Are you ready?

What a crazy couple of weeks it has been here on the farm. It all started when I decided to clean the carpets downstairs, which required us to empty all the furniture out of the computer room. We had to drag everything into the kitchen so we could get to the carpets in the computer room. Yes, I did actually mean the plural, as in "carpets". There are two carpets stacked on top of each other in there. The house is a rental, so we don't question why things are the way they are, we just ignore them and go on. Once we cleaned the top carpet, we had to carry it upstairs to a bedroom.Then we had to clean the bottom carpet and the rest of the house. Believe me this was a several day project.

Once the carpets were dry, and I could reassemble the computer room, we discovered there was something wrong with the internet, so I couldn't get back to blogland. Boy was I unhappy and grouchy!

When we finally got that fixed, we realized that fall had ended and winter had arrived. This wouldn't have been so startling except for the fact that fall had only been here for a few weeks to begin with. It is already COLD out on the prairie. Winter has arrived about a month and a half earlier than we expected. We got our first frost recently, and it was so heavy it looked like snow. Then a couple of days ago, it began to sleet. I have been working frantically trying to get the house winterized. A more than century old house with little insulation out on the windswept prairie can get colder than you can even imagine during the winter. We learned this the hard way last year. Now I am busy covering over windows and closing up the top floor as we prepare to live in the just the bottom floor of our house. I am hoping to avoid those GIGANTIC energy bills we had last year.

The big dilemma right now is ..... snow blower versus snow blade. The snow here was a huge shock to us last year. We were totally unprepared for the pounding we took from the weather.

Here is what I wrote about it earlier this year:

Winter is hard on the prairie. This was our first winter this far north so we had no idea what to expect. It turned out to be the worst winter here in 30 years! The first snow fell on November 30th. It basically never left for many months. It almost melted a few days later, but it never completely vanished. Then the really nasty part of winter arrived. The temperatures fell and the snow storms began appearing every 2 to 3 days. Our driveway became impassable before Christmas. Going anywhere required me to dig our car out of a snowbank, then shovel a path to the cornfield. Next I had to shovel a path out of the cornfield back to the driveway to actually reach the road. Finally we had to just leave our cars at the end of the driveway and walk the quarter mile to the house through the drifted snow carrying our groceries and other purchases. Eventually that didn't work because our cars wouldn't even start when the temperature fell to (-25) and the windchill was (-40)!

Now you can see why I have been nearly frantic about winter arriving a month and a half early! I am determined to not be trapped and frozen all winter long again, and I don't want to be shoveling snow at 2o degrees below again either. So we are trying to decide if it is best to buy a snow blower that you push or a snow blade that you put on your lawn mower. Part of our dilemma is the fact that we don't want to spend too much money for something that we may only use for one season. My husband's employer is so unpredictable that by next winter we could be living somewhere deep in the heart of Texas, hence an expensive snow blower would just be a waste of money and something else taking up space in the garage.

If you have ever purchased or used a snow blower or a snow blade, I could use your help. Please give me your opinion on which you think works best and any particular brands that work well or should be avoided. Thanks. Hopefully I will be done covering windows and moving to the warmer part of the house soon, so I can return to blogland. In the meantime, blessings to you and I hope you are staying warm wherever you are.