Well, it's been a hard winter out on the prairies, cycling between above freezing (creating a sheet of ice everywhere) and large snow dumps combined with very d@mn cold temperatures (down to -36C plus windchill. This cycle makes every last thing harder; and the ice dams on my house are causing real problems (and a lot of highly inventive cursing as I chop ice and dry out insulation). The wide temperature swings load me down with a lot of "make work."

But there can be bright spots. Had fun yesterday, with some city kids visiting. After they were saturated with video games and broadband internet, I convinced them to come out in the yard, along the shelterbelt trees, where the drifts were four feet deep and dense enough to walk on. In an hour and a half, we dug a 3-person snow shelter, put a wood/tarp/snow roof on top, put in a real glass window for fun, fashioned a snow bench to sit on, and dug out alcoves for a ton of candles. Then their mom came out for photos, with candles in the foreground and a winter sunset behind. I think the two sisters have a good memory of the day; they've already scheduled 'uncle' to help them build a summer shelter. (And having made points, I now have a snazzy snow cave to work with.)

It looks like March is coming in cold and miserable. Good. Believe it or not, the old saw "in like a lion and out like a lamb" tends to hold true up here.