Winter is here, but the snow is still absent. Our pastures and wheat fields are dry, waiting to be covered with their blanket of white.

The geese passed through the area a few weeks ago. The sandhill cranes begin mid-October with our first push of an icy, cold front. Those temperatures were in the low teens and stayed that way for the week.

We thought, then, we would have a long- rough winter. But we were wrong. A few inches of snow fell, and then it was gone. Now, there is only dry land. The pastures are bare of any white smatterings of snow.

It’s hard to say how long this will last. Hopefully, not too long.

I like the no-snow, no-blizzard time, but I would be blind to think that this would mean easy times for our ranchers, farmers, and wildlife. We need the moisture. The ground needs the snow.

This land defines our folks living on the Western prairie, and the weather determines the landscape and all that reside here. Be they the migrating birds, the four-legged wildlife, or the two-legged folk carving their livelihood in this place we call home.

Are we dreaming of a white Christmas? You bet we are!