Portage River Farm

Ok, I know I promised to lay off of comments about the snow. I have an excuse because another neighbor came along and introduced himself today.

As you can guess, we received another dumping of snow. We barely managed to get Janet's car out to the road without it bogging down from the pile of snow it was accumulating as we raced along. Once we reached the county road I climbed out with my trusty shovel and wished her a safe drive and a good day at work. Then I began shoveling away in the hopes that I could have it passable by the time she returned.

After five hours I had managed to reach the halfway mark. That is when an old pickup with a snowplow pulled into the driveway. I stepped to the side of the road and did my best to straighten my back out from its usual stooped-over shoveling attitude as he came toward me. By the time he pulled even with me and rolled his window down I had already rehearsed my planned explanation that I couldn't afford to pay him to plow the drive (I was assuming that he was looking for new snowplowing customers).

The jovial gentlemen behind the wheel extended a hand and introduced himself as my neighbor from the other side of Toma Road. He greeted me to the neighborhood, told me about his family and his former career as a machinist. I told him a bit about myself and the family and took a few jabs at myself for moving to the country without proper preparation to deal with the tons of snow that mother nature has been tormenting me with.

He said, "I don't know that I would say that. We don't usually have these kinds of winters!" After a little more small talk he mentioned that he needed to get back to his house but would plow the rest of my drive for me on his way out. I expressed my gratitude to which he replied that he was only being neighborly and said "besides, you never know when I may need some help myself."

With that said, he shifted the old truck into gear and gave me the rest of the day off! I plan to make good use of the day, call up some friends and invite them to bring their kids and join my boys and I in attending a magic show this afternoon in a nearby town.

The picture is only about two-third of the driveway. That tiny spec at the end of it is our farmhouse!