Is Winter Really Over?

 Is Winter Really Over?

Last Friday morning, I sat at my desk answering emails and writing letters, all while watching the birds have a field day (get it?), picking at something—whether seeds or bugs, I know not—at every little patch of newly re-exposed grass/weed outside. They were so very intent on eating whatever it was that they kept chasing each other off the little patches to scrounge for food themselves. It was quite comical.

In the afternoon, I put on my muck boots and tramped through the snow to place the newly-written letters in the mailbox. Time for another rosary, if you’ve been following my journey. But this time, I interrupted myself and decided to take some photos of the animal tracks along the way. The last time I went out, there were many deer tracks. This time, the rabbits had been out playing, too. 

First, a snow angel made by one of our angels.

There are a couple of 6 inch drain pipes running under the driveway. On either side of this one, there were plenty of tracks leading up to, into, and out of it!

Some various deer, rabbit, bird, and mouse tracks, although many of them were not too fresh, and the blowing wind had taken away their sharpness.

Later that afternoon, the snow started once again. This time, the snowflakes were large. It was quite a beautiful sight, seeing them swirl and dance in the wind. I tried to take a video of it, but the camera just didn’t pick it up the way the human eye does. The light, graceful swoops and pirouettes of the flakes went on for several hours, but without dropping enough snow on the ground to even see a difference from what was already there. But by the next morning, the accumulation of snow was enough to see that Jack Frost had dusted the whole place once again.

The temperatures remained below freezing, but, with the sun shining down, some places, like awnings and rooftops, started melting the snow. Icicles formed where the freezing air temperatures caught the meltwater before it could fall to the ground.

Once it got back up to nearly 20 degrees with winds only about 10 MPH, the goats came back out!

And then, Sunday night the temperatures only dropped down to 16 degrees and, with a full day of sunshine on Monday, we reached 48 degrees! Here is a shot of the chapel parking lot about noon on Monday, as, for the first time in weeks, the gravel started to be exposed!

By Tuesday at noon, this is how it looked!

It was at this time that I decided to walk to the mailbox once again. This time, since it was so darn hot, I was back to wearing sandals with no socks. But I had to turn around while still in the parking lot and go put on my jacket and hat, for the temperature today (Tuesday) was only about 35, and I had been a little too eager to be done with winter! What I found along the way was what happens to all the melting snow. Mud. Kansas mud is as slippery as ice and it doesn’t wash off easily once it gets on shoes, clothes, floors, etc.

Further along the drive, the snow hadn’t melted all the way, so I had to walk through the icy slush, which was preferable to the mudpuddles. The photo below doesn’t show just how treacherous the driveway was that walking in the mostly frozen stuff was the preferable alternative! And, no, those are not my footprints off to the side. Somebody else had already taken this path and showed me the way to safely traverse the danger zone! But I walked in the brownish sludge, which was not so deep.

Finally, I leave you with photos of the last little bit of remaining snow near this cabin. From a normal distance it looks like soap foam, as if someone had put dishwashing liquid in the dishwasher (as a visiting priest once did, so I know what a 6 inch tall wall of foam looks like as it covers the kitchen and gets pushed out the door!). But from up close, from down low, it looks more like our own private glacier retreating from the massive boulders it carried with it over the eons and miles.

With prayers for your holiness,

Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka