I know I live in Western Montana at elevation and I know every year I write about the snow. Some years (2017-18) are terrible and have led to insurance claims/woes/headaches but most years are just snowy. A bunch of snow falls, we all move it from here to there and then the sun comes out and the sky turns blue and everyone goes snowmobiling. We put that on repeat and that’s how we do it in Seeley Lake!

And everyone knows that the majority of the snow seems to fall when Alistair is in Bismarck and I’m up here at the big house with a few cheeky pets. You are all well aware that our 1996 one ton Dodge Ram, Big Red saves my ass each and every winter when he fires up and lets me clear our road.

We are the last house on a long driveway so I need to be the one behind the wheel if I’m going to have a road to the rest of the world.

The truck and blade aren’t giant, though, so I do run into limitations as to how far I can shove the snow and how high the berms along the sides of the road can get.

We do have a large tractor with a very large snow-blower and when Alistair is here he climbs in and tosses the berms way off to the side somewhere, making the roadways and paths so much wider and easier to plow again.

And every now and then I get a 2- or 3-day stretch where he isn’t here and the snow just doesn’t stop falling.

I just got through that.

Snow fell for a solid 3 days and then it blew around a teensy bit yesterday.

By that point yesterday I had hired Tim and Daniel to remove the large amount of heavy snow from our roof and they spent a few hours hacking away at it. They are due any minute this afternoon to tackle the back of the house.

Its a big house, mostly on one level so the large roof takes a bit of work.

We learned our lesson with that roof, as it was the major chunk of the change our insurance company had to shell out when we needed a whole new one.

We’d rather avoid that at all costs.

This 3-day blizzard was difficult at times during the day because life was basically one big, scary white-out. You often can’t see the side berms at all so its relatively easy to drive or slide off the road.

I made a point to set my alarm clock for zero-dark-thirty so I could get up and plow with headlights illuminating the path and I also plowed early into the darkening evenings.

The snow that fell was pretty wet (it actually rained at points at lower elevations nearby) so while its heavy, I can actually sometimes end up tossing it over the sides of the berms I’ve created if I have the balls to go at it aggressively enough.

I chose to do that on the second morning and I was successful! A little worried about ditching myself but I was successful.

(Cheering me on from the cd player, Keali’i Reichel was singing some awesome-sounding Hawaiian song that I just kept on repeat.)

And I share pictures about all of this on social medial largely to let Alistair and my friends and family know that I’m okay. Many of them are dealing with their own snow loads so I don’t think for a second that they are actually worrying about me but… you know… just in case.

I am a 5’3″ little person with a penchant for sparkly things and the color pink. I enjoy playing with makeup, dancing, and red wine and I’m probably still more comfortable in glittery spandex than I am in my snow suit and huge boots. My figure skating crowd were horrified enough when I went to veterinary school. They likely can’t fathom me behind the wheel of a truck I have to free fall a little to get out of with a stick shift on the floor and a huge beast of a blade on the front.

And yet…

So, here I am once again sharing the wintery tales of life on the Fyfe Farm when Mother Nature shakes the snow globe that is our meadow in the middle of nowhere in Western Montana.

Alistair is on the road as I type today so even if we get more snow he can fire up Victor (the tractor) and the snow-blower.

And hopefully Tim and Daniel will arrive at some point to take the heavy weight off of our new, mega-thousand dollar roof.

And while I’ve been living in my plow truck and I haven’t gone anywhere and I have been getting up early and I’m also doing some shoveling outside I have also totally enjoyed this weekend because not only is it the PGA Tour’s Sentry Tournament of Champions, which is played at Kapalua (we were just there in October!!!!), it was also the Canadian and US National figure skating championships with Olympic berths on the line!

Tanya = happy!!!!!

Watching these events we’ve recorded with a one-eyed kitten, an older red-headed Siamese and some tasty wine felt like a very special reward each night, tailored specifically for me and my hard work.

I’ll limit commentary on the skating to the fact that the US has some incredible talent coming up in the Men’s department once Nathan Chen and Vincent Zhou eventually dry their blades for the last time (although Nathan’s short program… I mean, come ON! Quad lutz combo after the halfway point in a short?????) Don’t forget the name, Ilia Malinin. Quad-quad combos? He IS a Quad God!

Happy Winter Wonderland from the Fyfe Farm!