The Winter Blues, doesn’t sound all that appealing does it? It’s not, but its definitely a very real thing. If you live in an area that deals with long, cold winters then you definitely know what I’m talking about. This is our first winter at this current ranch we’re working on and let me tell you, Montana decided it wasn’t going to go easy on us.

Our home here on the ranch is in a beautiful creek bottom at the base of the Crazy Mountains (if you aren’t familiar with the Crazy Mtns. look it up, you’ll thank me later). It is stunning, and I’m not trying to sugar coat it to make it seem better than it is. It is BEAUTIFUL. This ranch was homesteaded in the early 1900s and this house we live in is one of the oldest homes on the place. Winter 2024 started slow, normal winters start in October-ish and we get snow, but it’s not all at one time. Not this winter. She waited till January and swung in with a vengeance. While the temperatures haven’t been nearly as cold as they normally are, the snow fall amounts have been UGHHHH! I’m talking 6+ inches at a time, and we get more snow at our place versus just a mile down the road lol! When I say it’s been bad, I mean it’s been worse than when we lived in Alaska. Kid you not. Now normally winter is my second favorite season of the year, the first being fall. I love the quiet, peacefulness that winter brings. The sparkle when the sun hits the snow, absolutely beautiful. And the temperatures never really bother me, even when they dip into the negatives so my nose hairs freeze instantly. Nope, I still have loved winter.

When winter finally decided to hit this year, I thought “It’s about dang time”. This is normally the slow down season for ranchers, catch up time for all those things and projects that had to get pushed to the back burner. With that normal winter it gives the animals time to adjust to the temps too, which doesn’t seem like it would be important but it is. When there’s no transition, it puts so much more strain on the animals. They’re eating twice as much just to keep their body heat up and support the calves they’ve got in their bellies. Which then means we’re going through twice as much hay as we should, not good at all.

So what do we do to try and deal with these winter blues? Hell if I know lol! What I normally do during winter… catch up on my shows or re-watch the good ones, get some leather projects done that I’ve been putting on the back burner. The kids usually take this time to take on an extra class or two, and even learn a new skill. My 12 year old has been going crazy learning all the things lately. We tend to do a lot of baking during winter too, nothing beats fresh, warm homemade bread and a big bowl of soup. Now that we’re in April and still dealing with winter though, we’re running out of things to do. The games have all been played thousands of times, projects are all caught up, extra classes are finished….. those winter blues have set in and it’s beginning to seem like they might be permanent. BUT next week they’re calling for warmer temperatures and sunshine, I am crossing every finger and toe I have that this weather will stick and we are finally out of Winter. I have got a garden to plant, colts to work with, a fat sassy Silvy to get legged up and most importantly….all the vitamin D from that glorious sunshine. I hope that if you’re reading this and dealing with the same, you see that others are right there with you, we’ll make it through, eventually lol! The end is near, and soon enough we’ll all be wishing the warm weather was over so we can slow down and play in the snow;)