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The winter that won’t quit
Tisdale - Thursday, March 28, 2013
by:Timothy W. Shire

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Though the temperature has been edging up almost to 0ºC by mid afternoon each of the last two days, the winter that began in October is still very much with us. The warm temperatures are definitely moderated by the amount of snow in town and in the fields around that have to be converted from ice to water and that will take a lot of heat especially when we notice that during the night the temperature is going down to -18ºC.

I was concerned that day time temperatures would result in our backyard becoming very wet and the eight tons of motorhome back there would sink into the mud of spring. So on Sunday I set to work with a shovel and discovered that in one hour I had cleared only six feet along the side of the motorhome and on Monday I enlisted the help of our neighbour Orville Backlun to bring his blower into the project. It took almost an hour to create some space on the south side of the unit and a single pass on the north side. The picture above and on the right shows the motorhome peeking out of the back yard but those drifts of snow between our house and are neighbour’s are about as deep as it was in the back yard, just above my waste.



It seemed like a good idea but alas the plan failed as this afternoon I set the unit down off its jacks and began to move into the alley. I was able to get it pretty stuck in the back alley and the tow truck had to use a block and tackle anchored to a tree to winch me out of the alley then around to the back to pull me out of the yard. Its on the street now and will need a visit to the body shop to sort out the damage from the snow, ice and contact with a power pole.

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This tractor ended the fall work parked in a field about a hundred yard off the highway fifteen minutes north of Tisdale on highway #35. As you can see the snow in the field is level and well above the half way point on those big tractor tires. It will melt but it is definitely going to take a while.

Driving out on the farm service roads is still achievable. The roads that are used have been ploughed but roads like the one below will be useless for some time once that snow begins to convert to liquid.

It is not unusual for storms and cold weather to persist well into April. Our feelings about this lingering winter is that we have all had pretty much enough already. Since October I have been taking pictures of winter scenes and I would like a change of colour in my view finder.

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This fine example of a horse barn with it’s recent metal roof looks pretty good and is something different for me to point the camera at. It is located about ten minutes north of Tisdale overlooking Wolf Creek.

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All of the grain terminals in the Tisdale area have been pretty busy shipping grain with a steady flow of trains coming and going moving last year’s excellent crop to market. The track at the Harvest Valley Viterra terminal is now empty but in this image taken yesterday the snow is piled up around the terminal and its driveways. Where ever the snow is thin or cleared the sun doing its job.

The area on the south side of the motorhome in our back yard that Orville opened up on Monday is now clear of snow and the front wheels of the motorhome dug four inch ruts into the garden. From my experience in the back yard it looks like the spring of 2013 will be gradual enough simply because of the volume of snow. It will be a while before we see any geese this year.

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