. I wasn't going anywhere.

Kev came in at 12:15, tired, frustrated, and he gave up at that point. He said that he'd get one spot clear, but by the time he found somewhere to pile up the snow he was moving, what's he'd cleaned out was full again. The wind died down by 3, so he went back out. At 6 p.m., He came in and had Andy gather all our extension cords and the big halogen shop light and set it up so he could see down the drive. After 10 p.m., he came and got me. He'd dropped the back end of the tractor off into the ditch at the highway end of the drive. I got the diesel out and pulled the tractor out, then we pulled out the ranger pickup and Kev's car out. We parked the ranger out at the highway, but there wasn't any room for any other vehicle. The drive he cleared is now so narrow that the snow rubs the sides of all three of our vehicles as we carefully navigate our way down the narrow lane.

If it blows again, we'll just have to stay there till spring. There is absolutely no where else to go with snow. What we really need is a bucket, but now, since we missed yesterday, Kev will have to work on Saturday, so I don't know when we'll have time to borrow one. We may decide to hire someone with a tractor that has a bucket to scoop our snow. If we can just get the driveway wider, then we can hopefully keep it cleaned out. If not, and if it blows shut again, I'll be out when it thaws--or, we'll just have to buy a bigger tractor with a scoop.