The High Plains Two-Step

This time of year the dance step is called "freeze-melt-freeze-melt." The days go up into the 40s and occasionally much higher, and then nights go down into the teens or lower. Melt, freeze, repeat.

Just the other day I had to run some errands and left the place early. My so-called road was frozen over, ridged with ice and rough as anything. The "ponds" were gopher ice-rinks and there was a lot of bumping and crunching as I made my slow way out to the two-track, which had also glazed over.

I got back in the late afternoon, after everything had melted. Tundra had turned to swamp. The ten or eleven mini-lakes between the auto-gate and the house were fully thawed and the mud was deep. 4WD out, 4WD back.

This will go on for the next month at least, and probably well into April.