Enough Snow Already!
Last night we got more snow. Nothing like the previous snowfall, but still. This is the SOUTH, so ….
ENOUGH SNOW ALREADY!!!
Our Maremma sheepdog, Neffie, doesn’t look too thrilled with the snow. I agree with her.
Granted, it’s just a light blanket of snow. . .
The sheep don’t care about the snow, whether we got a lot or we get a little.
It’s not a lot of snow, but it evidently is possible we’ll get more snow this week-end. sigh…
Enough snow already!
From snow to rain. . .
Yesterday it was warmer, so the snow mostly melted. There was still some in shady places, but mostly, it got gone. That’s good, because it was a little strange to see guineas on the windowsills.
"Can I come in?"
I’m used to seeing cardinals, and English sparrows, and Tufted Titmice, and a lot of other wild birds, but I don’t usually see a dove sitting on the windowsill.
"Got anything to eat in there?"
I guess their usual feeding places were covered in snow.
The chickens and the guineas hated the snow. HATED it. They didn’t want to get down and walk in it, so the chickens stayed in their roosting areas, and the guineas just flew from tree to tree, or to fenceposts.
"I am NOT getting down in that cold white stuff!"
Now they’re all out and about again, so things are back to normal. Well, as normal as it ever gets around here.
So now after a beautiful sunset last night. . .
Sunset on the farm.
We’ve got a dreary, rainy day. But it’s warmer. And the snow is almost all gone… still a little in those shady areas of the woods!
In the south, liquid precipitation is much, MUCH better than solid precipitation!!!
The Snowy South
It’s even colder today than it’s been all week. The snow is not going to melt any time soon from the looks of it. Our local weatherman informs us that this is the third largest snowstorm in history for this area, the first being 1963, then 1988.
I wasn’t here for either of those snowstorms, but The Farmer was. He says he remembers the one in 1963 well. Having just moved here from Wichita, Kansas, the snow didn’t seem unusual to him at the time. Now after living in the south so many years, he knows better, ha!
We took a ruler outside with us and measured snow all over the place.
Measuring Snow on top of wellhouse.
Most of the places we measured showed around 7-inches of snow. Although some places measured a little more, and our neighbors swear we got 8-inches of snow, 7 was the average around here.
The guineas and chickens hate the snow. The chickens have mostly stayed put in the sheds, but the guineas get out and fly from tree to tree.
Guinea flying up into snowy tree.
Some of the guineas even flew up on the windowsills to check things out.
Guinea peeking in window after snowstorm.
The snow doesn’t bother the sheep or llama, and even our goat doesn’t seem to mind getting out in it.
The Farmer and Toby and I enjoyed tromping through the woods and checking out the snow. Here’s a video with pictures I took from around our snow covered farm:
.
.
This last picture I took this morning when The Farmer and Toby were walking around the far side of the pond.
Farmer and Farm Collie in the snow.
All this snow reminds me more of when I lived in West Virginia or Iowa or northern Ohio. It’s been fun for a while, but I’m glad we don’t have to deal with this much snow on a regular basis.
No more snowmageddons in the south please!
Midnight Southern Snowstorm
It’s midnight here in the south, and the snow is falling thick and heavy.
Midnight Snowfall
As you can see here, the snowflakes are fat and there are LOTS of them!
Snowflakes at Midnight
Toby the Tough doesn’t mind a little snow and runs around all over the place. Where I go, he goes.
Toby braving the snow!
I tried shining a flashlight on The Farmer’s tractor to get a picture of all the snow piling up on it.
Allis Chalmers with a blanket of snow.
The snow is piling up fast, and the ramp to the work shed is buried in snow.
Lots of snow!
I was out checking on the animals. I wanted to be sure everyone was in their proper place. They weren’t. The goat had pushed her way through a gate and went into the sheep shed. Now there is plenty of room for 1 goat and 3 sheep in this shed, but there’s just one problem. The ornery goat stands in the doorway and won’t let the sheep in. So I had to chase her back into the pen with the llama.
Getting tucked in for the night.
If she would just go up into the corner of the pen, she could be snug and dry. Of course, the little rascal caused the sheep to be covered in snow because they were standing out in the snowstorm.
Snowy Ewes
At least they can spend the rest of the night in the shed and not become abominable snow ewes from being outside all night!
The chickens are smart and roost in the middle of the shed.
Snug and safe for the night.
The guineas get in the mix too, and get in out of the snow…. some of them anyway. Others choose to stay in a tree, even though there are plenty of places they could be in out of the weather. Others roost along the outer parts of the sheep shed.
Guineas looking for shelter.
I’ve done all I can to make sure everyone is snug and sheltered from the snow. Now I think I’ll go to bed myself. It should be interesting to see how much snow there is tomorrow morning! Many pundits around here are styling this SNOWMAGEDDON in the SOUTH!
Water, Water Everywhere!
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.
– from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Well, actually, that’s not quite true. The problem was the water was in the wrong place!
I was all excited because today is much warmer than it’s been in a while, and I figured I could use the hose hooked to the faucet by the wellhouse, and fill up all the water buckets. Sure beats carrying water in frigid weather!
Unfortunately, when I got to the wellhouse, I was stepping in big puddles of water, and there was water gushing out of the drainage holes in the bottom layer of bricks.
Well, this isn’t the first time this has happened so I knew what to do. . . go in the house, find the circuit breaker for the pump, and flip it off. The Cave Geek did that for me, and helped me scoot back the roof on the wellhouse to peek inside. I couldn’t really tell much, but obviously one of the pipes froze up and cracked during the really cold weather, and when it warmed up and thawed today… water, water, everywhere, but not where one could drink!
At this point, I was really bummed on several counts.
- The Farmer is going to have to fix the pipes, AGAIN.
- Why didn’t the little heater keep it warm enough?
- And now I’m going to have to carry water to fill buckets!
I figured with all the buckets and no more than I can carry at one time, it would take about 18-20 trips to fill them all.
Well, you know that old saying… necessity is the mother of invention! I figured since I was going to have to use county water anyway (house has county water, not from the well… I don’t know why it was done that way…) — Anyway, since I couldn’t get any water from the well and going to use the county water, I decided I might as well hook up a hose to the faucet on the back porch and string a lot of hoses together to reach the buckets.
Cause it seemed to me easier to string a bunch of hoses than to carry lots and LOTS of buckets of water. So that’s what I did.
So on the bright side, the buckets are all filled up with water again.
On the not-so-bright side, the plumbing must be fixed on the well. Again.
That’s life on the farm in the winter!