snow

Follow the path!

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The path of least resistance…

I just had to giggle at the fresh cat path, long the ridges left behind when the driveway was cleared. So many paw prints. Probably made during the rush to the kibble house, when my husband came out with food, this morning! We had blowing snow all night, so these are definitely recent tracks.

The cats aren’t the only critters who appreciate the driveway being cleared, and the paths we’ve made! Along the driveway, I could see deer tracks showing where they jumped fences, then used the driveway before jumping the gate.

The cats are handling the snow very well. They all have their dense winter fur. That’s a relief. Fenrir became an inside cat because she doesn’t have the undercoat, and would not have survived her first winter, if we hadn’t brought her in. I don’t know where she came from, but our local stock are well adapted to the cold!

They are definitely eating more, now. Though I husband had fed them not long before I headed out, I still ended up topping up some of the kibble trays. Which is good. They need those calories!

Agnoos was more interested in trying to trip me up! :-D

I’m not completely sure which of the ‘icouses this one is. Thadicous, most likely.

He was having a blast, rolling around in the snow!

We ended up having a storm blow through last night. I was keeping an eye on the garage cam live feed, and it was frequently blinded by snow. Over the hours, I saw the snow ridges on the sides of the driveway slowly disappear, so I had some trepidation as I came out this morning. Thankfully, it was just due to blowing snow that drifted against them, making everything look level in the infrared light. We won’t even need to shovel! I also kept an ear out on road conditions, and lots of people were reporting them as being very dangerous, due to ice and blowing snow. The temperature reached a low of only -4C/25F, and we’re still at that temperature as I write this. My weather apps had the wind chill last night at -15C/5F, but I have no doubt it felt a lot colder at times.

This morning, I dug out a waterproof cord protector and plugged in the cats’ house, even though temperatures are still relatively mild. It was more about still having access through the snow. The timer the heat bulb is plugged into is set to operate from dawn to dusk. As long as there is enough light coming in through the window, it won’t turn on. Which means we won’t have visual confirmation that it’s working until it’s dark, and we can see the red on indicator light through the window. The girls did check it when they cleaned the cats’ house out, so it should be fine.

While doing my rounds, I could hear the sound of heavy equipment, so the roads are being worked on. Mostly, they need to be sanded, but that won’t get done until any drifting gets cleared, first. The main road that goes past us gets cleared quickly, but side roads like the one past our driveway might not get done until tomorrow, depending on how quickly they can do the main roads. Thankfully, things are supposed to stay calm and relatively mild for the next couple of weeks. I don’t mind the snow, though. Any snow we get will go a long way to helping restore the level of our water table, after this past summer’s drought. The Old Farmer’s Almanac predicted a mild wet winter for our region, and I do hope they are right! We really need the break from the bitter cold of the past two winters, in particular. It may make getting around harder, but snow is a good thing.

The Re-Farmer

Morning in the snow

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We’re supposed to get pretty warm today, with a predicted high of 2C/36F, and a combination of rain and snow. It was already just under freezing overnight, which should have meant a pleasant morning to do my rounds. I wasn’t expecting those winds, though! It was warm enough that snow on the roof is melting, and immediately freezing again. The downspouts are full of ice, so it’s dripping all along the eaves-troughs. I broke icicles, just opening the sun room door! :-D

The kitties were very happy for food and warm water!

I only counted 17 again, but they move around so much, I can’t tell which three were missing, which means even if they came around by the time I finished my rounds, I wouldn’t be able to tell.

There are deer tracks crossing all over the inner yard, and here you can see where they milled around the crab apple trees. Sadly, there are no crab apples for them this year. At least they’re getting a bit of food from the black oil seed we put out for the birds. This is just our first snowfall of the winter, though, so they are not at all in dire straights.

They did appreciate the sunflowers I left behind for them! There isn’t a single leaf or underdeveloped seed head left.

I just love this corridor along the spruce grove, created when we cleared away the lowest branches (many of which were dead). It makes for such a nice, sheltered walkway. As you can see by the tracks, the deer seem to prefer it, too!

My older brother planted these trees, sometime in early 70’s, I think. I would have been just a wee one, and don’t remember them ever not being there, but I do remember being able to climb some of them with my late brother, when we were little. :-) There was one tree that had branches lined up so that I could lounge on them like in a reclining chair. My late brother, on the other hand, could climb trees like a monkey, could climb any tree he wanted and go so much higher than I could, with or without branches handy! Of course, in my memory, they were absolutely huge. They would have been a fair bit smaller than they are now, but in my memory, they seemed bigger! :-D

Once I was done my rounds, I quickly checked the trial cam files, then headed out. I wanted to hit the post office, then to into town to refill our big water jugs and get a flat of eggs. By the time I headed out, however, the winds had picked up even more, and it was raining. Though the gravel roads had been plowed, they were still in rough shape, and driving on them was like driving on a wash board! The paved roads didn’t seem much better, so decided to pick up what I could when I picked up the mail. It’s in a tiny little general store, and they don’t have a lot of selection, but manage to have a good variety of groceries, at least. They do carry the big jugs of water, so I asked about that. Normally, one would pay a $10 deposit for the jug, then $6 for the water. After that, it’s just an exchange of empty jugs for full, for just the cost of the water. I checked, and they looked the same as our own jugs, and the store owner ended up calling the company about it. They were okay with taking another empty, as long as it was clean and the same size/type of jug. So I traded one of our empties that didn’t have a label on it and just had to pay for the water, and not a deposit. It’s more expensive than if I’d gone into town to refill them myself, like I usually do. Likewise with the cartons of eggs I got (we really need to get chickens!), but that’s a small trade off to avoid making the drive on rough, icy roads in the rain and gusting winds.

The closer I can stay to home, the more content I am! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Snow critters, and brief Ginger Bug update

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Yesterday was a recovery day for me, so some things waited until later, and the girls took care of others for me – like shoveling the snow boulders from the driveway clearing out from in front of the garage. :-D I’ve asked the renters how much we owe them for the awesome driveway clearing jobs, and was told to just forget out it! They are so sweet. It also snowed lightly for most of the day, so when I headed out this morning, I did some more shoveling.

But not here! At least, not yet. This is our feeding station, and you can see that the deer have dug into the snow to get at the sunflower seeds. We haven’t started buying deer feed yet, so the next time we pick up feed, I think we’ll get a couple of bags of deer feed, instead of the black oil seed we get over the summer months. The deer feed we get locally is basically just grain and sunflower seeds, though if we went into town, we could get feed that includes more stuff in it, including corn. The deer – and birds – seem to be happier with the simpler mix. The fact that it’s also cheaper is just bonus. ;-)

My husband was a sweetheart and had already given the cats food and water. He had used plain tap water, however, and with ice already in the bowls, by the time I came out, the surface was frozen over already, and the cats were licking ice, even though it was only -9C/16F I had started a kettle going before I left, however, just in case, so my husband was able to bring out a jug of water – half tap water and half boiling water – for me.

Since the water was still pretty hot, I didn’t knock the ice out of the bowls completely before topping them up. The cats were drinking it before I could finish pouring! I even added some to the bird bath. I’m not doing like I did in the past; chopping the ice out with a hatched and filling it with water. The basin is already cracked and I’m amazed it hold any water at all, anymore, though we do now keep a smaller metal basin in it, and that’s what I’m putting the warm water in.

When I came back later, there was even more of kitties, taking turns drinking!

They really do seem to appreciate the warm water.

With so much deep snow, my morning rounds are less extensive, though it now includes trekking to the corner of the property, by the new sign, to make sure it’s still there and undamaged, and switch out the memory card on the trail cam. This morning, I also worked on clearing some of the walking paths, including the one to the kibble tray under the shrine.

As anyone with glasses knows, working in these sorts of conditions means working mostly blind, as the lenses fog up and then freeze over. So I was mostly looking over my glasses, and not seeing a whole lot. Even so, I could see something… odd… near the base of the shrine. A strange dark patch in the snow.

This was not there when I topped their kibble up, last night!

Something has dug a new burrow under the shrine!

I don’t know what digging critter we’ve got around here that isn’t hibernating right now. I’ve seen a little skunk in the kibble house recently (we usually just see the one big one, these days), so maybe it was a skunk? I don’t know.

Making my way back to the kibble house, I spotted our newcomer. I’d seen only flashes of her yesterday. I’m happy she weathered the blizzard all right, wherever she was at the time.

Then, because I am a suck when it comes to the cats, after I shoveled all around the cats’ house, including opening up gaps so the cats can get under it, and a path to where they go under the laundry line platform, I dug the cat path to the storage house, which is what they are in, in the above photo.

Looking at the 5 day forecast, we are supposed to reach a high of -1C/30F tomorrow, with a bit of snow, then 2C/36F with rain and snow, the day after. Which means all the areas we are digging out should melt down to the ground, or close to it. It also means that when I drive into the city, early tomorrow morning, to the courthouse for Case Management in regards to our restraining order against our vandal, it’s going to be potentially dangerous driving. The van has good snow tires, though, so that should help, but I’m really not looking forward to the drive at all.

On the plus side, when I checked the trail cam files this morning, I saw the snow plow go by twice, so I know our gravel roads are completely cleared.

Oh, I just remembered a recent conversation I had with my brother, when we were scrambling to get things done before the snow came. Particularly the garden beds. I’d mentioned wanting to get some manure, when he brought up the manure pile that used to be behind the barn. I remember that pile. We used to have a pig pen beyond it, too. The pile is gone, and there is no evidence of the pig pen, with its shelter for the pigs in one corner, left. Not only that, but there are hollows in the area, where the ground has been dug deeper, that has had me wondering. I’d say they were made with a small front end loader, like what would fit on a small tractor or the Bobcat that was here. It’s all grown over now, so it’s been like that for a long while, but… it looks like our vandal even stole the manure pile! Probably for his own fields or garden, but… who steals manure??? Of course, we don’t actually know who took it, when or why, but there’s no one else that would have done it.

On a completely different topic, we finally got to try our first Ginger Bug Pop last night! It took a week to fully ferment, in our fairly chilly dining room. We all gave it a try, and all of us found it quite tasty. It definitely worked, though I found it really sweet. I haven’t been able to get a good photo of it, yet, but I’ll make a separate post about it when I finally do.

The Re-Farmer

The Best

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Our renters are the best.

Okay, they’re actually my brother’s renters, but you know what I mean.

I messaged them asking if I could hire someone to clear our driveway some time this weekend.

Someone came over, tonight!

Isn’t that a thing of beauty?

There was so much snow, he actually had to push some of it almost past the pump shack.

Would you just look at that? Wide enough for two vehicles! And room enough to back out of the garage and turn. I tried to get some more photos, but they didn’t work out. It’ll have to wait until daylight. I don’t think the road has been plowed yet, either.

Tractors are wonderful things. Especially tractors with front end loaders!

Afterwards, I sent another message to ask how much was owed, but she didn’t know. Her husband had gone to bed without saying anything about it.

What makes this even more awesome is that they lost power during the blizzard, and didn’t get it back again until shortly before I first messaged about the driveway. They went 36 hours without power! Yes, they have generators, thankfully. I can’t imagine running an operation as big as theirs on generators for very long!

They are so awesome!!! With just one pass, he did more than I was able to do in hours! I’m just thrilled.

Oh, I remembered to bring that lock from the gate in to take a closer look. I couldn’t see what I saw before, so I got the key and tried it.

It went in just fine.

Either I goofed completely and the lock was just frozen or something, or whatever was in it fell out while I was carrying it.

The Re-Farmer

The Breakfast crowd, and first snow

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The outside cats have been downright spoiled by my husband coming out to feed them really early in the mornings! He wasn’t driven out of bed by pain this morning, so I did it later, when I did my morning rounds. As soon as I came into the sun room, I could hear a cacophony of meows at the door, outside!

They were so excited about eating, I actually got to pet Junk Pile Jr and Tuxedo Mask! My husband has been able to pet Tuxedo Mask, too, and I think he is getting used to this whole “human contact” thing. :-D

They are also really enjoying having warm water in the mornings, too! :-)

While doing my rounds, I started a bit more cleanup around the garden beds, removing some of the rope and noise makers to keep the deer away. I also checked the Dorinny and Montana Morado corn beds, to see if there were any cobs left with potential corn seeds.

There was nothing. Not a one! I did find a few cobs that looked like they might have had the corn eaten by birds, but mostly, there were no cobs at all. There weren’t many left to begin with, but what few there were seems to have been eaten completely.

Ah, well. I didn’t have high expectations with them anyhow, just from the drought conditions.

By the time I was starting to head back into the house, I got distracted.

We have snow!

There is just barely enough snow falling to even see it. As I write this, with the live feed from the garage security camera near me, I see the odd flash of white as the camera manages to catch some larger flakes going by. :-D

That’s about the extent of it. :-D Anything that hits the ground, melts immediately.

I know other areas have had some snow before, but this is the first I’ve seen here, this season. We’re actually supposed to get showers, later in the day. Maybe.

We’re supposed to warm up over the next while, with three days of potential rain, before things start cooling down again. That should be when we can sow the wildflower seeds, with no risk of early germination.

I’m really enjoying all this extra time to get work done outside!

The Re-Farmer

Snowy morning

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This morning, we had snow coming down with flakes so big, I could see them without my glasses! :-D

They even triggered the motion sensor on the security camera during daylight. That happens all the time at night, with the infrared flash (and I wake up to hundreds of emails with images of snow or rain streaking across… :-D ), but almost never, during the day.

The outside cats are completely unphased by this little bit of snow. :-)

The future tomato bed got some much needed moisture! The more the better, to help break down that cardboard and straw.

The garlic sprouts don’t mind the snow at all. :-) The snow actually made it easier to see how many more have sprouted since I last checked them out.

It was interesting, going through the maple grove and checking out the areas we planted bulbs and corms in. There was a void in the snow, under every single spruce tree. This is a good visual to ID which areas are getting the least moisture, so if/when we do water where we planted, we know which areas need it more. Of course, once the other trees and bushes leaf out, there won’t be any difference, but that’ll be a while, yet.

There are still only two tulips showing, and that one onion that’s managed to survive from when this was my mother’s garden, in the areas my daughters planted their bulbs. They don’t seem to mind the snow at all!

In the sun room, while it was still just below freezing outside, the thermometer was reading 10C/50F. That is more than adequate for the onion seedlings. The light and heater bulb kept the tomato and luffa seedlings nice and warm through the night.

By the time I finished my rounds, much of the snow was already melted away, and from what I can see on the security camera live feed, there isn’t a bit of it left.

I don’t know that we’ll have a nice enough day to continue working outside today, but we’re supposed to get warmer over the next couple of days, then cool day with rain. As much as it slows down how much progress we can make on the garden beds, I am thankful for every drop of moisture we’re getting right now! After one hot day, the temperatures will drop down and basically flat line at around 8C and 10C (46-50F) for highs, and hovering at or just above freezing for the overnight lows, for the next two weeks. We might even get a bit more rain in there, too!

The weather for today is still saying we’ll have a high of 7C/45F, but that it’ll feel like 4C/39F. I’m hoping to be able to get some more progress outside, but we shall see. The melted snow might actually make it easier to dig more post holes for the other pea trellises we’ll be making. If we can’t get to that, there’s plenty of other things we need to work on! :-)

What fun! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Garlic, Ginger and the snow cats :-D

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This morning, we woke to more snow on the ground.

We were supposed to get rain, first, but if we did, it wasn’t much. Not a lot of snow, either, but we’re supposed to get more, later in the week. These are our “April showers” that will hopefully lead to May flowers. :-)

I managed to snag a photo of Ginger this morning!

He has been very active, so it’s been hard to get photos! :-D

As squirmy as he was while I tried to get that photo, it was no comparison to Beep Beep.

I hadn’t even tried to pet her. As soon as she saw me taking pictures of Ginger, she started rolling around like mad, beeping for attention!

When I came outside, I saw Ginger’s brothers and Junk Pile coming out of the cat’s house, while his mom emerged from the shelf shelter by the sun room door. I’m not sure where Rosencrantz emerged from! :-D

You can see the chickadee on the bird feeder platform, and if you look carefully, you’ll see another one in the lilac bush, just under the thicker branches.

The snow almost made even the ugly fence look pretty!

I so look forward to when we can take that fence out!

The little garlics peeking through the mulch are visibly bigger than when we first spotted them! Thankfully, they should be able to handle this weather just fine. Likewise, the onion starts in the sun room are doing quite well. The temperatures in there don’t go below freezing (and the trays also have heat from below), but it gets chilly enough that if we had the tomatoes or squash in there, we’d have to bring them into the house for the night. The sun room still manages to stay warmer overnight than the old kitchen!

I spotted the shy calico disappearing under the fence on the far end of my mother’s “living fence” of hawthorn, carigana and oaks.

One of these months, I’ll get to cleaning up around the collapsing log cabin, and that corner of the fence. The chain link just sort of got dropped to the ground after the last fence post, so the junk there, and on the other side of the cabin, act as a sort of fence on their own. Once it’s cleaned out, if the renter’s cows get into the outer yard again, there will be nothing that can stop them from getting into the inner yard. Another reason to fill in any gaps, should the electric fence fail again.

I do love seeing the cows, and the few times they have gotten through, they did a great job of eating the overgrown areas in the outer yard, which in turn reduces the fire hazard in those areas. :-)

By the time I was done my rounds, the cats were making their way back into their shelter. I think it’s even dark enough for the light sensor on the timer to turn on the ceramic heater bulb.

Those things have been so handy, I think we will pick up more!

As I write this, we are at -3C/27F with a wind chill of -11C/12F. It’s the wind that’s more of an issue than the snow or the temperatures. Meanwhile, short range forecasts have us at 1C/34F over the next couple of days, with a sudden leap to 15C/59F on Thursday – only to drop to -3C over night, with more snow into Friday. Which is supposed to reach a high of 2C/35F, so it’s all going to melt away very quickly. Long range forecasts show rain and snow in the first days of May.

Somewhere in there, we have to get our septic tank emptied, and get those loads of garden soil delivered. There are things we need to be able to direct sow two weeks before last frost, and everything we are planting this year depends on having that soil available.

It feels like we’re starting to cut it close. Even with the snow, though, we’ve had enough warm temperatures that they should be able to load the soil into their trucks by now. I need to remember to make some calls tomorrow and find out.

It seems the more we get these little snowfalls, the more antsy I am to get gardening! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Now for the slow warm up

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The weather system has finally weakened and moved on. Over the next while, we’ll be slowing warming up, with a bit more snow predicted on the weekend (depending on which app I look at! LOL). With temperatures hovering only a few degrees above freezing during the day for the next while, we should have a nice, slow melt. We’re not expected to get into the double digits (in Celsius) until May. Which means no flooding, and no washing away of soil, and the still frozen deeper soil will thaw out slightly faster.

If things actually turn out as forecast, it will be pretty much perfect.

The outside cats are doing just fine in all this! When I came out this morning, I saw Butterscotch coming out of the bottom of the shelf by the sun room that we put rigid insulation in, adding more to the front to create a shelter for them. Creamsicle Jr. was in the middle shelf, sitting like a loaf in the opening, watching me as I changed out there water. I’m really glad that little shelter is working out for them.

The weather at least seems to have kept away the skunks, as there was still some kibble left in their food bowls.

Rosencrantz (in the foreground) has the densest, fluffiest fur! All the cats have their dense winter fur, but hers is so incredibly fluffy! :-D She would not let me pet her this morning, though.

Butterscotch, on the other hand, is looking rounder and rounder.

*sigh*

We’ll just have to assume that Rosencrantz and Junk Pile cat are also pregnant, but they don’t look any bigger than their winter fur would normally make them.

:-/

Anyhow.

In total, I would say we got about 6-8 inches (15-20cm) of accumulated snow in our area. The snow is so heavy and wet, it actually made shoveling the sidewalk a challenge, because the snow kept sticking to the shovel!

Meanwhile, we don’t need to actually go anywhere until tomorrow, so we’ve got another quiet day at home to catch up on things indoors. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Yup. Still snowing

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The weather system has stalled over Ontario which, for us, means that the winds have actually reversed; Instead of coming in from the west and slowly cycling to the north, it’s swooping in from the east and swinging to the south. The entire system is covering the south end of three provinces (well, four, really, but it’s just barely touching one) and at least three states with snow, switching to rain to the east.

We’re just on the norther edge of the system, and seem to be getting more gaps between snowfalls, but there is still heavier snow expected.

The winds have increased, but we’re still at a very mild -4C/25F with a wind chill of -14C/7F.

I saw Junk Pile watching me through the window when I came out, but had to take a photo when I saw through the other window, that Nutmeg and Creamsicle Jr. were snuggled up under the heater bulb, I just had to take a picture! By the time I got my phone out, though, Nutmeg was at the window, checking me out. :-D

Smart kitties know where the warmth is!

I saw Butterscotch, too. I don’t know where her hiding spot it, but it’s not usually in the inner yard.

While switching out the trail cam memory cards, I remembered to get this picture.

We had started out with rain, but these icicles formed on the bumpers only on one side of the gate. There’s even icicles inside the gate post, at the ends of the hinge bolts!

The temperatures are expected to stay pretty constant, dipping only a degree or two overnight. By the end of today, they’re saying we may have a total of 20-35cm of snow. (8-14 inches) We have about 8 inches now.

The sun room, meanwhile, is staying steady at around 10C/14F. The onion seedlings, with their heater bulb below, are doing just fine in there. Of the various seeds that needed to be started this early, they’re easily the hardiest.

As I write this, the snow has stopped, but from the looks of the weather radar, we’ve got a patches of heavy snow about to hit us. Mind you, according to the radar, we should be snowing right now, so… we’ll see what happened.

Either way, I’m glad we don’t have to go anywhere, we’re warm inside, well stocked, and hunkered down. This is a good time for me to catch up on some crochet! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Well, that was a first

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We’re still getting a mild snowfall, off and on. My younger daughter and I made a quick trip to the post office, and the roads were pretty slushy. My husband had prescriptions refills ordered on Friday that were to be delivered today, so when we got the call that they were on the way, I made sure to unlock the gate and shovel the sidewalk. It’s a very damp, heavy snow we’re getting right now, because it’s just a few degrees below freezing.

The delivery driver had just come by and I’d quickly run out to lock the gate – sans coat, because it was that warm out there – was back inside, boots half off, when the phone rang. No one was near a phone to answer it, so it went to machine. I rushed over to pick up for whomever it was, only to discover it was a robot call.

From Environment Canada, with a snowfall warning!

So I stayed and listened to it. Since moving out here, we have never had a call from Environment Canada with a weather warning!

The expected snowfalls are now expected to be 15-20cm (6-8 inches) in most places, but some might get as much as 30cm! (12 inches) There were plenty of warnings about road conditions, visibility, and a number to call for those people who would not be able to make their retrovaccine appointments. It even included an email and twitter hashtag to report severe weather conditions. It was the exact same thing that is under my phone’s weather app alert.

We’ve had some pretty wicked storms since moving out here, and it really makes me wonder what triggered them to have the automated calls to start going out! I think this part of the alert is why. “There is still some uncertainty with the exact amounts as several waves of accumulating snow are expected through the end of Tuesday.” So… they really don’t know what this weather system is going to do – they hardly even refer to it as a “storm”. The winds are not particularly severe, and the temperatures aren’t going to be dropping much, even overnight.

Well, my husband has his medications – even his bubble packs, which he didn’t think he’d be able to get for a couple more days, the larder is full, and any of the places we need to go can wait.

Including the pharmacy. They forgot his insulin, but he’s got enough for a few more days. When he called them about the missing insulin, he made sure to add that, with the road conditions, we’re not expecting them to deliver it! It’ll be ready for pick up on Thursday. By then, the roads should be cleared, and the snow starting to melt away.

I’m still just surprised by the call! And appreciative. They would only be calling land lines, which means my mother would have gotten the call, too. Not everyone has cell phones or internet!

The Re-Farmer