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!