Home From Christmas

We arrived home from a warm Florida on Sunday Jan 3rd to a cold, empty house (except for the dog and cat). There was lots of beautiful snow. It was neat to see how it had drifted around all the different buildings and trees.

The horses and cow looked content and all seemed well with the farm.  Notice the icicles in the upper left corner of the picture below.  











Our pet sitter did a great job.  There were some things I had to “fix” like moving a huge pile of stall stuff out to the manure pile.  It had been dumped right out side the stall gate on the south side of the barn. (Come to find out our pet sitter had hurt her knee and it was too difficult to push the wheel barrel through the snow....some of which had drifted quite a bit back there).  So, first I shoveled a path from the barn to the manure pile, then

I started hauling stuff.  It took several hours with many trips back and forth.   Believe it or not, it was good to be home!

Monday the 4th, I headed down our drive to face the teacher’s workshop which was long, slow and tedious.I wish they would just let us get some of our work done during institute days. They feel the need to do school improvement and team building activities....but it is frustrating for many of us who would like to get much needed classroom work done.    
Tuesday came all too soon and it seemed the classes were long, slow and boring for the students.  I always go over rules and procedures etc. because of all the new students we get at the start of a new semester. I felt the students were suffering what I had suffered through the day before.  There has got to be a more engaging way to do all of this. 
                                                       
Wed after school, with the forecast of another winter storm, we moved 12 bales of hay from the lower level of the barn out to the corn crib for the 3 make/shift hay bins.  We discovered a stash of 11 eggs on the top of the hay pile, 5 bales up. Silly Chickens! I put hay in a water bucket and placed them in it. All but 1 were frozen and cracked. I put the good one in my coat pocket and later accidentally cracked it because I had forgotten it was there and tried to squeeze through the opening into the chicken coop – the door was frozen part way shut. (Chipping it out of the snow and ice was another job). One of the eggs in the hay was a very light tan, and 2 of them were quite small.  Baby....theBarred Plymouth Rock chicken I taught to stand and walk has been hanging out at the barn every day with Flopsie, the Rhode Island Red. They have become "friends" and can be seen together around and in the barn.  None of the other chickens or turkey have left the coop.  Anyway, I think the Barred chickens from Carol’s eggs we hatched last summer may finally have started laying. The dog has been getting one of the broken eggs with her breakfast each morning.  So there is no waste.  The oyster shells mixed with sand that I got from the beach at Long Boat Key in Florida have been a hit with the fowl. I wish I had scooped up more than 2 milk jugs full.
     Wednesday night while trying to stay focused and work on school work, I kept looking out the window to check on the weather.  It was predicted to snow all night and all day Thursday, with 6-8 inches of accumulation, and then get windy. It had started coming down about 4pm!

 Thur....5:06am...   I got the call.... SNOW DAY!  With the wind and the snow falling, it was beautiful.... almost whiteout conditions.... and awesome to watch the sun rise.  Well, you couldn’t really see the sun....just brighter whiteness as it made its way up.

    I spent much of the day inside getting caught up.... which included:  laundry, school work, thank you notes, and chores around the house.  I never did get to this blog.    

I went outside and did quite a bit of scooping to make it easier to get around from barn to chicken coop to corn crib, etc. and I messed around out in the barn.... getting more hay for the horses and preparing the tack room for our new kittens which we planned to pick up Friday night.  Everything was closed around Bloomington and Normal. Joe and Courtney didn't go to work until later and  Britney's eye appointment was canceled.  Britney and I got some pictures at one point during the day.  (That is her bundled up in the picture above)  The horses had access to the barn but preferred to stay out in the snow.  Silly Horses!

  By Thursday evening it was really drifting here. The snow had stopped coming down, but was blowing sideways.  The way things were looking, I didn’t think I would have school Friday. Several area schools were closed Friday, but not Unit 5. I was glad to go and get one more school day checked off the calendar. I didn't even open up or look into the chicken coop Friday morning.  I left it closed all day Thursday too.  
The "birds" haven't come out since it started snowing Wed afternoon.   The poop is piling up.  We picked up new barn kittens Friday night.  They are very cute....but more on them in the next blog.  The horses and cow are really going through the hay fast....nothing else available to eat...under a foot or more of snow.



Couldn't operate the camera with my gloves on....and didn't want to take them off so pictures had to wait a bit. These late blog postings enable me to get pictures a bit later.

The chicken coop and pine trees caused some beautiful drifts to form.

A path from the chicken coop back to the house.


Our thermostat is at 65 during the day when we are here and 60 at night.  We used an average of 70 gal per week of propane the last 5 weeks of 2009.  Wonder if our house sitter had it turned way up...or if this place is not very heat efficient.  I suspect the latter.  I feel cool drafts from everywhere .... floor vents, electric out lets, windows and doors. :-(    More work to do around here.

Our drive keeps drifting shut and has been a problem a few different times.  We get it plowed for $50 which covers 24 hours.  He came Thur late morning and Thur night and Friday early morning but we were too cheep to pay for more.


Britney got stuck in the drive in the Toyota early Monday afternoon on her way home. I later parked my Vibe back a ways from her and then Joe arrived in the van and got the tractor to move snow and free up the 3 car pile up.  I almost got stuck late afternoon Mon on my way back out of the drive, so I parked at the end of the drive Mon night when I got home from Bible study because Joe and Britney were in St. Louis for the night and I did not want to get stuck Tue Morning on my way to school, so I hiked up the drive Mon night and back down Tue am.  

Britney's flight out of St. Louis left on time at 6am Tue.  Joe and Britney stayed at one of his friends who lives 15 min from the air port.  Britney had a long lay-over in Miami and then flew out late Tuesday night to Costa Rica.

Each night as the sun goes down and I go about my evening chores, even though it is sometimes tough with more drifted snow, frozen water, cold fingers and toes, and wind whipping my face...I praise God for his beautiful creation, thank him for his blessings and ask for his forgiveness and grace.