Weeks 3 & 4: Ice Ice Baby
It began to feel like the 1993 movie Groundhog Day around here. Single digits and Snow. Then it rained. Conditions were SLICK. We looked out over our pastures but they looked like frozen lakes instead. Just when we hoped to break the repeating pattern of days spent inside, the iced over snow and grey skies kept us entertaining pure rambunctious heathens by this point.
It wasn’t all craziness. Clancy braved the weather day in and out. Even when it was too slick for me to get to the barn, he braved it on his hands and knees, crawling to the barn. That is dedication! The ice was sketchy and caused us to cancel appointments and plans, but honestly, it ended up being the comic relief we needed! It was so ridiculous watching the dogs spinning their wheels and wiping out on the treacherous ice-glazed snow. Clancy and I could slide around on our bellies like baseball players coming into home!
We noticed a shift in his demeanor, a maturing of his interests. Clancy started ‘jigging’. That’s what he calls it. Nathaniel is a very talented musician. He taught himself to play the guitar as a kid and now learns all his favorite songs. He strums and sings and can even play the harmonica in between!
Clancy started to sing with him and then even play along with his ukulele. He started taking it a step further by playing along with Youtube lessons. For such a rough and tumble boy, it is fascinating to see him perched up concentrating.
His first song goes like this: “Shootin’ deer, got to feed my family…” on repeat. He really likes to record them playing. Time will tell but he sure does enjoy capturing a soulful performance. Director or performer? Probably both. Haha.
All snow events must come to an end. Even this iciest event we’ve ever experienced. The skating rink to the barn saturated the gravel. The muck behind the barn in the horse runs, epic yuck. Rivers of melt pooled around the cow’s auomatic waterer and while the 8 feet long erect sewer pipe stayed true, the water washed and compacted the dirt around it to create a sinkhole that sunk the railroad tie fencepost next to it. The fence is still solid after recompacting with more dirt, but now we are left to decide if we should deconstruct the fence and reset the post.
It is hard to imagine how the snow and rain and freezing temperatures will effect things. We do our best as we go but hind sight is always 20 20. I did learn a few things during this event:
Even the smallest amount of cast salt on ice creates traction. It was also fun to hear it snapping and popping like rice crispy cereal.
Always keep the sliding barn door clear of snow completely. Even the tiniest amount of sno along the bottom will lock it open or closed solid. Bonus: don’t leave anything infront of the sliding door that can get frozen down and keep the door from being shoveled clear.
Keep the ATV trailer either stored under cover or with the tongue up out of the snow and ice. This will keep water from accumilating and freezing solid in the front of the trailer and keep the hitch holes open for easy using when we need to haul wood to the house.
Don’t use parking brakes on the truck, tractor, or ATV. They can freeze like that.
Tractor hydraulics don’t work well after days of sub zero and single digit weather.
We need a closer wood storage solution or ability to have 1-2 weeks worth of wood at the house for seriously cold events like this. We had to run our mini-split and two wood fireplaces to keep the house around 58-62 degrees. We went through a lot of wood!!
When we installed the automatic waterers, we created more work and expense in fencing with where we carefully selcted to place them. Rather than putting them next the barn, which was most efficient for fencing, we placed them out of the barn eve drop zone. As the snow started sliding off the roof, it landed safely between the waterers and the barn. No digging out waterers, yay!
It was little things like this we celebrated with gusto to keep our morale up. Never having to use a single hose was another. These Nelson waterers were thoroughly tested, our work and ability to plan and install something we had no experience with was also tested. A+’s all around!
The rain kept sporadically coming, but the ground kept miraculously absorbing it. It is going to be a ferociously weedy year around here! The chickens returned to pasture, making quick work of scratching up old wet cowpies. We bedded the goats up with hay which meant that I had more mulch to place on the garden once we were able to strip the goat stall and start them fresh! Deep litter bedding doesn’t work in our barn because we have drainage gravel under rubber stall matts in each stall. The bedding doesn’t lock in the geothermal heat of the earth and cause compost. It just molds on top of the rubber matts. So we keep less bedding and strip often.
Life returned to normal, Nathaniel getting material for kitchen cabinents. He was finally able to put his palletforks to their true use: unloading material from his flatbed trailer directly into the shop. It worked so slick. We’ve rigged some sketchy stuff up in the past to unload tools and material or did it sheet by sheet, by hand. The work Nathaniel has put into figuring out and fixing the tractor to be able to use quick connect implements is paying off; I am so proud of him. We can switch between bale spears, bucket, pallet forks, and even run it with nothing with such minimal effort and so quickly!
He can switch front attachments faster than I can feed two horses and five goats, and I can do that in a few minutes!
Throughout the bad weather, I made the best of it by working on my online Gluten-Free Sourdough Course. I knocked out SO much of it and am really excited, albeit very nervous, to open it up to the world of gluten-free bakers out there! It is very much geared towards the baker who hasn’t had success or the newbie who needs it all spelled out, literally. I have written it to feel like I am having a conversation with you from my kitchen. It is witty and informative. The videos are short and direct for easily replaying to see the exact movements.
It isn’t sexy photos and video, just real and from my kitchen to yours. I love that it is built and accessed through my website, so I can update it as I want and own every part of it. I will launch it and have a round of Cordelia starters available sometime in February. Before March is the goal!
We closed out January by saying good bye to Clancy’s Tia/Nathaniel’s sister/all of our best friend, Robyn, as she moves to Seattle for new adventures and a career shift to work directly with kids at Seattle’s Children’s Hospital. Clancy was an enthousitaic mover and got to go for a ride in the big 20’ U-Haul truck! Obviously we will miss her, but we are very excited for her and Jet the cat!
