Last week we had an ice storm. 
No, that’s overly dramatic and not very accurate.
Last week we had lots of nice beautiful snow. Then the temperature did un-winter like things and the precipitation that fell was not snow. One morning I woke up to discover that we no longer had snow. Instead we had white ground covering what looked like snow but was actually ice and it was still raining/sleeting/hailing/anything-but-snowing.
It’s like snow, but instead ice with hail frozen to it’s surface between the puddles of water. Notice the dog isn’t even running- it was that slippery.
I headed out to do the chores and while ice was glistening on all the branches making a beautiful sight it took me an unprecedented amount of time to haul my buckets of water across the ice that was masquerading as a snowy yard to the birds. 
I let my birds out and the geese walked down their ramp and tried to walk across the snow-ice to their water pan but their big ol’ feet kept slipping in old ruts and they fell on their faces. I would have taken a video but they don’t like me laughing at them and if they found out I had done that they would have held a grudge. You don’t want a goose with a grudge.
Instead, I slipped and slid and swore my way over to the brooder house with it’s winter supply of straw and then slipped and slid and swore my way back over to the poultry and spread them a nice layer of straw so they could stand and walk without slipping. 
Satisfied they’d be fine for the day I started back toward the house doing my now second-nature awkward penguin shuffle with the tiny steps as slipped in and out of every old foot print I ever made, occasionally flapping my arms like a dancing ostrich to keep my balance.
Then I stopped the insanity, looked back at the geese happily walking on their straw and headed back to the brooder house.
You know what they say, What’s good for the goose, is good for the gander.
And me and the dogs…
Happy with my straw trails, I shortcuted through the non-slippery house to the front to see what sort of beautiful ice coatings I could find and to check out the driveway.
The ice was indeed beautiful.
The driveway was indeed ice.
But what’s good for the goose…
… it looked odd, it was a bit unorthodox but it worked!
Behind the Willows 
I love it, what a smart woman you are!
Why thank you! 🙂 (And people wonder why I blog… 😉 ❤ )
Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
Necessity has always been the mother of invention!
Yup, I wasn’t going down that driveway for sand or salt when I didn’t think I could make it back up.
Better to walk on too!
That straw trail is brilliant!!!! Lovely pictures and what a great post of winter pictures!
Thanks. 🙂
How did you get it all the way down the driveway?! Our area had horrible ice last week too and even worse two weeks ago. A friend has a driveway like yours and she had to hire someone to ice it because they couldn’t drive out. Love the photos that went with this story too!
I pulled a little plastic sled with straw bales and walked. It’s long- but it’s not that long! 😀
You hauled a LOT of straw. We have a sandpile at the top of the driveway, but a little sand goes a long way on ice, and it can be hauled on a sled. Give yourself a gold star for all this work.
We had no sand on the property and it turns out I can fit two straw bales on a sled too! 🙂 Which froze to the ground with all the freezing rain just like I was hoping and it’s worked good ever since. Had it not frozen to the ground it would have been a lot of work for nothing but thankfully sometimes things do work as planned! 🙂
This is great!
Thanks! 🙂 ❤
And it biodegrades back into the land when winter’s over! 😀 Brilliant. 😀
So far so good! 🙂