outside cats

How quickly things change!

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Today we have been steadily warming up. When I headed out to do my rounds this morning, it was up to -15C/5F and looking lovely.

Lovely, until I actually stepped outside.

The wind was coming from the south again, which means we were getting the full brunt of it. The wind chill at the time was around -35C/-31F. It actually felt colder, after things had warmed up, than it did when we were at -25C/-13F.

The south winds whip around the corners of the house, blowing snow into the kibble house! I had to knock snow out of all the kibble trays before I could put food in them, then dig out the water bowls. You can see in the photo, the crust that formed on top of the heated water bowl.

Smart Nosencrantz, quickly ate, then went back into the nice warm shelter!

The path to the compost heap is completely gone.

I was going to shovel it out this morning, but the winds were just too severe. Instead, I went to the gate at the driveway. As long as we’re on the inside of the gate, the trees in the old hay yard block most of the winds from the south.

With the snow we’ve been having, it’s been blocking our ability to open the gate all the way. When our angel with the front end loader cleared our driveway, there was less space at the gate because of this, creating a bit of a bottleneck just inside the gate that was slowly closing in, more and more. I was able to clear enough know that we can at least swing the two sides of the gate until they are 90 degrees with the gate posts.

Note how nice and bright it is in the above photo. Wind was the only issue to deal with. I had to go into town later, and of course checked the weather. We were supposed to get snow later, but the weather radar showed clear skies. I kept zooming out to see where this weather system was, but everything was clear. I thought there was something wrong with the data until I zoomed out enough to see some rain heading across towards Florida. !! And yet, when I went online, I was seeing people reporting road conditions on the highways, talking about poor visibility and drifting highways. ???

The call we got about Cabbages came just in time, as I needed to head out before the general store our post office is in closed for the day; they are open only half a day on Wednesdays. We had some packages to pick up there, then I had to go to town to pick up a Purolator delivery at their drop off point, since we are not in their delivery zone.

What a difference a bit of time makes.

Clearly, the weather radar was messed up. It had started to snow by the time I left, and the couple of miles on the main gravel road to the highway was drifting over quite a bit. In the time I spent at the general store to get our packages and some more deer feed, the winds were dying down, but the snow was heavier.

Then there was the drive to town. Yikes! The closer I drove to the lake, the heavier the snowfall, and the worse the visibility. The roads were not icy, though, so it was still okay to drive, if a bit slower.

The parcel I went to pick up, however, wasn’t there. We had gotten a call from Purolator to find out where they should drop the package off; it was either the town we usually go to, East of us, or the town my mother lives on, which is further away. When we told them where to drop it off, they said the package would be there by 11am. When I got there, however, the person working there told me the drivers always come at 2pm!

Well, we certainly weren’t going to come back today, but we do have a week to pick it up, once it arrives.

This place is also a small convenience store that also does takeout. Since I was there anyhow, I splurged and got a bucket of mini donuts. :-D Happily, I had a small insulated bag in the van to keep them warm for the drive home. So it wasn’t a wasted trip, after all. ;-)

As for the drive home, the snow was falling even more heavily, especially in our area.

I’m so glad we’ve got good snow tires.

This is what it was like when I got home, keeping in mind that the camera on my phone automatically clears images up, so I can actually see more in the photo, than I could while taking it!

Then it was gone.

As I write this, the snow has stopped, and I can barely even see branches moving in the trees outside my window. We have warmed up to -8C/18F, and are still expected to reach a high of -3C/27F. Not quite as warm as had been forecast previously, but I’m certainly not complaining!

I’m glad this winter has been so much milder than the last two winters, and certainly thankful for the snow we’re having, that will be such a boon to farmers in the spring. It does make getting around more difficult, though!

The Re-Farmer

Morning rounds still have to be done, and more convoy talk

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After the very sad call this morning about Cabbages, I headed out to do my morning rounds and take care of the outside kitties.

Though the temperatures at the time were about -28C/-18F, it actually felt a lot warmer. At least around the house. There was a wind chill, but the wind is from the west, so we weren’t really feeling it. The outside cats were a lot more active, too.

It was feeling warm enough that I shoveled out the burn barrel again, and got it going.

We clear enough space to have room for the bags of burnables. That wall of snow is now taller than the barrel in places!

We couldn’t use the burn barrel in the summer, because of the drought, but we are now burning the wood pellet cat litter, instead of having a cat litter compost behind the outhouse. With so much snow around, I let it go down to a smolder, then put the cover on and leave it. It can continue smoking for days. As the pellets are used by the cats, they break up into sawdust. Which then freezes when the girls dump it into the burn barrel. By leaving it to smolder, the sawdust slowly thaws out, dries out, then smolders. It can take a few days, but it eventually gets burned away. It’s been so cold, though, I’m still finding frost inside the burn barrel when I uncover it, even as smoke still rises from the contents!

As soon as I cleared the area around the barrel and moved on to clear the path to the electricity meter, the space around the burn barrel got filled with cats! Not only does the space give them shelter, but the smoldering barrel gives off a bit of heat, too.

Still not as cozy as an insulated, sheltered, sun spot!

Oh, I got a peak at Potato Beetle this morning. The wound on his head seems to be healing up just fine. I could barely see the wound, and he looks more like he’s got a weird bald spot.

In other things, I’ve been keeping on top of what’s going on with the trucker convoy. This is something that affects us, even out in the boonies. We are surrounded by farms, and farmers need truckers. Heck, a lot of them have their own trucks. Most farmers have to have some other source of income. Farming doesn’t pay very well and, unlike most businesses, farmers have to buy retail and sell wholesale, instead of the other way around. So everyone around here is very supportive.

So are many others.

Last night, I heard that an estimated 10,000 truckers from various US states are heading for the border to join the convoy. Those that are not allowed to cross the border plan to stay at the border. Chances are, there are even more truckers from even more states by this morning.

The provincial convoy that started yesterday is still at the city. The national one is expected to arrive this afternoon, and they will join up and continue on to Ottawa.

In the Facebook groups supporting the convoy, I’m seeing numerous restaurant owners announcing that anyone in the convoy will be fed, for free. Food truck owners are announcing where they will be setting up to provide food. At least one of the Hutterite colonies has announced they are setting up kitchens in one of the muster points to feed everyone in the convoy.

Garages are offering free mechanical repairs.

People are offering their extra bedrooms for overnight stays, and bringing meals to the truckers.

The GoFundMe has topped $4,000,000. Because of how eager our government and GoFundMe are to prevent the money from actually getting to the truckers, there is a whole process worked out where truckers will be submitting receipts to be reimbursed for expenses, etc.

I haven’t confirmed it yet myself, but people have talked about finding the traffic cams along the convoy route are showing images of empty roads, or have simply been shut down.

The mainstream media is finally reporting on the convoy, but have been misrepresenting it like crazy. Almost all that I’ve seen have been reporting wildly lower numbers. A CBC article that tried to claim the truckers were protesting icy road conditions was so inundated by people calling them on it merely added a “correction”, saying they were talking about a different protest. Which they weren’t, because there were no truckers out there, protesting winter. Others I’ve seen have tried to say the truckers are protesting only the most recent mandate made against them. They aren’t. They are protesting to have all government mandates and restrictions for everyone, ended. That last mandate against them was just the straw that broke the camel’s back, after being treated like crap for years.

Commenters have been calling out the media like crazy for their misinformation and sloppy reporting. What’s interesting as well have been the (very few) detractors. I’m seeing people say things like, what difference does it make for them to protest in Ottawa, when it’s the US that won’t let them cross the border. Which has nothing to do with what the convoy is about. I’m guessing some media somewhere claimed that, and they believed it. Others have been calling the truckers selfish and making the usual insults about people just being scared of needles. I’m still seeing people saying that losing their jobs is just a consequence of their “choice” not to get the vaccine, and calling them anti-vaxxers. Most truckers are vaccinated, bigots don’t care about truth or reality.

I think the funniest detractors are those trying to portray the truckers and their supporters as PPC “cultists” (the PPC are the People’s Party of Canada, a new party that ran in the last federal election). Even more laughable are those trying to accuse the truckers of “dividing Canada”. I haven’t seen Canada more united over something in my life. I’ve even seen people dismissing the truckers for protesting now, instead of when our Prime Dictator called a useless, early election.

Oh, I just tried looking something up and saw that the GoFundMe has now exceeded $4.4million. Someone posted a screencap showing a $10,000 anonymous donation. I also just found this screencap.

May be an image of text that says "#TruckersForFreedom ForFreedom #FreedomConvoy2022 Rollando Lepageo Colorado 420 trucks Georgia 675 trucks South Carolina 650 trucks California 19,000 trucks Heading to Canada 1h Love Reply 2 2:55 AM. Jan 25, 2022. Twitter for Android"

If for some reason you can’t see the image, it reads:

Colorado 420 trucks
Georgia 675 trucks
South Carolina 650 trucks
California 19,000 trucks
Heading to Canada

Way to go, California!! Assuming that’s not a typo. That’s a massive number.

Not on this list are the trucks coming from Tennessee, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, Alaska and Florida, that I’ve seen elsewhere.

The most recent update I’ve heard is that the main convoy from BC is now over 150km long. That’s over 93 miles. I don’t think they’ve even crossed the middle of Canada yet, and more mini-convoys are joining all along the way.

What I’m not hearing is much from our politicians. Including our own Premier. I might just be missing it. As for our Prime Dictator, I’ve heard he’s on another vacation. The truckers are supposed to arrive in Ottawa on the 29th. Parliament was supposed to resume today, though from the parliamentary calendar, they’re scheduled to sit in parliament for only 1 day this month, and that’s on January 31.

The truckers and their supporters don’t plan to leave Ottawa until all mandates and restrictions are lifted.

It should be interesting to see how our “leaders” handle this.

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties, a mini convoy, seed sorting and s Cabbages update

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Late last night, I got a message letting me know that a convoy was going through our area this morning, to join the main one heading for Ottawa. I was invited to be there to cheer them on. So I headed out early to do my morning rounds and make sure the van would start.

At -27C/-17F, with a wind chill of -35/-31F, the cats weren’t too keen on coming out!

Unfortunately, we’re using some of the donated cat kibble (we got one bag for the inside cats, one for the outside cats), and they don’t like it. It’s a Superstore no-name brand. I’m happy to have it, but the cats, not so much!

Once that was done, I headed out. There was a group of us that met up in a parking lot along the main road (I later saw there was another group at the one other area we could park and face the road at). Thankfully, I was able to keep in touch with someone in the mini-convoy, who was letting people know how things were going. There was a huge turnout at the starting point, with trucks, tractors and personal vehicles. An estimated 150 or so. It took them a longer time than expected to get organized, and a long time just to get through town and onto the highway.

Of course, none of those farmers in their tractors, and other supporters, were going to be joining the main convoy to Ottawa, so it was a smaller one heading our way. By the time they passed by, there was a bunch of us waiting, including a family with young kids, holding signs and making noise to support our truckers. The kids got a lot of horn honking and enthusiastic waiting. :-) I don’t have the winter gear to be outside for long in these temperatures, so I cheered them on from inside my van while taking video. It ended up being more than 7 minutes long!

This was the lead vehicle.

This, btw, is “downtown” in our little hamlet. LOL

As to the lies mentioned on this sign, to give one example, the CBC – a Crown corporation that gets about $1.6 billion in taxpayer dollars every year – had the most insane headline talking about the convoy leaving BC. It was described as people protesting dangerous road conditions. !! I haven’t trusted what the CBC says for decades, having had too many first hand experiences of how incapable they are of reporting accurately, but that is bad, even for them.

As I write this, the mini-convoy continues on its way to the city to join the main convoy and, from what I hear, as they pass through larger towns and another small city, more truckers are joining.

The truckers have been put through so much over the past couple of years, it’s insane. They have massive grassroots support.

Since I was there for so long anyhow, I hoped to pick up the mail on the way home, but it was still too early. The mail was in, but not sorted yet.

Of course, it was after I got home that my husband got a notification that a package is ready for pick up.

I am not going out again, today!!! It’s still -26C/-15F with a wind chill of -37C/-35F out there!

When parking the van in the garage, I saw Potato Beetle was perched on the old tire we use to keep the doors to where my mother’s car is. The black rubber is a favorite sun-warmed seat for the cats! As I tried to pet him on the way by, though, he didn’t want me to touch him.

He has a wound on his head!

He kept squirming around and wouldn’t let me look too close, but it seems like he’s had some fur torn out, a bit above and to the side of one of his eyes. It’s not bleeding, and the wound looks small. Mostly, it’s just missing fur. In this cold, however, we need to keep an eye on it.

That’s what he gets for all the fights he’s been picking! I’m guessing it was the Distinguished Guest. She doesn’t back down.

There were other cats out and about, too, but not this one…

Nosencrantz usually comes out for pets, but not this time. She was staying in their nice, cozy house!

I noticed the timer got knocked off its perch again, which means the light sensor is not facing the window. That means the heat bulb will be on, all the time.

At these temperatures, I’m good with that. When things warm up again, we’ll pop open the roof and set it facing the right way again.

We’ve got one more day of this cold, before things heat right up. I’m seeing all kinds of crazy temperatures in the forecast for Wednesday. The Weather Network is saying we’ll reach -1C/30F. The weather app that came with my desktop says -4C/25F. Accuweather says 0C/32F.

The only consensus is that we’re going to warm up by more than 20 degrees Celsius in less than a 24 hour time period!

I am not complaining. :-D

After that, we’ll be dropping back down and hovering around the -20C/-4F range and staying there for at least a couple of weeks.

It makes me want to start planting something. :-D

Last night, I went through our seed packets and sorted them. They had been sorted by how they arrived; by whichever company’s seeds arrived first. Since we have several things with multiple varieties, I sorted it by type, first. Then I put all the ones that need to be started indoors in their own box. Today, I’ll go through those and sort them by when they need to be started. The onions and luffa will be started the earliest. I’m also eyeballing what I might be able to do more winter sowing with, even if it’s just using the sun room. Oh, that might not be a good idea. That will be where Butterscotch and Nosencrantz will be recovering from surgery for 2 weeks. Butterscotch, in particular, is going to be hard to keep in there, and she’ll knock over anything on the shelves, trying to get out.

One of the other purposes of sorting through the seeds is to figure out where we want to plant things, and where we need to build new beds once things start warming up in April or May. Most of these will still be temporary beds, as we move things closer to the house, in preparation for planting trees further out. I am thinking, with all the winter squash we are planting, we may want to let those sprawl on the ground, rather than climb, to help shade and kill off the weeds. They would do better on trellises, though, and be more protected from critters. Hhmm. Something to think about.

Along with how to fence things off from the deer and groundhogs!

When I stopped to buy some honey from my cousin, after dropping Cabbages off, we chatted for a bit. They have gardens around their bee house (not the hives, but the little house they’ve got for their honey business). They have one small garden with a deer fence around it, but the rest is open. When I told him about our plans to plant sea buckthorn, he told me they have some – but no berries! They ended up with only female trees! They’re about 8 feet tall and bloom beautifully, but no berries at all. We’re getting only a 5 pack, so it’s possible we’ll have all males or all females. It’ll be at least a couple of years before we find out, one way or the other.

Oh, and before I forget. I got a Cabbages update last night. They are still force feeding her, but she did eat some food on her own, as well. I was sent a photo, and she’s being kept in a large kennel with all sorts of things to play with and climb on. She was looking right at the camera was HUGE eyes, and looking very alert. I am encouraged. She’ll be seeing a vet again tomorrow, if things stay to plan.

I think she will be fine, but I’m so glad our contact with this organization was able to take Cabbages and get her to a vet, just in case.

I will keep updating about her, as I hear more.

The Re-Farmer

Dramatic kitty, and looking ahead

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I had a smaller crowd of outside cats this morning.

There was still kibble left from being topped up yesterday, so I think a lot of them were well fed and content to stay in wherever their preferred shelters are.

But not Chadiccus!

He kept flinging himself under my feet while I tried to walk, then lying there as if he’d been slain. :-D

What a ham!

We’ve got a couple more cold days after today, one really warm one, then back down to average temperatures for this time of year. I’ve been looking ahead at the end of the month, thinking on when would be best to head into the city for our monthly shop. We shall see if we will even bother going in. Thanks to continued draconian restrictions, the supply chain was being disrupted, and the truckers have finally had enough. There is currently a convoy of truckers on their way to Ottawa, in a protest to end medical tyranny. Last I heard, they had more than 50,000 trucks from all across the country, with more expected to join as they slowly make their way across the country. They’ve also raised over $2 million in donations, to help pay for fuel and other necessities for the truckers. About the only response we’ve had from our federal government has been for our Prime Minister to threaten to designate the truckers as domestic terrorists, which would allow GoFundMe to deny them the funds raised. Our government funded media (which is basically all mainstream media, since they got billions in bail out money), of course, is trying to ignore what’s happening completely, or if they do report on it, they don’t tell the truth about what’s actually going on. We shall see if their tune changes over the next few days. Personally, I doubt it. At least not for the biggest companies. Their survival has depended on government handouts for years, now.

We’ve got about a week before we need to go into the city to stock up again. Depending on how things go in the next while, there may not be a point in trying to shop in the city. There won’t be anything to buy.

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties, and a day of surprises

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This morning was quite chilly, but that didn’t stop the kitties!

We didn’t get much new snow, but it was blowing enough that I had to dig out the water bowls again.

Hmm. As I write this, I’m noticing the red flash on a weather alert on my desktop weather app. It’s an extreme cold warning. We’re supposed to reach -29C/-20F tonight, with wind chills of -40C/-40F!!

While doing my rounds, I made sure to check the end of the driveway, since I was expecting to head out with Cabbages today. The road was plowed, and it looked like we would be able to get through the end of the driveway without too much trouble.

When I came back to the house, I found myself being watched!

I love how Nosencrantz is still licking her chops. :-D

As cold as we’re supposed to get tonight, this afternoon warmed up to -17C/1F, so the cats were up and about when I started getting ready to take Cabbages into town.

I found Agnoos sitting on the sun-warmed black plastic of the snow shovel! I wasn’t quite fast enough to get what would have been an adorable picture of him, but I rather like the action shot I got, instead!

After starting the van to warm it up, I went to unlock the gate and found my first surprise.

The end of the driveway was cleared! We never heard or saw a thing! That was so very sweet. I just am assuming it was done by one or our renter’s hired hands, while on his way to somewhere else.

After opening the gate, I backed the van up closer to the gate in the chain link fence, so that Cabbages would be out in the cold as little as possible. Then, because I didn’t want to leave her, I didn’t stop to close the gate behind me and just headed into town. I would love to leave the gate open all the time during the day, but we’re still not quite sure our vandal would be able to resist coming in, despite the court order to stay away.

Which is how we ended up with my second big surprise.

The driveway was done while I was gone!!

The girls were cooking when my husband told them to look out the window, where they saw a yellow front end loader suddenly go by. This was a huge surprise for them, because they didn’t know I had left the gate open! Normally, I would have asked one of them to lock it behind me, but it was a last minute decision.

As you can imagine, once I was settled inside, I sent a thank you message to the renters. We have got to do something for them as a thank you. They won’t even accept payment for the fuel!

Since the driveway was cleared so nicely, I didn’t have to back up to the chain link fence to unload. I could park in the garage and bring the wagon over to haul the cat food.

And some honey. I had noticed my cousin snow blowing the driveway to their honey house while on the way to town with Cabbages. He was still there when I came back, and I happened to have some cash on hand, so I bought a couple of kg of his creamed honey. What a treat!

While going to the sun room to get the wagon, I found myself with a co-operative model this time.

Agnoos was perched on the sun warmed black plastic of the other snow shovel this time! :-D

As I am writing this, I can see the live stream from our garage security camera. I’ve bene seeing cats running around in the cleared driveway the entire time I’ve been writing. Right now, I can see The Distinguished Guest, sitting in a big, black, fluffy loaf in the middle of the driveway, and a bit of another cat, next to the wall of snow on one side. Oh! There’s another one, making its way through the snow from one of the sheds, into the cleared driveway.

They are appreciating our neighbours as much as we are!

They are just fantastic people! I am so glad they are renting the bulk of the property from my brother. We have such awesome neighbours.

The Re-Farmer

Warming… up?

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Well, we are on track to warm up quite a bit, by this afternoon. Depending on which weather app I use, we’re either supposed to reach -7C/19F, or -5C/23F.

The problem is the wind. There is a “Blowing Snow Advisory” out right now. As I write this, we are at -14C/7F with a wind chill of -25C/-13F

Or -13C/9F with a wind chill of -28C/-18F, if I go by my phone’s app.

The wind is from the south-southwest, which means it was a bit brutal when I did my morning rounds. Not as bad as yesterday, thankfully.

The wind swirls around the cat area so much, I actually had to empty all the kibble trays of snow. You can see some of the snow that drifted in front of the kibble house. It completely covered even the heated water bowl, forming a layer of ice and snow across the top, about an inch above the liquid water!

Our winter sowing experiment is getting buried!

I checked the driveway – especially the end of the driveway – and we can still get out. I even started the van and let it run for a while, just to make sure it would start. We need to go into town this afternoon – a trip we’ve already put off too many times.

I’m keeping an eye on a local highway status group, and this morning there were a lot of people saying to stay home if you can, because of the drifting, and there are even sections of highways that are closed, but it all seems to be happening closer to the city, and they were posted hours ago. Others that are farther north, and closer to us, have said the highways are completely clear. However, none have said anything about the road we need to take.

It should be fine, but it would be nice to know in advance, one way or the other! I’m just glad we can get out. Not everyone has been able to dig out of the storm, yet.

The Re-Farmer

It’s a bit nippy out there…

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Yesterday, I made sure to give the outside cats an extra feeding in the evening. With the cold temperatures, they need more calories. There was even a bit of kibble left in the trays when I came out this morning.

Very few cats came out when I gave them more food.

Smart kitties!

This one wouldn’t even move away from their window! Just gave me this “are you kidding me?” look through the frost and nose prints. :-D

It was viciously cold out there.

I took this screencap well after I’d come back in. -30C/-22F is bad enough, but that -41C/-42F wind chill was the killer! The wind is from the south right now, so we were feeling every bit of it. It’s not even a particularly brisk wind, but it doesn’t take much, at these temperatures!

With the driveway clear, we were thinking to go into town today but, after doing my rounds, I decided we could wait another day. Mainly, I do not want to risk our van in these temperatures. It does not do well with cold. Also…

That’s right. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to warm up to -6C/21F !!

That would be a good day for the girls to climb through their window and shovel snow off the low angled parts of the roof, too.

Ugh. Another down side to these temperatures. The sounds the pumps make in the basement change, and they worry me incessantly. If both the well pump and septic pump happen to be running at the same time, it drives my anxiety levels through the roof!! I was about to say this will be a good day to catch up on laundry, but there are times when I fear using our water.

The Re-Farmer

Digging our way out (and a Cabbages update)

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What a beautiful day today!

The weather app tells me it’s -25C/-13F, with a wind chill of -36C/-33F right now, but it’s bright and sunny, and actually felt a lot warmer while we were out this morning.

While doing my rounds this morning, it was time to assess just how much the storm affected us. We got most of the snow during the day, then mostly high winds overnight.

The cats that shelter under the storage house were having issues! This path was cleared yesterday morning. One spot was mostly drifted over – you can see it further back – with a bit of space the cats could get through. The other was a steep, narrow drift they had problems jumping over!

So one of the first things I did after putting food out was shovel around the kibble house, digging out the metal water bowls in the process, and opening up their paths.

Then I went around the house with feed for the birds and deer, and startled a deer that was right next to the house, almost at the dining room window! I’ve never seen them go on the house side of where the lilacs and cherry trees are. Not even tracks.

Once the food and water was done, I made my way to the gate to unlock it.

Opening it took a fair bit of effort! Most of the driveway wasn’t bad. We could have left it and driven through the snow, just fine.

We would not have made it through the end of the driveway, though.

Once I got it open (and shovelled out the path to the gate cam), it was time to break out Spewie and start blowing some snow.

I cleared in front of the garage, first, which was a more difficult area. The wind swirls around there, so the snow was deeper, and the top more hard packed. I did eventually make it to the end of the driveway, though!

I didn’t try to go too close to the ground, though, as I didn’t want to be hitting gravel and rocks, so the snow is actually deeper than the furrow made by the snow blower by about 2 or 3 inches. More than that at the end, where the remains of a plow ridge is.

The plows had not gone by yet, but it looks like some farmer cleared a lane with their tractor. At first I thought it might have been done by a truck with a plow attachment I’ve been seeing in the trail cam files lately, but those treads are not from any pick up!

I had managed to do about 4 passes with little Spewie, all the way to the road, when it stop running. I’d tripped the power bar, where it’s plugged in, in the garage. While I was trudging to hit the switch, I could hear the reverse warning sound of heavy equipment, nearby.

It was the plow.

*sigh*

You can see how much I’d done on the left, where the snow is a bit lower. There was no way little Spewie could make it through that! So I had to shovel a lot of it away. Thankfully, being almost immediately after the plow went by, it was still loose and light. Once I got a fair bit of it shoveled, then I could redo the end with little Spewie.

It was still a bit much for that little machine, and one of my daughters widened the end of the driveway with a shovel while I continued working on the rest of the driveway. I didn’t stop to take any more photos, but I was able to clear enough that we will be able to back the van up to the little gate in the chain link fence to unload. The girls, meanwhile, finished shoveling out all the paths in the inner yard. The path to the compost pile was almost completely filled in!

By the time I was done, I was completely soaked from all the snow blown back onto me. My down filled coat is not as waterproof as it used to be, and my shoulders were soaked right through the layers I was wearing under it! I was wearing both a hat and cowl, which was bulky enough to hold my hood in place, so I didn’t have to close it up in front, obstructing my breathing. They were wet, all the way through, too. My glasses weren’t just frosted over. They were iced over! I was very happy to come inside and make a nice, big pot of tea to warm up with!

While all this was going on, I got some texts from the woman who will be helping us with the cats. She told me that she will be in town on Saturday, and can pass on some cat food for us. This will be much appreciated, as the store shelves have been quite empty, so we’re not as stocked up as we should be. She also expects to be able to start taking some of our cats in the next week or two, once they have finished adopting out their current batch!

She also asked about cabbages. I told her she seems to be getting a bit better, drinking water on her own again, but still not eating (at least not while I’m there to see it), so we are feeding her with a syringe. She said she should probably take Cabbages back with her when we meet on Saturday, so that they can get her to a vet right away. This is greatly appreciated, since we won’t be able to do that until the end of the month. She said she can’t make any promises, since we don’t know why she’s sick, which makes sense, of course.

So it looks like we’ll be saying goodbye to Cabbages this weekend, and she will get the vet care she needs.

I do hope this works out for her, and I am very grateful that she offered to do this.

Which makes getting ourselves dug out just that much more important!

The Re-Farmer

Lovely snow

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So the snow that was originally supposed to start this evening and continue on through tomorrow, arrived last night.

The snow was pretty much stopped when I went out to feed the critters. I had to dig out the non-heated water bowls.

Then I had to shovel the path to the feeding station so I could put seeds out for the birds and deer.

Then I kept shoveling.

I am so glad I cleared the paths of the hard packed snow, yesterday. The snow we’ve been having is all light and fluffy, so it made clearing the paths again very easy work!

By the time I reached the garage, the snow was coming down in big, fluffy flakes. We are at a lovely -13C/9F right now. The wind chill is -24C/-11F, but it’s coming from the north, so most of the inner yard is well sheltered. It only got a bit blustery when I reached the bird feeder.

I did most of the paths, but not all of them. Later on, we might break out little Spewie and see what we can do about the driveway. Mostly, we’ll need to clear the end of the driveway, and that will likely need shovels. I don’t think Spewie can handle that! Not only will we have a plow ridge to deal with, but there’s no shelter from the winds there, so it’ll be drifted over and harder packed.

At some point, we’ll be able to set up the snow fencing that we’ve got, rolled up behind the old garden shed. I don’t know where it was used before we moved here, but it would be good to set some up on both sides of the driveway, for both the north and the south winds.

When I came inside and hung my coat on a chair to dry, I discovered this…

I somehow got snow in my hood! :-D I didn’t use it because the only way to keep it on is to close up the flaps in front. They go in front of my mouth and I can’t breath, so I keep having to jam it under my chin, which pulls the hood over my eyes. So I wore a cowl, instead. I guess that left my hood to be catch snow! :-D

I put it in a water bowl we keep near the kitchen for the cats, that happened to be empty. Within minutes, there were three cats checking it out, and a fourth watching because he couldn’t squeeze in. All of them orange. It was funny, except for having to step over them to get into the kitchen! LOL Within minutes, the snow was all gone!

The view from the garage cam, not long after I came in. Looking at the live feed as I write this, the visibility has dropped even more, and those cat paths in the snow are almost completely gone.

I know people in the south of the province probably wouldn’t agree with me, but I am really happy will all this snow. It will be so good for the fields in the spring, and for the water table. Our municipality was among those that declared an agricultural disaster because of the drought, which allowed for farmers to get some financial assistance. So many lost entire crops – again! – and many were struggling with the the decision to cull their animals, because there was no feed to be had. Not that things are any better now. Thanks to the unnecessary, draconian government restrictions, animals aren’t getting to market. Tens of thousands of chickens are being culled. If the various government bodies don’t let up on their medical tyranny, we’re going to have major food shortages, even as farmers are having to throw away food because there’s no way to get it processed and to the stores. They’ll be blaming it on the Wu Flu, but this is the direct consequence of going against the emergency plans all levels of government already had in place.

We’ve long had the dream of being as self sufficient as possible. After moving here, I kinda hoped we would have more time to get there, though!

At least we’ve got our seeds in, and other orders processed for spring shipping. We’re going to be relying on our garden a lot more this year, if things don’t change!

Another reason to be glad for this snow. We are really going to need this moisture.

The Re-Farmer

Getting stuff done outside

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Though today has gotten a bit colder than yesterday, at -15C/5F, it’s a lot calmer out there, and bright and sunny. We are actually reading a wind chill of -21C/-6F, but the wind is from the north, and we are well sheltered in that direction.

Which means I got more done outside!

Of course, feeding the critters was top of the list.

I counted 18 this morning. I did not see Ghost Baby, and I think Junk Pile is the other “missing” cat. I was quite happy to see both Butterscotch and Nosencrantz this morning.

Nosencrantz doesn’t look too happy to see me, though! :-D She’s all “stop petting me, and taking my picture. I’m trying to eat!”

I was able to do a burn this morning, scrape the sidewalk clear, and dig out some of the blown over paths.

Though we didn’t get much snow, the blowing winds made a big difference. I was lifting out solid chunks of snow. I actually took advantage of that while shoveling around the burn barrel, to make a higher “wall” around it. This is snow fort building snow! :-D

The path to the compost was so solid, I ended up having to bring the ice scraper to break it up before I could use the shovel. Because of the wind direction, the path from the compost ring to the back door of the garage was almost clear, and the shelter of the garage kept the path to the outhouse from getting drifted over.

We’re supposed to get snow starting tomorrow evening. I’m now seeing snowfall warnings of 20-35cm (8-14 inches), however they are mostly for the south and eastern parts of the province. We shouldn’t get anywhere near as much, where we are. Local forecast is currently for 5-10cm (2-4 inches).

So if there’s anything we need to get in town, just in case, now is the time to do it!

Well. Maybe after we’ve shoveled the end of the driveway again.

The Re-Farmer