We again have had a series of near early summer type weather, but hang on, it is Virginia in the springtime. Yesterday 78 and warm at night. Today 81 and 39 at night. Thursday 43 and 28 at night. Then we have several days of typical spring weather followed by a couple days of deep freeze with nights in the teens. If you don’t like the weather, stick around for 24 hours, it will flip flop.
The Forsythia is beginning to bloom, if it freezes, we will lose the pretty yellow blooms but no harm done. The plum is in full white bloom and a freeze will mean no plums this early summer. I may take a sheet out to cover it Thursday and next week when it is again cold and hope to salvage some fruit.
The pullets have finally figured out the outdoors and going back in by themselves at night. I only had one night of catching all ten and one night of catching one. Yesterday, the cover of the tunnel was refastened. The end needs some work, but it should only take me an hour or so to finish the work and another few minutes to secure some areas that don’t quite reach the soil line, then they will be given access to more space.
On our daily walk, we saw two woodchucks, aka ground hogs, aka whistle pigs that have burrows on the edge of the trail. Both were out sunning, of course darting back into the burrow as we approached.
It is the season where a few flowers from the yard can be brought in to adorn the table. Now there are daffodils and forsythia. The bearded iris and daylilies are showing and the autumn joy is showing green. It needs to warm up a bit more before the wildflower, zinnea, marigold, and bachelor button seed can be sown.
As we had been able to plod to the car up the hill in ice cleats and get out, we had been staying well supplied. Monday evening, we decided to go to town and see a movie. Though the lot was full of cars, we were the only two in the theater for the film we selected. Walking down from the car when we got home, using a flashlight to guide us, I apparantly lost one of the slip on cleat units on one of my boots and didn’t realize it. We were about 2/3 the way down to the house when that foot hit ice, slid out from under me and down I went hard on my back. Fortunately, nothing broken, I got up, carefully moved to an area of a drift of deeper unfrozen snow and got back to the house.
The next morning, using my remaining cleats and one of hubby’s, I walked back up to find my missing one near the car.
As we had a very early appointment on Wednesday morning in the city about 75 minutes away, we packed a backpack with overnight gear and next day clothing, trudged up to the car and drove to a hotel in the city nearer the appointment. The appointment got delayed by a couple hours and after a minor complication, ended up spending the entire day there. On our way home as night fell, it began to snow again. Not wanting to risk another walk in the dark, I drove carefully down our icy driveway to the garage. The snow accumulated another 1-2 inches on top of the ice. It is supposed to get up to about 35f (1.7c) and sunny today, so maybe last night’s snow will melt off, again leaving us just the ice.
The young man that mows, bales, and takes our hay is coming down this evening with his truck and snowplow to try to break up the ice on our driveway and clear us a path so we can again get out.
The weather prognosticators are threatening another inch or so tomorrow afternoon and night and a cold Saturday, but then a warming trend with a couple of days actually reaching the 50’s next week, so maybe it will begin to melt off.
The snow is beautiful, the ice is treacherous, especially for our 78 and 82 year old bodies. It is time for the winter to moderate back to cooler, dryer weather and let this mess clear off.
And wake up in Maine? The storm for which all the preparations were made ended up about 4 inches of snow and 6 inches of sleet. We never got the freezing rain, thank goodness, and our power never went out. However, the highest temperature we have had in a couple of weeks is in the upper teens and most nights in low single digits. With those temperatures, the ice wasn’t melting. Late in the week, we got the AWD SUV to the top of the driveway and out for more supplies. To get to and from the car, 2/10 mile away, we have to don ice cleats on our shoes to prevent falling on the ice.
To make life more interesting for our senior souls, on Friday, we had another storm and about 6″ of dry blowing snow dumped on the ice. This morning, we managed to trod up to the car through the drifts and get out once again. Though once at the car and the snow brushed off, the cleats removed in the vehicle, I foolishly got back out without thinking and slipped to a sitting position by the driver’s door. No injury, just embarrassment at being foolish. We have had animal care duty for the past few days and needed to go check on them, thaw water bowls, feed the indoor critters, and purchase feed for my chicks and bird feeders. We got a short mall walk in while we were out, and parked the car again at the top of the driveway, hauling 90 pounds of feed down to the house on a plastic tobaggan that we had stashed in the back. The high today is 20, last night it went down to 5 and is expected to do so again tonight. The wind is howling and blowing the dry snow into drifts. Because of the wind and the fear of losing power, the woodstove has been burning for most of a week now. It heats the basement up to about 75 degrees and some of that heat rises to the first floor bringing it up to about 70. The upstairs is the 68 that the thermostat is set on. We finally have a couple days in the near future where it is going to get above freezing, but also three days of snow or snow mixed with rain, expected in the next 6 days.
This is not typical Virginia winter and if the groundhog came out today, he would definitely see his shadow and 6 more weeks of winter (like there won’t be anyway by the calendar.)
We are in one of the eastern states that is in the path of the winter storm marching across the south. Far enough north that we will get snow followed by freezing rain. This morning’s prediction is 8 to 12 inches of snow followed by .25+ inches of ice. This is enough to cause power outages in our rural area where most of the above ground transmission lines run through wooded areas. An ice storm a number of years ago, took our power for 6 days and without power, we are also without water and our stove is electric. At that time we had two dogs and couldn’t just leave them to go to a hotel once the roads were clear enough to get out. We live about a half mile from a paved road, all uphill. This snow and ice event is supposed to be followed by a series of days where we will see single digit to very low double digit temperatures and even some negative temperatures at night, so melt off anytime soon is remote at best.
We have a small tractor with a blade, but it won’t handle a foot of snow for plowing the driveway. Beginning about three days ago, every time we drove by the grocery store, the large parking lot was packed and since I didn’t do any canning this past summer, there was little on the pantry shelves that could be quick cooked. We generally shop on Fridays because we get 4 times gas points and braved the mobs of hoarders. It is fascinating to see the “bread and milk” buyers. If the power goes out, the milk will spoil. We picked up some produce that doesn’t require refrigeration, a few cans of soup, a couple packs of quick rice, and a couple packets of chicken. Once home, prep was done here. With a fireplace in the living room and a wood stove in the basement, we can keep the house from freezing. I filled a couple food safe 5 gallon buckets with drinking water and the downstairs bathtub for toilet flushing and dish washing. There was a load of wood in the garage and another in the basement, but I hauled 5 wheelbarrows of wood to the covered front porch, right by the door. Cleared a spot for the camping stove in the garage, located my backpacking alcohol stove that will boil water or heat soup, and the camp pots, so if necessary, we can eat. The three solar lanterns were put in the sun to charge up and the power block is also being charged up.
Since the freezer has sausages in it, we bought a couple long forks for cooking them on the fire, and a package of buns.
The hope is, since we are prepared, we won’t lose power, but if we do and can’t get out in the car, we won’t dehydrate or starve to death. Hmm, think I better go grind some coffee beans too.
Here’s hoping it was all unnecessary preparation, but rather be safe than sorry.
A friend commented that she missed my blog, which tells me, I haven’t been posting as often as I used to.
While we were away, it rained heavily and our dirt and gravel sloped driveway took a beating. We came home to deep gullies and evidence that someone other than VDOT had attempted to smooth the state road so getting to our mailbox was a real challenge. Our tractor has a blade attachment on the back and I am getting quite adept at smoothing out the mess. I no sooner got it improved than we had another two days of heavy storms and my work was destroyed again. Again, the tractor and I tackled the mess and got most of the driveway smooth enough to not drag bottom on the car coming in and out. When the fiber optic crew was here before out trip, laying the new line, one of the guys on a small backhoe dug out the ends of our culvert for us. The rain now has a better path, but the steepness of the driveway still allows serious run off. The state road is hazardous to drive right now and the ditch below our culvert is filled with gravel from the road.
The weekend we got home, our eldest local grandson (not the eldest of all of them) was graduated as a distinguished scholar from high school. As his high school is in the process of being significantly enlarged, they held the graduation at the basketball stadium at Virginia Tech, so each student had unlimited guests. He had many, some from as far away as Florida come to cheer him on. Daughter and SIL threw a party that afternoon for everyone and many of his friends as well with lots of food and cupcakes. He will enter Virginia Tech in the Engineering School in the fall. We are very proud of him and his accomplishments as a student, with the robotics team Fabrication co-leader, and in Taekwondo as an instructor and as a 3rd degree senior black belt.
Last weekend, our spinning group had it annual spring porch party always hosted by the same couple. About 20 of us gathered for an afternoon of socialization, spinning, and an awesome potluck. I brought out my spinning wheel for the first time in a while and started a very colorful braid of Organic Pohlwarth which I finished a couple of evenings ago.
All of these weekends have thrown our usual routine out the door until this weekend. We resumed our Saturday morning breakfast out, followed by the Farmer’s Market and good local food to supply our freezer and refrigerator.
Soon I will be able to harvest peas, some volunteer new potatoes, and garlic from our garden. The tomatoes and peppers are growing, green beans and corn getting taller. We are about at the end of asparagus season (hubby says Yay, though I don’t serve them to him.)
I do need to week whack the paths again.
The other craft I have dug out, is to set up my sewing machine and make a couple of simple summer tops as the weather has been in the 80’s and humid. As you see, I’m not a good selfie taker, but this is one of them.
All is well on the farm. Holding out hope the rain doesn’t mess up the driveway again until I can figure out what is causing the tractor to stall out repeatedly. I may have to have the repair folks come and get it and give it a once over.
Ruminations of a housebound mind: Do you ever hear a voice on the radio or a podcast and “see” that person in your mind’s eye, even if you have never seen that person before? I do that all the time and am usually so far off base when I see that person’s picture. One of the podcasts that I enjoy is “The Way I Heard It” by Mike Rowe, a face everyone has seen and I see his face when I listen to the podcast. Another one I like is “99%invisible.” Now this is where my mind’s eye played serious tricks on me. After listening to the podcasts for a couple of years off and on, I googled Roman Mars, the host and let me tell you, he doesn’t look anything at all like I envisioned. Funny now when I listen, I see the picture I googled, but it just doesn’t fit. If you have never listened to this podcast, do, but start with some of the very early ones that were short with less advertising.
Today is Day 2 of ugly weather, not drizzle, but downright miserable. It is cool, blowing from the northeast and cold, heavy rain.
Critter chores left me soaked in minutes even in rain boots and rain jacket. They are getting lots of use, last night about the time I was going to get ready for bed, the time the pups get their last potty run for the day, I smelled skunk smell. I was inside the house, so went down with a flashlight to see if I saw the critter in the front yard. The smell was really overwhelming on the front porch. There was no way those dogs were going out there unrestrained to have a meet and greet, so again, the rain boots and jacket were donned and the pups taken out in the cold blowing rain one at a time on leash to do their nightly business. The odor was gone by this morning, fortunately, I had feared the skunk had taken refuge under our front porch.
I had been reading a book that clearly is or will be a series. It was a free selection from Amazon Prime and the story was one of those that you were supposed to accept as believable, but no way could the actions in that book have gone unnoticed by law enforcement or be forgiven by law enforcement and the ending let you know that there is more to come. No thanks. A friend posted on Instagram that our public library is doing curbside delivery of books you put on hold. I will soon run out of re-reads here at home, so I may have to browse and hold a couple from the library.
This is my May, social distance spinning. Everything below the rainbow fiesta is spun on those three spindles. The red, orange, and yellow of the rainbow were also spun on the larger one, but I quickly tired of it and spun the green, blue, and purple on the wheel, then plied it on the wheel. I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought those 4 punis (rolags), nor do I know what I will do with 2 ounces of chain plied fingering weight rainbow. It is only 132 yards, maybe enough for a cowl or skinny scarf. It is not sturdy enough wool for socks, enough for fingerless mitts if I want to cut each color apart, then divide in half so they are more or less matching stripes. It is drying now, will be skeined and set aside until it becomes a plan.
Yesterday was fresh bread day. Two loaves started first thing yesterday morning and baked by noon of half whole wheat yeast bread for sandwiches. I love my cast iron bread pan that hubby gave me for Christmas and since I always make bread two loaves at a time, I ordered a second one which should be here before next week’s bake.
Before the pandemic, bread baking here had all but disappeared except for pizza dough and occasional biscuits. It was a staple in our house when the kids were growing. It is a pleasant activity to have returned to now that we are eating all meals in, and there is nothing better than the smell of fresh bread baking.
Stay safe out there as the world begins to reopen. We will continue to stay at home with a few curbside delivery outings as required, wearing our masks for your protection (and ours if you are wearing yours.)
Spring is just around the corner, I know it is. The calendar shows First Day Of Spring in just a couple of weeks. I know that we will have continued periods of cold, even snow flurries well into April and can’t put most things into the garden until mid May, but winter needs to stop already. We had a reprieve for a day or two and last week’s snow mostly melted, but between the melt, the roof drip off and the rain, the county is now under a flood watch. This isn’t a problem for us as we are high on the side of the mountain and our creek flows into a sink hole that when flooded, rushes down the west side of our property, still well below the house.
The roadsides that are steep from blasting to put the 4 lane main road through the valley are seeing minor mudslides, but the ground is totally saturated and pudding soft, so the fear of a more major mudslide that could block our ingress to town is possible.
Yesterday it rained, then sleeted, then rained and sleeted again and this is ongoing today. The high for the day, right at freezing and headed down about 30 degrees by midnight is turning the rain to more freezing rain and sleet with another 5 inches of snow due by nightfall.
The trees and shrubs are ice coated and if we really get a few inches of wet snow, there will be branches breaking and threats of loss of power. We have enough firewood to get us through a couple of days, but that is all. The grill’s propane tank is about half full and we have plenty of beans, rice, and frozen foods to make meals.
When I went over for chicken chores this morning, I realized that a small 5 year old dogwood near the side of the house has been seriously gnawed, probably by hungry deer. It was sleeting out and the ground is still too hard to try to pound in stakes to put a piece of fence around it, but I was able to force a couple of fiberglass poles around it and drape a piece of row cover fabric over it to thwart more chewing until I can get a fence around it to try to protect it. Perhaps I should check my fruit trees as well.
Our Virginia born daughter who has lived the last dozen or so years in Florida and her Florida born children arrived as an Arctic blast hit our region. The first two days they were here, we saw highs of around freezing and lows 10 or so degree lower. They are cold, to the bone cold and the next two days are colder. We awoke to 20°f (-6.67°c) and that is today’s high.
We have a wind chill advisory for the next day or so. It is snowing, mountain snow showers. The kids want snow to play in, but not this event.
When I took food and water to the chooks, the wind cut through me. I filled the PVC feeder that hangs inside the coop and realized that even the water in the coop was frozen solid. The waterer was brought in to thaw and a pan of water put in the coop. I opened the pop door, they ran out into the yard, turned and back into the coop, where they will likely stay today.
Other than trips to the coop to check for eggs and thaw water, we are going to hunker down indoors with a fire going, games to play, knitting, planning and reading.
My knitting is an Ouroboros Moebius from Margaret Radcliffe, a local knitting designer and author, a friend knit out of Green Dragon Gradient sport weight in Teal which I will treasure as this other local friend is no longer dyeing yarns. Son#1 and family gave me the Organic Seed Grower for Christmas and my two favorite seed catalogs arrived during the busy holidays and I haven’t had time to even look at them.
The day will be fueled by a pot of stew or vegetable beef soup and maybe a pan of bread.
We have had two absolutely gorgeous days in a row with mild nights. It has been windy off and on, but Mountaingdad has had two great motorcycle outings, probably the last two of the season. Tomorrow we return to fall weather, late fall weather, if the weather prognosticators are correct we will see snow flurries on Saturday. I am definitely not ready for the white stuff or any frozen form of precipitation. If it does happen, the pumpkins vines will finish dying off and the rest of the harvest will be made, the pepper plants and tomatillo plants will be tossed in the chicken pen for them to pick over. I really need to get the garlic planted and well mulched before the ground freezes.
While Mountaingdad was off riding, I was enjoying quiet time at home. Having planned on running errands and perhaps getting lunch out, instead I read, ate leftovers and did a bit of yard and garden work. Late yesterday, a package I had been awaiting arrived, a Turkish Spindle from Snyder Spindles on Etsy. I learned to spin on a top whorl spindle and wish I had learned on a Turkish spindle. After watching a You Tube to see how to set it up, I was off quickly spinning some maroon colored Merino. I love the way you wind the single on the spindle to create a center pull ball that can then be plied with another ball or plied off of itself. Though most of my spinning is done on a wheel, it is nice to have a spindle that is portable to take when visiting our kids. A few ounces of fiber and the spindle take up little room in my bag.
As I was spinning the fiber, I realized how similar in color it is to the yarn that I am using to knit the fingerless mitts to go with my hat and scarf. I had hoped that the mitts wouldn’t be needed for quite a while yet, but they may be welcome in just a day or two. I was unhappy with the first one and selected a different pattern to make it over and make the second one. I don’t really have enough done to show them off yet.
On Sunday, we were notified by one neighbor that another neighbor who we knew had been sick and hospitalized but released and home for a few days had been taken back to the hospital by ambulance and his prognosis was poor. This saddened us as he was one of the first neighbors we met and though we were wary of him at first, he and his wife had become friendly with the strangers in their midst. We were even more saddened to learn yesterday morning that he had passed Sunday evening with his family by his side. He and his wife are our age contemporaries on the mountain. He has had several health issues over the past couple of years and their cumulative effect were more than his body could take this time. Our hearts go out to his family at this time.
Today we found out that the company proposing the pipeline has filed their preliminary paperwork with FERC, so letter writing will occupy our time for a few days. Tonight we are attending a meeting on our legal rights. There may be nothing we can do, but we are going to fight to the end on this project. As oil prices drop, fracking become less desirable and new wells aren’t drilled. Keep hoping that the oil prices drop low enough to stop this. A sign we saw in town says it all, “Stop the fracking pipeline. Preserve the NRV.” If you want to read more about this issue, go to http://www.preservethenrv.com. While you are looking, do a search for the pipeline explosion in Appomattox, VA in 2008 and look at the photos of the damage that a much smaller pipeline explosion wrought.
Cabin Crafted 