Snowy Chores

Even though it takes forever to get all my clothes on, to walk through the drifts, to break all the ice, to haul extra straw, etc, etc, etc………………there is just something very fulfilling about doing chores in the snow and cold.  Making sure the animals have plenty of food and water and a warm dry place to stay just gives me the warm fuzzy’s.  It is one of my favorite things to do!  In fact it is on days like this when I linger a little longer, talk to each animal, stop to pat a head, gaze on the mamma’s and babies, look out on the beautiful white scene around me and listen to the silence.  God is good!

A Hoarfrost Day

Definition of Hoarfrost

1. Noun. Dew-drops which have undergone deposition and frozen into ice crystals to form a white deposit on an exposed surface, when the air is cold and moist.

Work Is So Much Nicer When It’s Shared

Poultry around these parts must be feeling extremely friendly these days, this is how we found one of our geese and one of our turkeys, both sitting on the same pile of eggs!

We also have two turkey hens sitting on another pile of eggs together and a neighbor says she has the same thing going on at her house.  She has raised turkey’s a lot longer than I have and she said she has never seen this before.  Maybe it’s the extremely cold spring we’ve had.  They might have decided it would take both of them to keep the eggs warm enough to hatch or maybe they are just trying to keep each other warm!  Either way I hope they are successful.  I’m a little concerned, while they were laying them each day, trying to get a big enough pile to sit on, the eggs were exposed to sub-freezing temperatures at night.  They always covered them up with straw before they walked away so I’m hoping that was enough to keep the eggs viable.  We’ll find out soon enough, but in the meantime, this sure is an awfully cute sight, don’t you think?

Three Seasons in One Week!

Wow has this been an unusual spring.  We will experience three seasons in the span of one week.  Sunday and Monday our high was well into the 90’s, then on Wednesday here came a late spring cold front and down into the 30’s complete with a strong north wind and snowflakes!  But no fear, by Sunday our forecast says it will be 64 and Monday 71!  Doesn’t God have a wonderful sense of humor?  I really don’t mind, I’m much more a winter person than I am a summer person and I know the sweltering heat will find us soon enough.

And it has given me a couple more days to enjoy one of my favorite things about winter.  We have an old wood burning stove out in our shop that has a fire going in it all winter long.  It would have many tales to tell because it is the gathering place for all the truck drivers waiting on their repairs to be done, or when it is too muddy for them to get their oil-hauling rigs down the dirt roads.  Whenever Mark takes a minute to drink a cup of coffee that’s where he goes, and when he decides to call it a day, there are always two or three or more guys ready to sit a few minutes to shoot the breeze before locking up the shop and headin’ in.  During the cold weather months, I load lunch up and take it out to the shop for us to enjoy around the fire.  Sometimes I make a huge pot of chili and a batch of cinnamon rolls.  I take extra bowls and spoons so anyone who happens to be out there can join us.  Sometimes I take hot dogs, buns, chips and s’more fixin’s and we use the fire to cook our lunch!  Today it was just usual lunch fare of chicken rice soup and sandwiches. No matter what it is, it always tastes better,  is more fun to eat and warms you to the bone when you eat it gathered round the open flame!

Mark and our son Bryan

April 10th Ice Storm

I love weather!  I love that I live in a place that has four distinct seasons and a place that the sudden changes can “shock and awe” us!  Last night was one of those times.  After a couple of weeks of beautiful spring weather filled with working in the garden, planting potatoes, onions, and green beans we got slammed back into winter.  And I mean slammed!  We had a drop in temperature from one day to the next of almost 60 degrees!  And after the sun went down the much-needed rain started to fall and promptly turned to a good half-inch of ice.

When I went and checked on our critters before sunset, there was no moisture showing up on the radar so we didn’t bother running them into the building because they really don’t care for being in there.  When I heard the rain start I was worried sick about the turkeys because although I dearly love them they aren’t exactly the smartest tack in the drawer and I knew they wouldn’t go in on their own.  I reminded myself that wild turkey’s don’t have buildings to go in and they somehow seem to survive.  Daylight found them covered in some ice but still spunky and happy to see us.

The ducks and geese have a little more smarts about them and they had gone in on their own, so they came through completely unscathed.

I didn’t have to lose a bit of sleep over Gracie and Liddy Ann.  They hate moisture of any kind, and I knew nothing would get them out of their warm straw-filled shelter!

The only problem I encountered was getting the door open on the chicken coop so I could feed and water them.  Light taps with a hammer finally made the latch and door submit and the chickens were set for the day also.

There is something very satisfying about taking care of animals in the cold, making sure they are warm and fed and comfortable.  Maybe it’s my imagination but they act grateful for your efforts.  It’s even more special when someone you love does the same for you, scraping off the snow and ice and scattering salt so you won’t fall.

Taken during a snowstorm earlier this year

Again, we need the moisture so badly I won’t even lament the fact that the fruit trees were blooming and will probably bear no fruit this year.  I do have hopes that the onions which are planted in a big round stock tank will come through OK.  I’ve heard that when the plant is covered in ice it insulates it from the cold.  I’m crossing my fingers because I’m counting the days until I can start pulling and eating those candy sweet fresh onions!

Wonderful, Wonderful, Rain!

Woke up to rain this morning.  Before last summer I wouldn’t have even noticed.  Before last summer I might mention a quick “Ho Hum” prayer of thanks for the moisture, but since we lived through last summer, that has changed forever.  Last summer was so dry in our area, we had no measurable rain from September through August and we had never experienced anything like it.  The temperatures soared past one hundred degrees day after day after day.  June through August saw unending temperatures of 105 – 110 or higher.  The nights offered no relief either, when we woke up in the mornings at dawn, temperatures of 80 or better met us.  It was unbearable to be outside by 9:00.  Gardening produced very little crops, the pastures and ditches and yards were brown or even white they were so dry.  All creeks, rivers and ponds went dry.  When we walked across our white Bermuda grass yard, it would crumble to powder beneath our feet.  Farmer’s in the area had to sell their livestock because they had nothing for them to eat.  Listening to the weather man only increased our misery as he would say night after night, no rain, no change, no cool front in sight.  Long term forecasts said we were in the same pattern that they saw in the “dirty thirty’s” and they expected this pattern to last for three years or longer.  We envisioned the dust storms of that era happening here.  Mark questioned should we water the grass close to the house for fire prevention purposes or save the water.  We worried that our well would run dry.

When fall came and we got a small shower it was met with such gratitude.  Heartfelt thanks to the Lord showed up on Facebook and in our conversations.  And although we were still in the severe drought category, winter gave us enough rain here and there to make the wheat fields look healthy and green.  Spring brought even more rains and some ponds started filling up.  However, I think other people shared my fear that once summer hit it would be just like last summer.  But, oh, thank you Lord, it hasn’t been.  Every week or so we’ve gotten rain!  Everything is green, the garden is producing, the ponds are full, the rivers are running and the temperature has only reached 100 one day and the nights are cool.  Now when I hear rain, I am just so grateful, I know rain is one of God’s most precious blessings.  The little inconveniences that come along with it, the tracked in mud, the messy chicken house and eggs, even the high humidity it brings, are no longer inconvenient.  I guess that saying is true, you don’t know what you have till it’s gone, and boy am I grateful that it has come back!

Techno-Colored Storm

Sometimes I think technology has cost us more than it has given us, but after an afternoon and evening like yesterday, I am grateful for every bit of technology I have at my fingertips.   It isn’t uncommon for people in Kansas to keep one eye to the sky in April.  But it is a little unusual for the weather people to tell us to be ready twenty-four hours in advance!  We were warned by the TV, the newspaper, the radio, Facebook, and each other.  I called kids and they called me to make sure we knew we were  in for some rough weather.

The day started out overcast and cool.  I thought maybe they were wrong, then my oldest daughter called to ask me if I’d looked at the radar.  So I got on-line to check it out.  Sure enough, one big red blob, followed another big red blob, followed another big red blob, all heading our way.  I turned the TV on, thinking they were probably having continuous weather coverage, and I was right.   My elderly mother lives thirty miles to the south and has no basement, so I was watching the movement for her and I both.   I soon called her and told her it would probably be a good idea for her to head on over to her neighbors.  I went out to the shop to tell my typical, weather-ignoring husband if there was anything he wanted to put in the shop, please do it NOW!  Not long after that, my cell phone rang with a robo-call from the weatherman saying we were now under a tornado warning.  Since I had the radar to watch on TV, the internet, and my phone, I could see it was still a ways off.  So I started gathering a few important things to take down to the basement, threw the cat down there, took a couple of chairs down for us to sit on, filled a few water bottles and took them down.

By this time, Mark was in, and the electricity went off.   But our cell phones still worked.  Since Mark has an I-phone, I was able to get access to the same continuous weather coverage I had been watching on TV.  In addition, with my phone, I pulled up the scan app and listened to our local law officers, who were out spotting for any funnel.  Listening to them,  I knew exactly where the storm was and that it was rotating, that it dropped significantly, but never made it to the ground.  Before long it passed us, but I called a daughter who was in its continuing path.  Even though the storms continued through the night, we were never threatened again, but town after town was.

The news reported there were ninety-seven tornado’s in a relatively small area before the evening was over.  Luckily, no one in our state was seriously hurt, even though there was a lot of damage.  I’m sure all the warning we had is one of the reasons we came through a day like that with no one being killed.  I have to laugh at all the different gadgets I used to keep track of the storm, but yesterday, I was grateful for each and every one of them!