Snowpocalypse of 2011

     Monday, our last day of January, went out with a bang.  It was the start of  the predicted " Big Snow Storm" that some of  my different Facebook teacher friends jokingly named "Snowicane, Snowmageddon, Snowphoon, Snowpocalypse Now!, Snowtorious, and Snowasaurus."  Our local newspaper even had a contest to name the storm.  Here are the results:

      It was really snowing in town when Britney and I left for home at 1pm, but just South of  the Bloomington border, there was barely any snow at all. 

     Once home, Britney helped me move the dog crate with Missy back out into the tack room.  I was going to leave her shut in it, but didn't think I could keep her water thawed and she really wanted out to see Bro. 


     So, I got her all set up, shut in the tack room with a heat lamp to keep warm under, and an easy way to get up to the window so she wouldn't over exert herself.  The vet said no running, jumping or climbing for a week to 10 days.  Right.


     I shut Bro in with Missy so they could visit and keep warm since the weather was going to get nasty. 
     As I was finishing up in the barn, I realized we now had a dusting of snow, and that the wind had really picked up.  You can hear the wind in this video, but see that not much snow was flying yet.

      I decided to get my flock to the coop before it got worse.  It took me 20 minutes to round up all the chickens. They did not want to leave the barn. I had to get Britney to help me herd Hercules first. Then I carried 2 hens, one at a time, to the coop. (Flopsie and then Baby were the ones I grabbed because they are the easiest to catch.)  As I was coming back to the barn to catch another chicken,  Brooster Rooster decided to lead the rest
(except one) to the coop.  They
really struggled with the wind.  It took me awhile to catch the one last Ameracauna hen, but I caught her and had them all shut in for the night.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to open the coop in the morning, because if they made a b-line for the barn as always,  I'd have to do the round up all over again.  In this photo, which I took in the morning, Brooster is getting the girls to the barn.  He had no competition with the other two roosters for a change.  Buck Tooth Betty usually hangs out with Hercules, so Brooster just has his six hens to keep an eye on.  I was glad to be rid of the other two "boys".  Since the flock was going to be coped up for a few days, it was good that there were less of them and that the trouble makers were gone.

                                                          The squirrel who lives on the third
floor of our corn crib decided to fill up before it got bad.  It started raining, well, actually icing....little frozen balls just after I started chores at 5:30 pm.  It was pretty noisy on the metal barn roof.  I was surprised at how calm Amiga was by herself in the barn in spite of the racket. Sir Loin decided to stay in the corn crib rather than camp out beside Amiga's stall door.

     We got almost a half inch of ice on top of the dusting of snow Monday night.  School had been called off late Monday evening because of the forecast.  Tuesday morning it really wasn't too bad.  I let the chickens out of the coop and cats out of the tack room.  Amiga and Sir Loin had to be careful walking on the slippery snow.  To start off my snow day, I spent time working on my Blog post from last week, e-mailing, and chatting on Facebook.  I was wondering if we shouldn't have at least tried to get in a half day of school, because it was only snowing lightly off and on all morning.

     But, at 11am the storm hit. The snow started coming steadily and it was a 30 mph wind out of the east.  I thought snow was supposed to fall, not fly sideways.  Joe got off work early (State Farm closed at noon) so helped me round up the chickens.

     There is a  gap between the overlap of the main barn roof with the part on the left side where the stalls are.  It is there for ventilation purposes.  The rain doesn't come in, but the way the snow was blowing, it was snowing into Amiga's stall.

     The horse in the barn and the cow in the corn crib were both getting covered with snow.  I felt bad for both of them.

     It was blowing through all the little cracks in the barn wall and between the slits of the boards in the corn crib.  It was swirling around and blowing into the south end of the corn crib as well.

     I gave Amiga  a good grooming including mane and tail and hoof picking, and proceeded to check on her and brush her off every couple of hours.


    



     The snow was beginning to accumulate and drift as the winds blew relentlessly.  I tried to paste two photos side by side here.

         By chore time there was ice mixed with the snow.  Amiga was now frosty, not just snowy, and the snow was getting deeper in her stall.

   The snow/ice mix was frozen to her hair and would not brush out.  I ended up holding my warm hands on her face to melt the stuff off her lashes and whiskers.

I went out to the barn one last time before bed to check on Amiga 

and the cats and take this video.

      

     Back at the house things were getting a little frosty as well.  The east facing door in our enclosed porch off the kitchen where the dog sleeps does not seal real tight.  The ferocious wind was blowing snow in even though I had wedged a towel into the crack.

     I went to bed Tuesday night knowing we had another snow day Wednesday.  Snow and ice pellets were beating against the house and windows as the whole structure seemed to rattle and shake in the 40 mph winds.

      When I got  up Wednesday morning, it was still windy with blowing snow, and cold.  It was hard to tell how much new snow was falling.  Over night Pontiac reportedly had gusts to 61 mph.  Peoria and B/N had gotten Thundersnow which was a mix of lightening enhanced snowfall and sleet. 

     <= Some areas had gotten two feet of snow. (Ha ha ha). By the time it was all over, I heard we had only gotten 13".  It seemed like more than that looking at the drifts...but there were also some bare spots in the yard.  Wonder why more bare spots occur in the yard than drive and the drive catches all the drifts.






     The wind must have shifted some over night because not too much new snow had gotten into Amiga's stall or on her.  It was rather pretty on the stall fencing.

     

     The cats were glad to get out of the tack room.  I decided Missy was ready for more exercise.  Here she is playing in the hay I had just put in Amiga's stall.

     I had to dig out snow in front of the chicken coop to check on and feed them.  Very little snow had gotten in to their shelter. With the heat lamp I had put in two days earlier (to add 3 hours of light to their day) it was nice and cozy in the coop.

     There was not much new snow, but it continued to blow and drift all day Wednesday. Notice the snow is as high as the 4 foot fence by the pines.

     At one point I was looking out the kitchen window, and suddenly the wind died way down, and I could see the barn. So I went out to check on the horse. I was out there for awhile, brushing her off, and playing with the barn kitties. But then when I came out of the barn to head back to the house, the wind and snow had started back up.  Now they were almost straight out of the north. This is what caused the crazy looking drifts.

This video was taken from inside, looking west out the
dinning room window, so you can't hear the wind.

 

     The squirrel showed up for more bird seed.  Notice in the video below how much her tail is blowing and you can see the branches that have blown out of the trees.  It was all little sticks, but there were plenty of them.  The squirrel failed to get to the feeder but knocked enough food down that she could eat for a bit.  On her second attempt, she made it, as seen in the photo above.  I have also seen her on two occasions jump and grab the pole and then slide down it like a fireman.  So cute.

     When the wind finally died down, and the snow stopped blowing, and the sun actually broke through the clouds, I ventured out with camera in hand.  The drifts of snow were pretty and impressive.

Chicken coop and play ground.

Drift around the corn crib and ice on water trough.

    
Sir Loin in the corn crib which took on a lot of snow.

    
The east side of the barn.

Sir Loin peaking out of the corn crib.

I decided to let Amiga out of the barn late in the afternoon.  She was so glad to get out and to see Sir Loin.

She went a little "crazy",  I think partly from the surprise of all the snow and because she had been in her stall for 27 hours. 

She was kind of prancing through the snow.

 

And then went galloping by me several times.
Very pretty.... what majestic creatures these horses are.

Sir Loin decided to come see what all the excitement was about, and ended up joining in on the action.

He and Amiga proceeded to run around and frolic in the snow even though it was rather deep in spots.

    

They had a ball running and chasing each other.....both so glad to be out- side together.

At one point Sir Loin got stuck in about 3 feet of snow in the water way that Amiga had gone through.  He just stood there looking around.....and then slowly but eventually made his way out of it.

Once the excitement had died down, I proceeded to remove snow (6 wheel barrows full) from both stalls. 

And Britney came outside to pay us all a visit.

As the sun was setting to the west of our farm I started on chores knowing it was to get extremely cold over night.

I moved Amiga into Zorro's stall and put Sir Loin in her stall.  Notice most of the snow is gone.







 



Sir Loin made himself right at home and seemed quite content.

 I went out to the south side of the barn to get the stall door shut.  You can see the good sized drift.  In my original photo, I can see the glow of two eyes in the window.  That is Bro, in the tack room, up on the shelf right in front of the window.  He likes to keep an eye on what I am up to.

 By the time I got back in to the barn to close the cats in the tack room for the night, which I have been doing while Missy recovers from her surgery of 5 days ago, they had both settled in for a cold winter's night.



It was nice of Missy to share her heat lamp and puppy toy.  The two have become good friends, playmates, and company for each other. 










I am so glad I added her to our menagerie, but still dearly miss Sissy who is irreplaceable.

The temperature got down to -10 degrees before sunrise Thursday, but felt a lot colder with the wind chill.  Andy had plowed our drive during the night, but only did enough so that Joe could get the Expedition out of the garage.

Joe was still going to need to get out and do some work with a snow shovel.

Andy had left plenty behind that would need to be worked on. He said he would have to get bigger equipment and it was going to cost us more. We told him that we would manage.

 At least he had gotten the almost 200 yard length of the drive.

 Unit 5 had declared a third snow day, due to cold temperatures and the fact that they simply could not get all the snow cleared from all the sidewalks and parking lots.  This seemed obvious to me looking at all the snow we had to deal with.

The area between the house and barn has this huge 3 foot high drift.  It is probably at least 10 meters wide.

Since I had yet another snow day, I took time to walk around and look at God's latest art work.

There were cool drifts everywhere.

This is a view looking west at our farm which we so enjoy.

Joe started in on snow removal using the tractor.

Then I took over where he left off.

 
I just kept chipping away at it, one load at a time, dumping the snow up and over the east side of the drive so when it melts it will drain down the hill.







I accomplished quite a bit, pushing piles in to the center as they got too high and then adding more on top.

After almost 2 hours of work I was still not sure we could get the truck out of the barn....

or a load of wood shavings into the barn.

The monster drift is going to be here quite awhile I am afraid.

Joe did get out with the snow shovel to make a walk from the house to the chicken coop.

 He took the path of least resistance.... where the snow was not as deep.... and curved around and between drifts.

The chickens use the path if they come out to go over to the barn.  But the bunnies go right over the top of the snow drifts.  It must have something to do with foot design.

Missy came out to do some hunting, and was able to walk on the drifts as well.

Here she is looking for birds in the snow covered trumpet vine. 

The  west side of the barn that is open to the north took on a bunch of snow as it often does.  This time I had covered the mowers and bikes with a tarp, so I wasn't too worried about the snow. 




     The rest of the week was unremarkable after this big snow event, except for Saturday night.  Joe and I went to the VFW to dance to the Biscuits And Gravy band with friends Bob and Marge.  We stayed up way past our bed time but really enjoyed the music and conversation and it was so good to see Marge back in the swing of things.  School Friday felt like a Monday.  I went to my Lessons On Lightness horse training class Saturday, worked in the nursery Sunday, then after Church dropped by school to xerox.     

This is the view out our kitchen window right now, which has not changed since I took this photo on Thursday. 



I am ready for spring....but how long is it going to take for all of this snow to melt? ....forever if it never gets above 20 degrees.