Saturday, February 27, 2021

Weather Apocolypse

Like you all have not been through it, too... right? 

I realized this morning I have not posted for three weeks.  Friends, I was too pooped. 

Even on the worst days, I went out three or four times a day to clear the ONE unheated water bowl 

and re-fill it. 



So grateful for my many masks, they kept my face warm. 
BUT... I wore two layers of clothing, socks and gloves for the duration. 
I actually also wore a second hate over this lovely ensemble. 


On February 10, I ordered propane over the ARU at Ferrelgas... the very first time I 
could not speak to a live person.  We were just going into the deep freeze, and I was at 25%. That afternoon, I called the CSR line, and got connected to a lady in North Carolina.  I told her we were descending into the deep freeze, and asked if there was an emergency line I could call if it looked like I was going to run out of gas. (she said no)

Let me stop right here and say that I never, ever waited more than three days for a gas fill. 
I watch my tank like a hawk. 

She told me I was scheduled for the 19th.  (I ordered Wednesday, the 10th).  
On the 19th, I must have looked out the window fifteen times to my gate, which was wide 
open.  Chat online was disabled... no emails were being answered, and I had left two messages on 
the phone which were unanswered. 

I checked on a local page on Saturday and asked if anyone had seen the truck out delivering. 
I was told by one man I "Should have planned for living in the country". 

As you can see from the picture, it snowed three or four times, but we never got a huge load, it was just bone-chilling cold. 

On Sunday afternoon, I got a call from North Carolina that my gas would come on Monday, the 22nd. 


Thank God, that's all I can say.  I had gone to Menards and bought two 
electric heaters, and then used one in the kitchen to take the load off the furnace. 
I closed the doors to all the bedrooms and with the electric heater, it stayed cozy. 

I was staring running out in the face though, and did not want to pay to have to re-run the lines. 
I learned from this... I will have to call at 40% in the future... and, friends, that man, 
Rick Trieb, delivered every single day, and he is the only driver in my area now.  I do not know how he did it!





That, believe it or not, is a heated water bowl that is frozen to the ground. 

I had to sweep the dirty water out of it for a week... I could not prise it up. 
The starlings could actually drain this deep bowl in thirty minutes. 

The chickens were in for two full weeks, they hated me. 

I had three other heated basins or bowls that I had to fill multiple times a day. 


There was no chicken at the commissary on Thursday... the signs say that inclement weather is the reason. 


My poor old Ferdie suffered much damage to comb and wattles. 
I believe his comb points will fall off. 


This guy is on a diet.  Jester got treats right along with the little girls, every time they took a pill, they all got a treat.  He is woefully overweight. 

He and I are walking at a local park every day now, I drop what I am doing in the afternoon and off we go. 

He needs to get twenty pounds off... but I would be overjoyed with ten. 


There is an aging opossum living in the sheep barn right now. 


Possums only live about three years, and I suspect this one is close to its' end. 
However, I find him curled up in the hay in late afternoon, and out of the camera view 
to the left there is a bowl I keep cat food in.  I have noticed it has gone to the garden though, 
every night, to eat birdseed.  



There it is on deck with a smaller one. 


The yellow tabby has disappeared.  I have not seen it in five days now, not on 
camera, not in the pasture. 
I have heard coyotes DURING THE DAY three times in the last week, 
this is breeding season. 


I have not seen Gray Kitty, either.  

Four Long Days. 

I did not see Rusty for three, but he is here and safe.  I have fed him several  times with his 
wet cat food in the last two days. 


I have noticed that NO cat is eating on the deck right now,
and am thinking of pulling the cat food in at night because I am 
overrun with 


I swear that some are as big as Jester!


These are my two youngest grands, Jax and Paiton. 

I have to say something here.  They have not been in real 
school for over a year right now, and I feel badly for them. 
Right now, they go to school four mornings a week, 
for 3 hours.  Then they go home, and a second shift goes in. 
In the meantime, they get off the bus, go in the house, and 
log on and go to school online for three more hours. 

On Friday morning, here, they log on for one hour only, for a social studies 
type course. 

They are missing their friends (the rooms are very sparsely populated to be safe) and 
they are not thriving as they did before. 

I believe they will be back to school full time in the fall.
I believe it will be safe then. 

We will have the virus here, but more and more are being vaccinated, 
and numbers are falling. 

I am going to be vaccinated as soon as I can be, Leavenworth County 
has not gotten large amounts of the vaccine yet. 
I am signed up. 

Many of my friends are vaccinated already. 

If we can just hold on a little longer.... 


I only lost two chickens to the bitter cold, and one that I thought surely WOULD die, 
has not. (these two are alive and well) 


This old red hen is sleeping in the closet of the old hen house now, instead of roosting, and I honestly believed I would go in and find her dead.  I still have the warming light on in there for support....
I have turned off the other two hen houses. 

So far, though, she is holding on!

I also have been getting six to ten eggs a day from the old girls....
until yesterday when I did not get ANY! 

I do have an old black hen on a nest right now... 
she has two eggs under her and I am actually considering letting her go 
broody.  I will move her to a brooding cage if that is true, because she is up high in the nest box. 


This came up in my memory this week... it's little Cookie, 
two years ago this week.  He was just a DOLL! 
So much fun to watch. 


The finches!

I am actually going to mount a special flat feeder for them out in the yard about twenty feet, they 
are just tearing the deck up too much.  I will miss seeing them up close... but 
I won't miss the mess and the seed wastage. 



I  hope everyone has held on, Febaruary was a rough month for so many... 
it's almost spring!


And thank you, thank you, my friends, for still taking a look at this blog!


































 

10 comments:

  1. hi mary ann! it was a tough month for a lot of people! i got my first shot and am getting the second one in another week. it sure is warming up here. it's too early for spring!

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  2. I hope you manage to get your vaccination soon. That's a good amount of eggs you are getting (usually). I use a big heated water bucket in the coop. I like it, but it takes two, almost three, regular buckets to fill it. Sometimes I just top it off. -Jenn

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  3. Hari OM
    February has always been my least favourite month and this year has done nothing to change that! It's a surreal world just now. Stay strong and hope that vacc is in your near future. YAM xx

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  4. I enjoy your pictures of critters so much. I've been checking for you every day, always makes me happy to see a new post. Best wishes for a wonderful spring.

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  5. Wasn't this just a month! It hadn't been that cold in Kansas for a long time that I remember! We are seeing possums coming for cat food almost every night now. We bring it in so if they get any it is what is spilled. We were able to get our first vaccine a couple weeks ago and go March 18 for the second. Hope you are able to get yours soon.

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  6. So thankful you were able to keep warm. I am thankful I have natural gas that is piped into the house. I believe it is cheaper too. We don't have to worry about running out. It was so very cold but I'm hoping some of that will kill off the fleas and ticks that were bad last year. Hopefully this year will be better. Glad our weather is finally warmer. Hopefully Spring is on the way !

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  7. Your blog is just fascinating, and what an awful 3 weeks you have had. Bless your gas man Rick, we have brave warriors among us and sometimes we don't even realize it until something like this happens! I have always admired "linemen" and firemen, but now I realize how many others there are, including the teens at our local McDonalds, who fed a lot of seniors especially during the early days of our lockdown, with sometimes there just being two in the whole restaurant. Sorry some idjit wrote that about you on the community page; some people are so harsh and so SILLY, and the thing linking them is they don't know what they are talking about but they sure love to spout off in a way to try to belittle others. Thank you for giving those poor possums some space; a lot of people are mean to them and don't understand their role in the ecosystem and how instrumental they are in developing anti-venins.

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  8. May you all be a little warmer this coming month.

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  9. Utility companies....a necessary evil.

    Hope you wear a scarf too Mary Ann. Boy does my neck muff make a huge difference in how warm I stay. I have ear muffs and sometimes wear them in the house with the neck muff.

    I'm glad our cold weather got out of here. It was awful.
    Take care,

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  10. I gave my overweight dog green beans (low or no salt) for half his normal morning feeding. He lost several pounds easily (small dachshund/food hound). Check with your vet.

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