What a difference a year makes.

As January turns into February, the weather feels more like late October than the middle of winter here in Central Minnesota.

By all past experiences, we should be plowing snow and scraping windshields during this time on the calendar. But we’re far from that right now.

I remember writing a column about a year ago about how bad the winter was hitting us. I had to shovel the roof three times and break off three-foot icicles to keep the weight down.

We could barely walk from the house to the chicken house, the barn or the machine shed because of a lake-sized area of three-inch thick ice.

That weather, and the huge snow drifts it left behind lasted into mid-May. The weather ruined our plans of having a scavenger/Easter Egg hunt in our woods with my wife Rita’s son’s family from Florida. That Sunday in April, we couldn’t even get to the woods.

We never expected winter to carry on so long, but we vowed to be prepared this year. In November, my wife said her son’s family was planning another trip to Minnesota for the week of Christmas.

Since they were used to warmer weather, we knew they wouldn’t have any winter clothes when they made the trip. So Rita made a list of everyone’s clothing and shoe sizes so we could have things ready when they arrived.

We spent a few days over the next few weeks searching for boots, warm coats, hats, gloves and scarves so they would all be prepared to enjoy being outside. We even got a few sleds so they could have fun on the sliding hill.

Again, the weather didn’t cooperate. It rained for three days around Christmas and remained above freezing. No one needed the winter clothing - or the sleds. There wasn’t even a trace of snow until the day they were headed to the airport for their flight back to Florida.

Since then the weather’s been pretty mild. We’ve had a few small snowfalls. We had about 10 days in a row of temperatures below 10 degrees and a few mornings below zero. But considering how things could be at this time of the year, I’d say we’ve had it pretty easy.

And weather forecasts are showing temperatures in the 30’s, 40’s and reaching near 50 over the next two weeks.

I can live with that.