It Might Finally Be Over

Today was quite a day. I think the snow the last day and a half was not so unusual or excessive for here. I think the big deal is it just took everyone by surprise a little. Like no one was really ready for this yet, so we were all a little stunned. Anyway, thats the way it seems to me.

We drove to Great Falls, MT today and loaded calved which came back to Shepherd. We delivered them this evening, stopped at the house to grab a load of clothes I'd left in the dryer to finish, and now we're fixing to head to Monida, south of Butte, to load more calves which I believe are going to Iowa.

It was an interesting day, and yet routine. The roads were kind of crappy this morning between Roundup and Great Falls, but by the time we loaded and left there, they had thawed and started to melt off pretty good. The roads were clean by the time we got back to Shepherd. Well, clean but not dry.

The house was really pretty standing there in a field of deep white, and if it hadn't been so late I would have taken a picture, but the light was getting too low.
I do have a picture that Rachelle took and sent me this morning of home in Baker. What a winter wonderland.

All said and done, there was about a foot of snow in Shepherd, which settled and melted some so its doesn't look that deep now, though still formidable if you want to go wading in it. (which I wouldn't advise doing in tennis shoes, which is what I'm wearing...I've had wet toes for two days now.) And reportedly, from two different sources so it must be true, there was around 18 inches in Laurel, which is on the west side of Billings.

And all this got me to thinking today, and figuring, and I've decided to share a summary of a season's in Montana for 2008.

Winter - January to May - winter weather, cold, wet, and the last snow storm hit May 1.

Spring - June - 4 weeks of cool weather with rain nearly every day...very unusual.

Summer - 2nd week of July through mid-September (almost 2 months) - hot (100-80degrees), dry (almost no rainfall)

Autumn - 3rd weed of September - cool temps in the 60's and 70's, still dry, but nice weather

"Indian Summer" - 4th week of September, 1st and 2nd week of October - temps return to 80's - 90's, still dry

WINTER - mid-October - plunged into deep winter within hours of leaving "Indian Summer," snow everywhere, temps in 30's and 20's....will it stay like this till May?.....quite possibly!

In short, we enjoyed 4 short months without winter weather this year. Hmmm....

I'd like to quote my sister now. She left a comment on my blog entry from yesterday.

"I love me some snow, but I want to enjoy fall first!!! " and I'm adding.... or at least have more than a few hours notice that winter is here! My coat, boots, and most of my winter clothes are in Baker. I have a choice of flip flops or tennis shoes to wear...neither of which are really great options when there are multiple inches of snow on the ground and rivers of melting snow running through parking lots.