Powerless

No winter storms are complete without a power outage. I was watering plants when I thought it was getting dark fast, and heard a beeping. Took a few minutes to realize it was my computer's backup power supply. Fortunately it was a short outage, but I had time to fire up my new kerosene heater, purchased last year, to see if it really works. 

It really does. Squeak likes this heater best. Much nicer than forced air.

Winter's Fury

The wind and rain are beating against my windows. I just found out that the highway between the freeway and here closed 15 minutes after I drove home. No wonder it felt scary. 

All roads across the mountains are closed. The north-south freeway is closed for 20 miles, starting just south of my entrance. They think it will also close in Fife, which is much closer to the large population centers. There is water across the same freeway near the Canadian border. Sixty-two roads in the state closed in a few hours. The western part of the state is effectively closed off from the rest of the world, and communities are closed off from each other. 

I sit here, high on my hill, looking at pictures of people being rescued by boat. One entire small town is underwater. I would offer my high property for people's animals, but they probably couldn't get here. It really looks like much of the state is under water. 

And the poor people in Spokane! They had something like 6 feet of snow, and then got 2-4" of rain on top of it. Roofs are going to give way under that kind of weight. 

It has been a weird and wild winter so far, and there are months to go before spring.

Silver Linings

Isn't there always a silver lining?

Since I was home early, I went out to feed the animals by daylight. I emptied my Ursa cart of it's 3/4 load of water (my word it's rained a lot!), filled it with alfalfa, and headed out to the sheep. In spite of being near the top of a pretty steep ridge, my sheep paddock is 4" deep in water. The shelter stands just above the wet. And one of the ewes - one of my best moms - was lying down with a half-born (and very dead) lamb. I got the lamb out, her standing, and food and water beside her. She's shaky and not looking well, but I think she may be OK. I don't think she would be if she'd laid there another several hours. 

Everything is wet. Everything. I'm so grateful for my high property, far above the rising waters. 

Good News Bad News

The good news is that a low pressure storm raged into the Northwest bringing warmth and rain. That warmth and rain have melted most of the snow at lower elevations, freeing us from winter's white grip. 

The bad news is that a low pressure storm raged into the Northwest bringing warmth and rain that have melted most of the snow at lower elevations, and much of the snow at higher elevations. That combined with the very high amount of rain that has softened the already water-logged soils, is causing mudslides and flooding. 

As I went in to work this morning there was water over the county road that runs along the top of my ridge. Top. How can a road that is just about the highest thing around flood? The river that runs alongside the state route between my area and the freeway was within inches of the road, well over its banks. Fields were now ponds and rivers. I continued on nervously - not turning back because the Illinois company I work for thinks the Washington folks are all a bunch of wimps who aren't dedicated to work since we stayed home during the recent snow storms. I love my job and want to keep it.

By 1:00 the Dept. of Transportation was threatening to close down I-5, so I left work on a mad dash back home. I beat the freeway closure, and the 5 or 6 places where the state route was flooded were still shallow enough to drive through. If I had been 1/2 hour later I would not have made it home. 

I'm very glad to be back up on my hill, looking over the valley, watching the rain. I've just driven through a county underwater. Rumor has it this is the worst flood event since the 1930s in the county my sister lives in. It looks worse here than last year, except we had warning and the floods are coming in relatively slowly.

Looking for that door into summer. 

Another Dawn

Morning Surprise

This morning the world again turned pristine white. Snow is such a beautiful thing.

It was truly a gorgeous morning. The fog lifted, the sun came out, the snow sparkled.

And once again my road, still patchy with ice and snow yesterday, turned into a long white slide. Summer, anyone?

Got food?

This afternoon the local feed store managed to get their flatbed pickup up my lane. I now have hay, grain, dog food, cat food, bird food, wild bird food, and even milk and cream. I can't believe I've been stuck here for two weeks. It's raining right now, so the road may be clear tomorrow.

Rumor has it there are two more storm fronts coming in. It looks like they'll be rain and wind storms, which suits me fine. I'm ready for clear roads. 

Meanwhile, my animals are happy.

The Saga Continues

This morning Ursa, Jesse and I walked down my lane to the county road. I had hoped to get out today, to get supplies and make my way back to work. What I found was that I'd previously underestimated the amount of snow on the road.

Up at the top there were still areas with 6-8" of snow - where there'd been drifts. Some small areas were bare or nearly bare. I was happily thinking I could drive through this. As I got down the the lower half of the road, the accumulation was 4-6", and it iced as I walked over it. At the end of the lane was a pile of snow from the plow that had gone down the county road. I watched the neighbors struggle to get their pickup out of their (very short) drive. They managed, but not easily. 

Later in the day my neighbor's brother drove over in his heavy 4-wheel drive station wagon. He made it half way up the drive. As soon as it got steep he got stuck. His comment was we could probably get out, but wouldn't get back in. He had to back out.

This was not good news to people who are out of supplies. My neighbor lent me some dog food, so I can feed my 14 year old Ursa. The other dogs are getting rice, as are the chickens. The chickens are happy with it, which I can't say is true for the dogs. 

Then, as the visitor was leaving, it started snowing again. Heavily.

It snowed long enough to make a light covering on all cleared areas.

Then it cleared, but the clouds to the south are a mass of light grey. I can only hope they will bring rain and not snow. I really want to get out! My dogs second the sentiment.

Thai Yellow Curry

This is the Thai yellow curry I made for a late lunch. Not bad for stockpiled food after 10 days stuck on property. Sweet potatoes, pumpkin, frozen spinach (I knew I'd find a use for it), cashews and almonds, cabbage (the remainder of a huge head my neighbor's brother gave us), apple, garlic, yellow curry paste and canned coconut milk. Yum. Served over rice.

What prompted me to make this was I ran out of dog food.

I put a huge pot of rice on to use as a base for a dog-concoction. It smelled so good cooking, I thought maybe I should eat some of it myself. What do you do with rice? That led to digging through all my supplies, and this is what I came up with. 

The dog's mix isn't nearly as exciting, I'm not sure they'll like it. The best thing in it (from a dog's point of view) is chicken broth. And egg, of course. We'll see. I'm letting them get good and hungry before I spring it on them. The chickens enjoyed the leftover rice.

We are all hoping the snow melts down some more by tomorrow. I had hoped to get out today, but the road consists of a very slippery, dense, slightly thicker than slush icy layer about 4 inches thick. Very slick. I'm sure I could get out, but I don't think I'd make it up again. Tomorrow.

Queen Ursa

Not bad for a 14 year old. The pink lump on her jaw is a non-cancerous tumor she's had for several years now. She doesn't seem to feel it at all. The treatment would have been to take the end of her jaw off - a procedure I couldn't see putting an old dog through (neither could the vet). She sleeps a lot these days, but is bright and cheery when she's awake. As you can see from past posts, she still gets around well. My thanks to Audrey for placing her with me all those years ago.

Trey has been feeling left out lately, so I thought I'd include him here. My pretty little herder boy, Trey is a very sweet and gentle Border Collie cross.

The Once Useful Shelter

This time it's my hay storage area. Ironically, I'd moved my Ursa cart in here for safe keeping after the other structure collapsed. I've left it outside now - a bit too superstitious to put it into my bird building. The cart came through fine. The two remaining hay bales went one to the sheep and one into the van. This is the first time since the snow started that I've been glad I was low on hay. Now I have to figure out where I'm going to store hay.

The Beauty of Wet Snow

Wet snow may be a pain to deal with, but it is undeniably beautiful.

It sticks to everything, making wonderful contrasts of light and dark.

Small bushes become soft sculptures as every twig holds its portion of snow.

The evergreens dressed in white. Each Christmas we used to make Ivory soap flakes snow for the Christmas tree. It looked a lot like this. By 1:00 the trees were bare, looking newly washed.

The Long White Road

This morning I walked down to the neighbors to wish them Merry Christmas and borrow some bird seed. I had to climb the fence to get out. It was the first time I'd been on my road since the snows.

Snow is deceiving. That white expanse in front of the trees is part of my road. It turns out to be under at least a foot of snow. Heavy, wet snow. It was an arduous trek. Worse was walking back with a 20 lb bag of sunflower seeds.

This is looking up the hill towards my house. We got another 4" of snow last night. It's supposed to snow again tonight. Makes me wonder if we'll ever get out.

The snow last night and this morning made me realize why snow is such a problem here in the coastal west. Not only aren't we used to or prepared for it, but our normal snow is so very wet and heavy. The past week, with temps in the teens and twenties, the snow has been light, packing well, pretty easy to walk through. Today's snow makes each step a trial.

Return of the Snow Beast

Last night around 9:00 I headed down the hill for my evening check on the animals and turning out of lights. What I found was a collapsed shelter.

This is the carport that sheltered the chicken kennel and the straw. Several of the chickens liked to roost on top of the kennel, under the fiberglass panels that help keep the kennel dry. The carport collapsed on top of them.

As I shone my flashlight up to determine the damage, I could see these poor squished chickens. I assumed they were dead, until one blinked at me. I then started what turned into a 2 hour project of digging them out. There was about 8 inches of snow on the tarp roof, now partly melted and partly frozen. Very heavy, very hard to move. 

I got the chickens all out. One had a broken neck from a pole that fell on her, but the others were all OK. I opened the garage door, and a stream of chickens headed in. 

Several decided to stay out in the kennel. A couple were on top, but I finally managed to catch them and put then inside where they wouldn't freeze and wouldn't be owl bait.

You can see how the tarp has been smushed down on the roof of the kennel. Poor chickens!

Once I had all the chickens safe, I noticed that what was holding up the bottom of the fallen structure was my beloved Ursa cart. I took a deep breath, and dug off enough snow to allow me to move the structure off the cart. Fortunately it wasn't hurt. Good cart. All the snow you see above the cart fell last night.

This morning I opened the garage door, expecting to be met by a stream of chickens heading back outside. These are, after all, the birds that have always refused to come inside.

Not a one tried to leave. I guess the building seems a lot safer now than the outside world.

Someone Shook My Snow Globe!

Tea, Anyone?

Note Jesse in the background, again becoming one with the snow. He may be the only critter here who is still thrilled with our winter.

Some Days it's Tough to be a Chicken

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

There's been discussion about dog beds on the Livestock Guardian Dog list (LGD-L). Berna loves her Cosco round bed, but I'm not sure the exact size matters...

Hanna loves the round beds too, but thinks that any place close to me is a good place, especially if there is paper to chew up nearby.

Jesse is wooing (can't you just hear him?) to go out, to his favorite bed...

the snow. He may look like he's laying guard over the poultry, but really he's waiting for me to throw the peafowl some cat food.

Trail Blazing

There are three types of paths around my property. There are light, very interesting paths that I think are made by the Peafowl. There are Judy paths, and there are miniature highways.

This is an example of the highway. It's like a tiny snowplow or snowmobile made paths for very small cross-country skiers. These paths are even, well packed, and the same width everywhere.

I did not make them.

This is a Judy path. It's uneven, you can see each foot step. Messy path. The path on the right is one I suspect is made by peafowl.

Here's a Judy path and a mini-highway meeting, with some chicken off-shoots. The reason there are two? The mini-highway goes under obstacles lower than is comfortable for humans.

Isn't this a great path? Makes touring the property much easier for Ursa. 

Snow Geese