February 5 has been snowy THREE years in a row! (And that’s just fine by me!)

I was looking back at facebook memories, and I had made comments about snow on 5 Feb in 2011, 2014, and 2015, and now we are getting a pretty big storm on 5 Feb 2016!

I don’t have local TV out here in the wilds of Stetson, so the last I had heard, today there was supposed to be a coastal storm that dropped 1 to 3 inches.001

Apparently, unknown to me, the coast line of Maine changed drastically over night, and the forecast was off a bit, because I am pretty sure there is almost 7 inches of snow in my dooryard.

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Yesterday: Green grass!

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This evening: Same tree…NO GRASS!

Couple days ago I was taking a picture of green grass on my lawn. I even let the goats out to graze for a bit. This morning, I opened the gate, and they thought they were going to get to graze again…They took about a dozen or so steps outside their pen, looked around the yard, looked at each other, looked at me, and paraded in an orderly fashion right back into their pen! I didn’t even have to latch the gate while I did my chores!

A lot of you are upset, because the weather has been so nice lately. It felt like March, and maybe you wanted it to stay that way till March, and then have April and May be warmer too…And that may still happen.

 

I for one wouldn’t like it. I was outside today waiting for some hay to be delivered for my goats. That required that I take down the back wall of the hay stall, and then once the hay was rolled in, set it all back up.

From start to finish I was outside, in the falling snow for a little over an hour. I was wet. I was a bit chilled. I was covered in a little mud, a little goat poop, and a lot of bits and pieces of hay. In all honesty, I was a bit miserable.

But I went in the house, cranked up the heat a bit, and after I washed my hands made some coffee, and a ham and egg breakfast sandwich.

With brunch settling nice and warm in my belly, I took a nice hot shower, put on a heavy pair of pajama bottoms, and a nice heavy sweater, and in less than an hour’s time, I was warm and content.

Now, let’s fast forward to August. After a few days of rain, the sun has come out with a vengeance. It’s 90 degrees, and it is humid.

The goats, afraid they will melt in the rain, have been in their stall all week, and now it smells like goats! I have to wade through the goat poopy mud, and clean out the stall, and lay down some clean straw, or sawdust.

Before long, I am hot, thirsty, and dirty. I am covered in sweat, mud, and poop. Sticking to me is also hay, and sawdust, and I am covered in bug bites to boot.

Once inside, I drink half a gallon of ice water, maybe eat some watermelon. Then I strip naked, and jump into a nice cool shower. Once out of the shower, I run around the house in a pair of shorts, and muscle man shirt.

What happens next? Half an hour later, I am hot sweaty and gross again! To get even a little cooler, the only thing I can do now is strip naked, and even then, it is not enough. Not to mention… WOW…What a sight!

Sorry folks, complain all you want, but most of you will be complaining when it is hot and humid too! Do like I did…Pick a season, and stick with it! In the end, you will be happier!

I choose to be cold! No matter how cold it is, I can always get warm! Dress in layers. Stay inside. Drink something warm. Eat something hot. And let’s not forget that sleeping in the cold under warm blankies is THE BEST!

But hot, naked, and sitting in front of the air conditioner, and STILL warmer than you want to be? That’s no way to live!!!

For those of you who are in my facebook list, who INSIST you love summer, and the heat, remember this…I WILL be watching come summer time for you to complain when bed time temps are in the mid 80’s, and I WONT let you forget it!

Doug Alley

About Doug Alley

I grew up in Bath, Maine in an upper lower class family with 3 step sisters, a step brother, and a little sister. After high school I spent 3 years serving in the USAF at Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage AK. I've competed in, and won, demolition derbies. I've competed in, and never won, stock car races. I am the 47-year-old father of an 11-year-old boy who is pretty sure he is smarter than I ever was. We live on a little less than an acre of land in a 1973 mobile home in Stetson with my wife Jen, some cats, a few chickens, and rabbits, and a couple of goats. I hunt, fish, camp out, dabble in photography, gardening, and I cook in variable degrees of near success.