The beginning of 2014 got off to a rough start. The flu made it’s way through our house and my class room, then once we got rid of that, a nasty cold made it’s rounds too. I THINK we are all on the mend now and maybe I can get a little caught up on EVERYTHING.
Along with our health, the weather was a bit off too. We started January with very mild temperatures. Mild enough that we were even able to hire Uncle Tom to come and finish building our fence around the barnyard. Building fence in January is a very rare thing around here. Well, for everyone but Uncle Tom…
The fence is now complete and it looks GREAT!
The weather was so unusually mild I was even finding myself wishing for snow and wondering what happened to winter. (I never wish for snow)
The chickens loved the mild weather; here they are enjoying a nice dust bath.
With the addition of a few hours of artificial light in their coop we are still getting PLENTY of eggs this winter.
Winter did finally come, but not in the way we were hoping for. Instead of some nice fluffy snow, we got a layer of ice in the form of freezing rain then the freezing fog settled in and stayed awhile. Freezing fog is not a stranger around here, but this stuff was NASTY and it seemed it would never go away.
Here is a couple of willow trees laying on our brand new fence. Sure glad Tom finished clipping the wire before all this showed up!
After a few days the trees started snapping, and our drive way turned into an ice skating rink.
After about 2 weeks of this frozen wonderland the fog lifted a bit and we thought the sun was coming……but, not before it dumped another 1/2 inch of freezing rain on us over night. This caused near by power poles to snap and of course many more trees. We lost power and all the local schools were cancelled for the day. I was still recovering from a cold so I took the opportunity to grab a book and curl up under a blanket. After 12 hours of no power, I was reminded of how thankful I am for the little things in life…..like flushing toilets and warm water. The sun did FINALLY come out, and the frost disappeared VERY quickly.
Our poor trees…. 🙁 The image below is of one of the seven tops from our big white fir tree that broke out. Seven tops gives a clue that such heavy hoar frosts have happened before, but we’ve seen nothing like this in the near fifteen years living here. This top drove itself into the somewhat frozen ground well over a foot, and sticks nearly ten feet in the air.
I see a huge bonfire in our near future…..hotdogs anyone?
On a happier note, Digger did some bartering with a good friend of ours and we ended up with a freezer full of grass fed beef! Oh, how we have been enjoying beef, lots of beef! We ended the month by celebrating Little Chefs 11th birthday. What a blessing she is. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by the Red Double Wide!
