And suddenly, it's winter!

I was in town this morning and a woman told me that all this snow we've had is so unusual this early in the season. Since this is my first winter here in Charleston, Illinois, I have nothing to compare it with. This past Saturday, Rich & I ran into our neighbors down at the Rural King. They asked us if we were ready to get snowed in. The forecast was calling for less than an inch of snow, but with a lot of wind. Both of us thought back to what that kind of storm would have been like in Denver, and thought our neighbors were exaggerating. The storm that came was nothing like we expected: almost 24 solid hours of windblown snow. And while it did snow more than predicted, it didn't snow much (about 3" fell). Sunday night as we lay down for bed, the house was shaking in the gusts out of the north, the windows howling, the trees bending. It was quite frightening. In the morning we discovered that had someone not plowed the road, we would, indeed, have been stuck. The drifts across the road were sporadic, but where they were stood at least three feet tall. Two large pieces of tin from the barn's roof were lying in the yard. Branches thicker than my legs had been snapped off trees. And there were patches of bare grass and dry cement on our front porch. Wow. So now, my perspective of winter has changed. And so quickly! Tonight, the weather service is predicting snow followed by freezing rain and sleet followed by more snow tomorrow. It sounds like a nasty mix of weather to me, but am fascinated to see how it turns out. If it yields more beautiful pictures like the one here I took of the barn yesterday morning, I'll be happy.
A little while ago, I took one of the dogs out with me to pick up the mail. There is no wind blowing. The clouds seem static. The only sounds were our feet in the snow and crunching the ice. To be able to experience such wondrous silence while picking up the mail at the end of the driveway is a welcome treat!
By the way, welcome to my blog. I know some of you have been asking me to get this going, so you can keep track of my transition from city boy to farmer... Herein I hope to document my successes and failures. The beauty of country living and some of the crap. (One of them is dealing with satellite internet, that keeps shutting off...) Let me know what you think! I'd love to know folks are reading!