TURNQUIST COLUMN: Winter this year should be better

By Terry Turnquist, Sauk Prairie Eagle columnist

I awoke early Sunday morning because of a dog that did not like the sound of coyotes chasing something through our front cornfield.  

Cody can hear a pin drop 5 miles away, and never misses a doorbell ringing on the TV. He jumped off his bed and went to the patio door and was growling at the sound. I was able to quiet him down, but waited for half an hour before I let him out for his morning escapade.

That whole thing would have been fine had it not happened at 3:20 a.m. We both are early risers, usually about 5 a.m., but 3:20 is pushing my patience to say the least.

We went back to bed, but didn't get much sleep as the coyotes came back through again at about a quarter of 5, and that was enough for me. I got up, fired up the computer, and found out that we are under a "winter weather advisory." Now, I am not sure exactly what that means, but I don't think it is good, especially after last winter.

What confuses me about the advisories is that there is a lot of difference between 1 inch of snow and 7 inches of the white stuff, but both seem to warrant an advisory if the winds reach a certain velocity.  

Since I have lived my whole life in Wisconsin, I can live nicely with an inch of blowing snow, but don't like 7 inches of blowing snow. However, it seems they get equal billing.

As soon as the morning light was enough to see, I picked up the two rolls of garden hose that I coiled the previous day and took them to the basement.

Unless we have an open winter, they will not come out again until spring.  When the winters are relatively open, I fill my water tank for the horses with a hose, but if there is a lot of snow, I just carry 5-gallon containers to fill the tank. If I stay on it, I can easily keep the tank filled with three our four trips per day. If I get behind for some reason, I can put four of the containers on my ATV and drive them up to the water tank.  

I also had to remove the top of our patio swingset and put that under cover. I had forgotten that it was still there, but I noticed it when I removed the garden hose.

We love that swingset with the cushions in the summer, but it becomes a storage problem later in the year. I guess that is what basements are for, and since I have given up on using mine for a recreation room after the floods this spring, it might as well serve some useful purpose.  

I will wait out the storm, if it really hits, then I will have to clear the driveway and a path to the barn — and await the next one.  

I have spent the past two Saturdays helping Linda and Eric Sorge of Pikes Peak Percherons as they did their horse-drawn wagon rides around the square in Baraboo.  They will continue with the free rides each Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. until Christmas.

I am there just to help with the horses, and if necessary to help riders as they get on and off the wagon. They call me the "Bad Elf," but I think again this year I got an unfair rap.

I promised to behave this year, and not throw frozen horse apples at cars that go the wrong way around the square. I try to do my best.

- Terry Turnquist is a combination of Andy Rooney, John Wayne and a 16-year-old boy with a new sports car.