Pages

Friday 26 February 2010

The snow is gone, thank heavens


I have now lost count of how often snow has had me incarcerated here this year. The lane to my house is notorious in certain spots for snow drifts. I always make sure in winter that I have enough food and fuel and, of course food for sheep, ducks and dogs. But the main problem is exercising three very energetic border collies. Since my arthritic knees can not begin to compete with their needs, I usually drive down the lane with them and go to the forest where they can run as I drive and look for branches for the fire. However, a snowed up lane puts paid to that idea. Even if the farmers clear the lane in part with a bucket on a fork lift, I can't stand and walk on ice. So the solution [a very cold one for me when the temperature was minus 6 or 7 in the daytime] was to take them into the nearest field, from which sheep were and are temporarily absent, and throw a ball for about half an hour at a time several times a day. This results in happy dogs but a frozen dog owner.

Now it's gone and I hope it stays gone for thisi year. I am hoping to get a new knee courtesy of the NHS which might make the prospect for next year less daunting.

No comments: