Are You Ready ... Get Set ...... Snow

Well, here in Cornwall we are still snow-free. Now some might say that this is a blessing but I have to confess, I love it when it snows. I love snuggling up in front of the fire all warm and cosy and basically being a hermit for a day or so but I also love taking the dogs into the field so they can enjoy it too. I have already posted on my blog on why I think it will be quite a bad winter this year (you can read about it here) and in anticipation of this bad weather, I've done my usual blizzard lock-down preparations.

Snow in 2010

A few years ago, when we had a couple of really bad winters and we even had quite a lot of snow down here in Cornwall, I was totally unprepared. I almost ran out of heating oil, I had no coal and I had to walk to my local shop to buy food every couple of days because I was limited by what I could carry back in my rucksack. It was a valuable lesson and now, I try to be ready for all eventualities. I've bought extra food, both people food and animal food, I have stocked up on coal and moved extra logs from the field and I have checked the oil tank is full. There is no gas supply where I live, so we heat the house with oil and an open fire and now, I always make sure that the oil tank is full at the start of November because there is no chance of getting an oil tanker down here if it snows.

Frozen Pond 2010

I know this all sounds really melodramatic but both times I have been snowed in, it's been for almost 2 weeks.  The roads were treacherous. First it snowed, then it thawed a bit, turning the snow to slush and then the slush froze. Then, it snowed again leaving about 2 inches of snow over an inch of ice. The biggest problem of all is that I live in a valley with steep hills to negotiate in order to actually get to a main road. It was almost impossible to walk on the roads, let alone drive and although the local farm tractors managed it for a day or so, even they had to admit defeat in the end after one of them ended up in a hedge! My nearest shop is a 20 minutes walk away without snow, in the snow and ice it can take up to 40 mins to negotiate the hills so it's much better to be prepared than to yomp to the shops in the snow. 

So, with emergency blizzard preparations complete, I can then sit back and look forward to some snow :-) I love the snow. Two out of three of my dogs love the snow, Indie, my Alaskan Malamute absolutely loves the snow and would stay out there all day given half a chance and Levi disappears into a blur of snow and black spots (he's a Dalmation) but Metro, my rescue collie, doesn't like snow. In fact he doesn't like the rain or cold weather either. He basically likes a nice comfy sofa by the fire, having his ears stroked and contentedly whiling away the hours until the weather starts to get warm again :-)