It’s October 26, and I’ve just spent a full hour shoveling snow off our deck. Because of the strong winds that have accompanied this early snowfall, there were places where the snow was 18 inches deep. The good news is that this early storm takes our fire danger down to nearly nothing, and with elk hunters camping all over this area, that is quite a relief. The down side to this is that our long list of outdoor projects is going to be hard to accomplish. I doubt that winter is here to stay, but with the two inches of moisture we’ve received in the past week, the ground will be really muddy for a long time.
The two and a half months between the end of our summer season and the beginning of our winter skiing season is quiet on one hand and very busy on the other. The calendar page for October has more writing on it than any of the summer months combined. Meetings and activities get postponed and re-scheduled when we have the freedom to leave the ranch, so our days seem very full right now. It’s rare, though, that we don’t sit down together as a family for dinner, and that’s a huge blessing for Randy and me.