Winter Weather
This winter just won’t quit. We spent last weekend’s extremely frigid temperatures inside staring out the window. The temperature’s dropped to nineteen degrees below zero, combined with thirty miles per hour winds and snow makes for a pretty miserable weekend.
Thankfully, our choice of livestock does well in extreme conditions. Mac the Yak seems to actually like cold weather. Mac would stand in the pasture staring into the house with me in the house staring into the pasture. Mac seemed to be saying, “Hey Monner, What’s up? It’s not that bad out here. We could use some hay out here. Let’s go!” I did my best to avoid eye contact, but he just kept staring. It got kinda creepy.
We don’t have many animals currently, so it really doesn’t take long to feed them. It actually takes longer to dress for the weather than it does to feed the animals. If it is not below zero, with blowing snow, I can usually throw on a coat and shoes and be done with feeding in a matter of minutes. Last weekend required insulated coveralls, insulated boots, and battery-operated gloves.
It’s amazing how much homework the children have when they see Ol’ Monner getting dressed to head outside to feed. I guess I should be happy their homework is important to them.
This weekend the temperatures have been above zero. The weather forecasters had predicted we would get a couple inches of snow this past week. We got eight inches. Eight inches of the most beautiful powdery snow. Skiers would love it. Animal feeders not so much.
Livestock cannot find anything to eat under eight inches of snow; under a couple of inches of snow, they can feed themselves. While powdery snow is great for skiing, powdery snow has a tendency to blow. Blowing snow mixed with particles of blowing hay takes the fun out of enjoying the snow. Within two days our beautiful powdery snow had blown into every nook, behind every rock, and around every tree. In our case, most of the snow is now in our quarter-mile-long driveway. The UPS driver would not attempt driving down our driveway for fear of getting stuck. (He would have.) He telephoned Elaine to inform her that he had tied our packages to a fencepost at the end of the driveway. We could retrieve them at our peril.
As I mentioned, the temperature is above zero. The wind is blowing above forty miles per hour making the feels like temperature around twelve degrees. I’m going to try to stay inside today, but that (construction language) yak is looking in the window again. Please, let spring come, I’ve got ranch stuff to do, plus we need to inventory the yarn and stuff. Unless you guys buy it, no need to count what isn’t here.
Seriously, thanks for keeping us in your thoughts for yarn purchases. It has been going better than we could have dreamed. Even heading out in the weather to package an order hasn’t been all that bad. We need to feed the yak (and llama) anyway.
Our crazy lives!
Monner
