Living on the edge of “nowhere” has its challenges and rewards. The White Crow Ranch is off the beaten path, in fact, the road scrapers stop just a mile up the mountain road from our little homestead.

In a good winter, you can guarantee being snowed in for a few days, week or more. One must be ready to endeavor some of the most spectacular landscapes in the United States but first must survive its creation.

Blizzards that last for days if not hours will howl down the valley floor and up to the pinon` lined mountainsides at a hair-whipping 65-70 MPH… And with it a deep blanket of dry cold snow.

This year we beefed up our solar. Our wattage had been a sparse 900 watts an hour on two 12 volt solar bank batteries. The first winter we lost power just about every other day! Our Solar system wasn’t able to bank the power and provide passive power on cloudy days. The act of the pump coming on with water use zapped the batteries. Leaving us heating pots of water on the amazing wood stove. Watering three horses, a small flock of chickens, humans, several dogs was a challenge the first year.

This coming winter will have a set of new adventures.

The community East of me suffered serious forest loss in a fire that burned over 110,000 acres in nine days.

With no trees to slow the snow, we will have a deeper pack at lower elevations. (great for the aquifers, tough to get around)

We need it considering THIS was the heaviest rainfall we had all year back in early August.