all a-dazzle

On the way in from chores this morning.

It snowed heavily all afternoon and evening yesterday.

I had an eye appointment at 4 PM for an in-office glaucoma procedure called selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT), and since I very much wish to retain my vision - and the volunteer driver was not at all worried about the driving conditions - I went ahead with the appointment.

 

During that ride I thought about all the years I travelled to Cambridge and back, working on my Master's degree and teaching sections in the evenings. It was 75 minutes each way on a clear day with no traffic. During those years I drove through countless storms - one semester I know it snowed nearly every Wednesday evening, because that was a teaching night for me and I drove through every one of those storms. Now being a passenger on a 10-minute drive to an eye appointment had me gripping an armrest and trying to speak normally to the driver who was not at all concerned about the inches of snow over slush on the roads, cars sliding sideways, and poor visibility. Maybe it's a matter of one's current "normal"? Regular commuters have probably been slipsliding through a lot of weather this year.

This is not a barncam image, it's me in the barn with Mallow and Violet.

Campion, Azalea, and Lily are beyond the fence.

We are all contemplating our options.

The laser procedure itself was painless; now just a few days of eyedrops and waiting for the blurring to diminish. The doctor has been tracking pressure in my eyes for several years and always decided it was "borderline" for glaucoma, so we decided against lifelong daily medication (eyedrops) until there was greater concern. However, during my 6-month post-cataract surgery checkup last week he saw a change and gave me the option of - right now! - either going on lifelong drops or having the SLT procedure first, which may turn out to be all I need. Now we go back to tracking.

Meanwhile, on this sunny Wednesday morning we've got several more inches of snow to wade through,  and a forecast for temps in the low 40s (!) this afternoon. Cannot imagine what it will look like here in the hours and days ahead, but at the moment the entire world is coated with ice and the sun is shining and I'm enjoying the view.

~~~~~

on we march

 

A view looking east from the bottom of the driveway.

Checking the mail and taking a few wintery snaps.

I don't bother to check the mail every day. Like my email, most of my regular mail falls into two categories: either asking me for money (suggesting donations or home improvement projects), or offering me money. The "offers" are usually banks suggesting I acquire debt for a "deserved" holiday trip, or strangers wanting to buy my home "for cash"). Not worth a penguin-walk down to road and back.

The forecast last week included one day in the 30s, so I took a few snaps of icicles before they disappeared. These were taken from inside the house, through a row of south-facing windows. Walk along with me, won't you?

Back to the driveway, halfway up and looking southeast toward the house. Much of that snowload slid off the roof yesterday. This time I heard it. I don't know if you can see (click to embiggen?) the overhanging ice dam that had shaded the north windows in the kitchen, but it is now on the ground, and the kitchen is noticeably brighter.

With the warmer hours, the snow on the ground has gotten heavier and wetter. The paths that have been packed down by daily use over several weeks now only appear "packed down" because at random moments my boots go right through the surface into the soggy snow beneath and I'm suddenly over my knees again. I don't enjoy this type of thing; it's a jolt through the spine every time, and it makes keeping one's balance quite tricky. One morning I dropped every single flake of hay I was carrying to the various shelters. There was some unfortunate language that day. But when I'm not actually in the process of tipping over or dropping feed, I focus on how lucky we've been with the weeks of dry powder and the infrequent high winds. There's no denying that it's been a challenging Winter so far, but it could have been So Much Worse.

And now it's Sunday. 

As soon as I post this it will be time for a round of chores.

Then checking my Seed Inventory for the gardens of 2026.

And it's snowing again.

~~~~~

back to the weather

 

I didn't have my first fire until mid-January this year. Later than usual, because I was trying to replace the tiles under the stove and also raise the entire stove to reduce the degree of leaning required to feed the fire several times throughout the day and night. My best attempts to make that project happen were unsuccessful, and when we had several very cold nights in a row and the parlor floor felt cold even through my shoes, it seemed like a good idea to have a fire since the parlor is directly over the little cellar which houses the water pump and other key plumbing elements. So I shelved the plans for the stove area until later this year, made the first fire, and have kept it fed every minute since.

Until last Monday, when it was quite warm out - nearly 30F - and I took the opportunity to let the fire burn out so I could clean the ash layer from the stove and start again. So there was no fire for a few hours, but then a fire again and ever since.

 We have had a few days when the peak temperature reached the mid-twenties to 30F, resulting in some shifting on the substantial ice dams on the house roof. The above snap was taken after morning chores, and when I went back out for afternoon chores, that entire section was on the ground. I wish I had seen and heard it slide and drop, but even though I was in the house and right under that roof, I neither heard nor saw it. Oh well, there's plenty more to come.

So much snow. This snap was taken January 29th:

And this one on February 20th:

Even though some of the snow has softened and settled, it's still up to my kneecaps.

And this was yesterday afternoon:

It snowed all afternoon, all evening, and all night.

We had several fresh inches this morning, and this time it was wet and heavy.

I know this because I re-shoveled the path connecting the portico to the top of the driveway.

Shoveling is not my strong suit, but I was expecting guests and did not want

anyone to have to wade through the previous path which had filled in quite a bit.

Apparently, we are to expect another snowstorm tomorrow. All day tomorrow.

Like Mr. Mallow, I will be trying to stay in the shallows.

Unlike Mallow, I will be thinking:

"It's snow, not ice! Huzzah!"

I hope you are having pleasant weather -

whatever that looks like to you - 

wherever you are today.

~~~~~

sunny morning

It was 8F when I came in at 11 this morning. But sunny! Let's focus on that!

It will surprise no one to hear that we've had a few more inches of snow. It hasn't made any difference in terms of chores, which are very much sled-based. I had a doctor's appointment last week and was a bit surprised that I hadn't lost weight since my previous visit. Perhaps fat has turned to muscle? Sled-pulling, bale-heaving, chaffhaye-dragging muscle? That could only be a good thing.

This is the corner where the house meets the porch, and the final morning chore is topping up the bird feeders here. The wilds have been going through roughly three times the usual amount of seed, and I'm just happy to have stocked up in the Autumn. I had a feeling we were going to have A Winter this year, but I never imagined such an unrelieved period of intense, even brutal, cold. I keep telling the hens and the goats: "It won't last forever." Here's hoping it changes in a milder direction.

~~~~~

ongoing

 

Azalea with a frosty muzzle.

Barncam snap taken a few minutes ago.

6F.

Halfway to the barn.

Lily helping fetch in the hay.

By getting between me and the sled.

Someday I will post photographs that don't feature snow.

Can't say when, but someday.

~~~~~

stovewood

After morning barn chores each day, it's time to fetch in more wood for the stove.

Got to the bottom of the first pallet this week.

Started on the second pallet:

Every morning I load up the smaller cargo sled.

It's enough stovewood for one day.

The next step is pulling the sled around to the portico and unloading it stick by stick into a log tote. It usually takes five or six trips with the tote to empty the sled. Since I can't walk through my house wearing cleats, the boots and gaiters have to come off before I can carry a tote through the kitchen to the parlor.

And there's another warm day and night for Moxie and Della and me

 and the water lines (so far, fingers crossed).

How are your mornings going?

~~~~~

one more time

We had more hours and inches of snow yesterday, but the forecast is for flurries only for the rest of the week. So just one more roof-edge snap of the total accumulation:

I've been trying to persuade Violet, one of my two oldest goats, to wear a coat - made from my old fleece coat - at least at night in this ongoing extremely cold weather. So far I am having limited success. She has been patient about fittings only up til the moment when a girth strap of soft fleece goes around her rib cage, and then she says NO THANK YOU GO AWAY and we have to negotiate every time. I am persisting because I am worried about her, and one night last week I got out of bed and shuffled along the ice-path to the barn because I saw on the barncam that the coat had shifted around and was bunched up and Violet was looked justifiably unhappy. The design modifications have been ongoing; during evening chores tonight I was out there with a needle and thread making on-the-spot adjustments by the light of my headlamp, with Mallow as spellbound audience. The temp is dropping into negative degrees again tonight, so fingers crossed the coat stays in place this time and Violet enjoys the warmth.

Remember when I used to make little fleece coats for the babies who were born during very cold weather? I distinctly remember kneeling on the hard cold ground in the original paddock, cutting up fleece scarfs and designing on the spot. Very quickly, very simply. Turns out cobbling together a coat to fit a 120 pound doe is a little more complicated. Who knew?

~~~~~

following up

 Well the snow started again before I even got out the door.

I think the last time we had this much snow, Piper was out doing chores with me.

I miss Piper so much.

The vantage point chair on the Upper West Side.

I did not sit and enjoy the view today.

The house seen from the barn, with smoke rising from the chimney.

I stayed in the barn for a few minutes sharing out peanuts to these two:

Azalea

and Azalea's mum, Lily of the Valley.

Many of the goats will be going a little stir-crazy if we don't see the sun soon.

When the sun appears, the goats will all be out regardless of the snow.

None of them have to be out in this weather, but maybe you could see the snowflakes on Azalea? And here is Bud, wading between the stilt barn and the temporary shelter:

I don't know if you can see it clearly in the snaps, but the wide shadow 

along the edge of each roof indicates the depth of the snow. It's a lot. 

But as long as we don't lose power (and therefore water), we're fine here. 

Plenty of access to feed, shelters, and water.

Plenty of wood for the stove.

All's well.

Touch wood.

~~~~~

report

Moxie watching the sun rise.

I'm back with the water report. The cold water line to my kitchen sink has been replaced. It was pouring rain that morning, and during the plumbing work I think I got more thoroughly soaked than AM did, because he was in the dry crawlspace and I was standing outside the little crawlspace window, yelling, "Do you need anything?" and "What?" and "Are you alright in there?"

Not raining today, though!

Before the work started I asked AM if, after the plumbing,  he would mind taking a moment and just unscrewing the lightbulb in the crawlspace and replacing it with my socket adaptor that would hold both a bulb and an extension cord that might power my bucket de-icers. He very kindly agreed, and after checking that the new water line was functional, he headed for the fixture and that's where the wheels came off, so to speak.

First, the adapter broke while being screwed into the socket. Oh well, it was quite old, but worth a try, I said. For now let's just put the bulb back in the socket and I'll think of something else later. 

But when AM put the original bulb back in the socket, it had stopped working. I borrowed a functioning bulb from a lamp, but when moved to the crawlspace, that one didn't work either. AM decided that the outlet in the crawlspace - a simple single bulb socket - should be replaced. Even though it would mean hardwiring - not the job he had signed up for - AM was ready to go to his house and get another fixture from his personal Collection of Useful Items, but - and this will surprise no one - I knew there was one in my own personal Collection of Useful Items, and mine included an outlet for a 3-prong plug, which you may recall was essential for the extension cord/de-icer experiment. I would not have asked AM to hardwire a fixture but, well, he offered and I've become a lot more comfortable with saying "Great, thanks," when people offer to do things I can no longer tackle myself but would if I could. (About a hundred years ago I wired half my house.)

But...

when AM went back into the crawlspace he realized the box the original socket was wired from was too small for the new ceramic socket-and-plug base, so he went home and got another box and a circuit tester - safety first! - and was back in about 10 minutes. I'll tell you what, it's pretty convenient to have a neighbor doing work here!

All in all, AM finished the water line in about 40 minutes but was here for two hours, thanks to my little request to plug in an extension cord. And he was also quite soaked by the end of it, after crawling in and out of the little window several times during the electronics episode. Fortunately for me, he's not thrown off by the unexpected quirks in projects, probably because his family has an old house too, and livestock. It's probably why he charges by the hour for most jobs. Very sensible.

AM turned an old tattered shelterlogic roundtop
into this permanent shelter after the barn disaster of 2024.
That's a perky Dara in the foreground.

Speaking of livestock...

The testing of the crawlspace circuit extension cord was stretched out over 3 days, as I wanted to add each de-icer cord individually, giving it plenty of time to deal with the ice accumulation in one trough before adding the next. It took over 12 hours just to melt the solid ice in the barn trough! The outdoor trough was added next, then it was time for the wildlife basin. First I had to find the de-icer plug, which was on the ground and had been buried in snow and then encased in ice. I plugged it in overnight and by morning was able to dump out the meltwater and replace it with fresh. I think the birds are happy to have plenty of water available all the time again, instead of a little pan of water replaced twice daily but freezing over quickly.

About thirty finches and juncos flew out of frame
the moment I tried to take this picture. Trust me.

Let's hope the plumbing and electrical projects are finished for a while and I can carry on with other things. There will be no trouble coming up with the next items to work on, but as I often say, everyone needs a hobby, right?  Right??

Sculpture by Quinn

~~~~~

random monday

Up until a couple of weeks ago, before the "real" morning chores, I was also doing a short predawn round: just bringing in two frozen buckets, replacing them with fresh buckets, and filling the wilds' feeders. All done in silence because I didn't want the goats getting out of their cozy beds before dawn to keep me company. Two or three goats would always spot me, but since I didn't speak to them they may have figured I was sleepwalking.

Maybe I was.

Evening barncams: infrared and heatlamp red.

Now, for the first time in many years, there are enough functioning (touch wood) barn cameras and bucket de-icers to make the prequel to morning chores unnecessary on most days. They've got water and I've got an eye on things.

This new 15-gallon water trough is accessible from two paddocks. Can you see the ice, despite the de-icer? That's because the circuit had been tripped.

The annual Water Availability Dance involves shifting buckets, circuits, extension cords, and de-icers in order to reach the mysterious balance required to keep the power flowing and the water liquid. It's never fun, but this year was a bit more troublesome not just because of the snowsnowsnow but because until early January all my chores were still being done with one hand/arm. The new trough, and some very rough one-handed fencing, were part of an effort to reduce the number of buckets - and hence the number of de-icers - needed. To my jaw-clenching surprise, there was still trippage, as seen above, until I swapped out higher-wattage bucket de-icers for 80 watt models designed for birdbaths. Success! Now every creature on the place can reach one of four water sources at all times. The buckets just need daily topping off and a scrub every few days. It's like a holiday.

Speaking of which, we have entered a predicted stretch of genuinely warm weather. Yesterday was about 20F when I was doing noon chores, which was a heck of a lot warmer than single digits have been. I celebrated by prying open a chaise and taking a few minutes to enjoy the scenery.

Hazel thought this was a great idea.

I wasn't even wearing gloves, so it was very easy to reach the peanuts in my pocket.

Don't know why, but this year I suddenly have a cut-off point for thawing frozen gate latches with my bare hands: 11F. Holding onto more than one latch at 11F is downright unpleasant. Gates have been tied shut with baling twine for many weeks now. If the hitches get coated in ice I just cut the twine to open the gate.

Well, to wrap up this jumble of a post, 

here are a couple of locals on a recent murky morning:

I hope your February is going well.

~~~~~

marching on

 I've lost track of the snowstorms.

We are having Winter at last!

It's a relief, really. 

A relief to have snow at a time of year when snow is expected. An actual pleasure to have a cold day followed by another cold day. (Did I mention that this year I was still showering outdoors in late December because every other day felt like October?) And ice-crusted snow that is hazardous for a human to walk on and a problem even for goats. (I admit I could do without the ice. I've often said I'd rather have two feet of snow than a quarter-inch of ice, and it's true.)

There's plenty of food for cats and humans in the cupboard and freezer. Plenty of organic feed for the hens. And plenty of seeds and mealworms and suet for the wilds.

There's still enough hay for at least a week before I have to get another truck up the driveway, hopefully after a brief thaw and before another snowfall. So I'm not going to worry about that today.

You know the expression "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof"? 

I think sufficient is also the good thereof.

I think life is plenty hard

and plenty good.

~~~~~

winter cheer

I think Della speaks for the entire household today.

Outside it's very cold and murkily grey, and everything is covered in a sheet of ice. Doing chores last night, I had to punch my boot heel into the ice crust every time I took a step, in order to stay on my feet. The cleated boots came out this morning for the first time all Winter.

There's been a lot of this lately:

For a person who has enjoyed - well, let's say "reluctantly swallowed" - coffee about once every two years over a long lifetime, I am making up for it now with a taste for Turkish coffee. I started out making an occasional traditional serving, in a traditional cezve, and drinking it in a tiny cup, unfiltered. A bit of a pleasant ritual. Only one "local" shop carries this coffee. It's in the same town as Faraway Feedstore, so an 8-ounce can of Mehmet Efendi has been on the list for that every-few-months trip.

Well. There's been a gradual uptick in indulgence over a couple of years, and this Winter I've been brewing an entire quart, filtering it, then refrigerating and doling out daily for iced coffee with lots of milk. I recently made the feedstore trip and now the cupboard holds two cans of coffee. 16-ounce cans. Felt very much like getting in a load of hay.

It's so refreshing to the eye to see green, isn't it? I'm trying to keep a few little spearmint plants alive until they can go forth and multiply in the Spring. There hasn't been spearmint growing here in many years, but I am going to try very hard to reintroduce it in 2023.

And speaking of refreshing colors and reintroductions:

Several years ago, I saw the first bluebird here. It was tremendously exciting, and a couple of years later when I saw a pair, I hoped they would decide to stay nearby and visit the feeders often. Then there seemed to be a lull. Well, it's taken a while, but this Winter there have been five or six bluebirds visiting every day! I've added daily mealworms - the very nicest mealworms! - to my hulled sunflower seed and suet buffet. I've been trying and trying to get nice photographs to post for you, but this is the best so far. Stay tuned: someday the sun will be shining and the windows will be washed and the birds will be sitting still, all at the same time.

I hope you are having a lovely weekend, with the companions and activities and beverages you most enjoy!

~~~~~