Frost and ice and broken bicycle

We had a heavy fog from an inversion all day.  Even though my bicycle was under the entryway porch's roof, the bicycle still got frosted.  The photo doesn't quite capture the frost but you can kind of see frost on the wheel's spokes.

 As you can see, under the snow is a thick layer of ice from when it was warmer and the snow started to melt.

This afternoon I went for a bicycle ride.  I was six miles from home when my bicycle's freewheel quit working.  The freewheel would spin freely in both directions.   The freewheel quit near a house, so after trying to fix the freewheel I asked at the house if I could use their phone to make a call.  The 20-something woman grudgingly let me use her phone.  I called Jan but she wasn't home.  Before I could call Donna the woman said she had a lot going on and that she wanted her phone back.  I walked two miles when Linda, Donna's sister, drove by.  She gave me and my bicycle a ride home.

January 25 sunset

I am now working on shoveling snow off of the large hay bales.  I have over half the snow shoveled off the bales.  I got distracted by the sunset so I didn't finish the snow tonight.

Tonight's sunset...

Grass is greener

I've noticed the cattle like to drink water from the other side of the fence.  Often the cows will drink from the calves side of the fence and the calves will drink from the cow's side of the fence.  Not at the same time of course.

Cool frosty morning

We have been fortunate that Valley inversions have not set in like predicted.  Therefore we see more sun and have cooler and frosty mornings.

As you can see below the colder temps brought an end to melting.  The water turned to ice.  Slippery!   I tried to buy more cat litter yesterday for Daisy.  Walmart was out.  Really?!   It wasn't until Donna mentioned that people are using cat litter on the ice that I realized why.

Daisy walked all around with me in the morning.  Below she went with me to get the mail.  A tough little kitty walking on all that ice.  This evening I carried her from the corral to the house so she wouldn't have to walk more on the ice. Even though she had been outside with me for an hour while I shoveled more snow by the hay bales, Daisy preferred to walk.

Daisy also came with me to feed another bale of hay for the calves.  You can see the frost on them.  Interestingly, the head and neck is frost free on the calf below.

Hungry little calves in the morning.   The cool morning (5 degrees F) worked up an appetite.

Even with the cold temperatures freezing everything, the manure, etc. near the feeder didn't quite freeze.

Jan 20 sunset

Barn snow

The forecast was for rain Saturday night/Sunday morning.  It snowed instead.  I estimate about three inches.

More shoveling. 

The sun was out most of the day and the temperature got into the 40s F.  The snow slid off the metal roofs.

A half an hour later the rest of the snow slid off with a "whoosh".  The cattle standing nearby moved away.

Snow and sun

I shoveled the half inch of snow that fell overnight.  Then I shoveled the snow off the garage roof.  An hour or so before sunset the sky cleared and I saw the sun.

The 'bumps' in hayfield are where the alfalfa sits higher up than the grass under the snow.

Snow on roofs

The weather forecast calls for a snow/rain mixture on Friday.  Rain added to all this snow is not good as it will only add to the weight.  It appears a neighbor's hay shed's roof collapsed under all this snow a few days ago.

I'm concerned about my buildings so today I started to clean snow from the roofs.  I got the snow off the house's entryway roof and a little off the house roofs next to the entryway.  Then I cleaned the patio roof and started on the tool shed roof as it got dark.  I also cleaned up the rest of the snow that slid off the pole shed onto the ground and my walking path.

I have lots more roofs to clean.

My friend Donna lent me her roof snow rake once her sister was done with it.

Before

After

Once the snow was off the roof I had to shovel it again to move it away from the house.

For Daisy's antics during my snow roof cleaning, follow this link to her blog: http://tallpinescat.blogspot.com/2015/01/snow-roof-cat.html

Shoveling snow for hay

I wanted to get back to feeding the cattle large hay bales.  Feeding the cattle small bales three times a day for the past week was getting old.  The problem: two feet of snow.

I spent most of Saturday and Sunday shoveling a path from the large hay bales out to the north pasture near where I had the metal feeder. Two feet of snow was too much to drive through much less pull a large bale through.

Shovel.  Shovel. Shovel.

More shovel.  More shovel.  More shovel.

The snow was too deep to roll the metal feeder so I had to shovel a smaller path from the metal feeder to where I would pull the bale. 

Then shovel a path through the corral so I could open the gates and then drive out to the bales.

Finally just before dark I pulled a large bale out to the pasture.  I discovered I hadn't made the path wide enough for the initial turn away from the bales.  The pickup ran up into the snow and stopped.  After backing up and reorienting the pickup I was able to pull the bale out to the pasture.

The cattle were happy to be able to 'pig out' on the hay.  This is how much they ate by next morning.

Much of what I shoveled on Saturday (to the gate).

Much of what I shoveled on Sunday.

Today I prepared the next bale for moving.  That meant getting a chain around the pallet the bale sits on, then pulling the bale out a few feet to ensure I can move it later.

I chatted with my neighbor today as I prepare the next bale move.  When he saw what I had shoveled he said, "No wonder you are thin."

Night photo of pasture trees

Metal roof snow

This afternoon I finished clearing snow off the driveway.  Now I can reach the road.  Tomorrow is grocery day.  It was colder and windier today so I was glad I only had to toss snow downwind to clear the driveway.

The snow is sliding off metal roofs. After clearing the driveway I shoveled the snow that slid off the roof so far.

  So much for the path I cleared the other day.

Then until it got dark I shoveled to create a path between the pickup and the corral.  I'm 3/4s the way there.  After I get groceries tomorrow I will continue shoveling snow so I can reach the larger hay bales, then create a path so I can pull one to the pasture.  My pickup is four wheel drive so I imagine I can reach the bale without shoveling, but I doubt I can drive through the snow while pulling a large bale through all this snow.  I had trouble pulling a bale through five inches of snow... another 19 inches would stop me.

I am creating some very large snow piles here and there.

More shoveling

Another day of shoveling snow.  I now have almost half of the driveway cleared of snow.  The wind died down and the temperature stayed in the low to mid 20s F so that made shoveling easier as the snow did not stick to my shovel or blow back into my face.

Below is tomorrow's work and then I will finally be able to drive to the road.

No snowplow today.  A road grader drove by instead.  The grader left a giant berm of snow across the driveway entrance.  I had to shovel the berm away before it settled and hardened.

Day after Snowmageddon

After a short bit of freezing rain last night, it quit raining and snowing.  Tuesday was calm and quiet.  Blue clouds but no precip.  The temperature today got just above freezing.  This made shoveling the snow that much harder.  It is so annoying when so much snow sticks to the shovel.

I took advantage of the lull and shoveled snow.  I re-cleared all the paths.  I shoveled a path to the large hay bales, all of which were buried under snow.  What normally would take me 5 minutes of shoveling to make a path to the bales took me over a half hour.  I cleared snow off a corner of the tarp and left the rest of the snow at the tarp and bales for now.

I shoveled a path all the way around the house.

I shoveled a path to the garage and cleared enough snow to be able to open the garage door (the door swings out when opened).  I may be able to open the garage door but I'm still unable to drive my car outside the garage.

I shoveled a short section (the easiest to clean) of the driveway.

At this rate it will take another two days to clear the rest of the driveway so I can go uptown to get groceries.

The wind as predicted kicked up at dusk.  It is blowing pretty hard right now and is suppose to remain strong for some time. I am hoping the warmish temperature today made the snow 'stick' so it won't blow.  Otherwise it will take me more than two days to clear the driveway.

No snowplows came by today.  No one drove in the ditch.