Month: February 2021

The prettiest, nastiest kind of storm

Sometime during the night, the winter storm arrived and not with snow as predicted, or if it did snow, it was minimal. I got up at first light to hear the sleet hitting the metal roof. The dogs were not amused, they ran out and right back as quickly as they could relieve themselves.

As the day dawned lighter, I could see the layer of ice on everything. The deciduous trees glistening like they were lit up, the evergreens sagging under the weight of the ice. Icicles hung from the eaves, the rails, the bird feeders.

The resident deer family coming close to the house in search of grass or green that wasn’t frozen.

The sleet stopped around 10 this morning and there is a lull in the storm until late afternoon, but when I got up, the power was flickering so I started fires in the wood stove in the basement and the fireplace in the living room in case it failed. So far it has stayed on, but the temperature isn’t rising enough to melt off the morning ice before the afternoon and overnight ice is due.

A couple of years ago, daughter brought home a little slip of a pine tree from Arbor Day at work and I planted it in the yard near the larger pines and marked it so it wouldn’t get mowed down. By last summer, it was as tall as I am but thin with all the needles at the top. When I looked out this morning, it was bent to the ground and I feared it would break so I went out to stake it. The first stake wasn’t long enough to protect it.

I went to the garden and dug one of the 7 foot long fake bamboo poles out of the ice and got it imbedded beside the pine and tied the pine to the pole with some tie loops that are stretchy tshirt material. I hope I have saved it from this storm.

The walk to the mailbox was slippery so no vehicle will be moved today, but the walk allowed an afternoon photo of one of the larger pines weighted down by the ice.

I expect if we get more ice added to the coat that is there, we will see broken branches. The creek is roaring, but I didn’t want to risk the slope to look down on it to see how full it is.

I would rather have snow, but actually, I’m ready for warmer weather and some sunshine.

A Calm before …

We have had a two day calm. Mild yesterday early, with wind picking up, a few snow flurries, and the temperature dropping rapidly from the upper 30s to 17f over night. Today there are actually moments of sunshine and hopefully milder temperatures before the next winter storm descends upon us tonight. Yet again, we are supposed to get snow, turning to freezing rain sometime tomorrow morning, then back to snow later. More ice to break limbs, damage power lines, and send more people into darkness and no heat. If it stays cold long enough, the ice will be minimized.

The German Shepherd’s vet appointment for tomorrow has already been rescheduled for next week. Our vet lives way out on a rural road as do we and she may or may not be able to get in to the office. She comes to us for the big guy, but Shadow will still jump in the car and we can take her to the office.

Now that the hay bale that is used in the chicken run is about half its original size, I cover it to protect it from the rain and snow so I can peel off layers to put down in the hen’s run. They will get food and water inside the coop tomorrow, they won’t set foot outside when it is snowing. Once it stops, I can put hay down for them to exit the coop.

The bird feeders were filled, I will probably fill the wheelbarrow with wood again, the wood cart is still full and there is still enough in the basement for a day or two.

Last night’s low temperatures froze the ground surface so this morning’s chores weren’t performed in mud, but unless it warms enough to thaw the surface before the storm, it will give it a better surface to stick and accumulate. It will stay cold Friday and Saturday, not warming to above freezing until Sunday, so it will stick around.

Last weekend, I applied a flex seal along the bottom trim of the windshield, I had already done so along the top edge, and we left the car out of the garage in the rain day before yesterday to see if I had taken care of the leak. I haven’t. I have no idea where the water is coming in, but there was a little water on the dash and the passenger side rug was damp again, not soaked like before, so maybe I improved the situation. I guess the car will live in the garage from now on when we aren’t using it.

As I was preparing dinner last night, I realized what a sorry lot my kitchen linens have become. I pulled out a dish towel, faded and dingy and remembered it came from a niece with a potholder, apron, and cookbook more than 25 years ago. I snapped a picture of it with the apron and sent them to her as a memory.

Most of my dish clothes, unpaper towels, kitchen towels, and pot holders are stained, worn thin with holes in them, and dingy. Maybe it is time to warp the loom and make some new ones to replace the old purchased ones. This little towel above is the perfect size and thickness to use on my tray when canning, so it will still be part of my collection.

Last night I made a big pot of stew, a couple days ago a pot of goulash. If we lose power, they can be reheated on the woodstove or a camp stove and we will stay nourished. For now, other prep must be done. We have been lucky so far this winter with only short outages or flickering power, but ice storms can change that.

We Won’t Need April Showers, Thank you

In ski country, when the snow pack melts, they call it mud season. There are parts of the country that could use rain, snow, or the other YUK we have been receiving.

Mornings and evenings require donning the thick ugly pink barn coat, a hat or the coat hood, muck boots (sometimes ice cleats would be nice), either leather or thick fleece gloves depending on what task needs to be done. Boldly opening the door to the garage, gathering feed and water bucket, tentatively opening the door to the outside and assessing my safety on the stoop there. Is it wet, coated with ice, or deep in snow. At this point, I actually prefer the snow, at least I can safely walk in it. Some days when looking out, the grass and trees glisten with tiny icicles hanging from the limbs and fences. Those mornings are treacherous, the stoop and other surfaces, including the grass are like stepping on a kitchen floor where cooking oil was spilled, but for the past week or so, even though surfaces resemble the ice palace in Dr. Zhivago, the surface below is mud, thick, goopy, slimy mud. If one surface doesn’t get you, the other one will.

I keep a good thick layer of hay in the chicken run, which as I have mentioned before, is sloped, highest at the end away from the pop door. After opening, or chipping the ice off the gate to pry it open so I can get to the pop door, the first step is always a challenge. For some reason, the preferred scratching place in the run is right in front of the gate, thus all the hay gets piled deep at the other end in front of the coop. Of course, the rain, freezing rain, snow haven’t helped as they make the hay itself slick once compacted. Every few days, a new layer is put down and every evening when I lock them in for the night, I drag hay back uphill to the gate for my evening and next morning safety.

Each morning for the past couple of weeks have looked like the above pictures. The top one was this morning with freezing rain forecast, but it is pouring down not frozen rain as I write. We are in full blown mud season.

The daylilies have sprouted tender green tips which will get burned by the next onslaught of bitter cold, which is sure to come. The mud will freeze again and thaw again before the grass and trees sprout to drink up the spring showers. After two warm winters, my plans to get more cardboard down in the garden and build up a couple of new beds have been foiled by real winter this year. Maybe it is good that I can’t garden year round, this winter is giving my body the needed rest.

Yesterday, on our Anniversary, we drove into town and got drive thru breakfast, it was too icy on Saturday when we usually do it, so we missed the Farmer’s Market, but so did many of the vendors. We picked up curbside delivery of grocery items and came home, sitting near each other as I spun on my new spindle, a gift from my love, and some on my wheel as one of the fibers I purchased for my blanket, though enough was spun on spindles to fulfill the one block requirement (actually there will be two), I don’t like spinning that particular fiber on spindles, so the remainder of the braid is being done on the wheel.

Late in the day, we picked up the Valentine’s Day special from the local BBQ restaurant and drove down to the river to eat. We arrived to pick up our 5:15 p.m. order at 5:10 and it was already sitting packed on the counter, so it wasn’t hot. Packed in styrofoam clamshell contains, several each, cutting and eating from them was a challenge in the car. We should have brought it home and put it on real plates, rewarming what could be warmed. It was not the fancy anniversary dinner of the past, but it was shared together, watching the river flow by in the drizzly gloom. It was a very uneventful day, but a day spent with each other. Another tick off on the calendar of our lives together and another to look forward to.