Alpen glow on Swan Mountains

I never get tired of looking at the mountains.  The view tonight from my place.

Clearing snow

We had sun all day and no wind. The cattle laid in the corral and north pasture soaking up the sun this afternoon. The temperature was in the low teens but it still felt nice outside.  Already tonight the temperature is below zero.

In the morning I shoveled the snow to clear a driving path from the backyard to the house.  After breakfast and watching the noon news and weather TV show, Daisy and I fell asleep on the couch.  Over an hour later we were woken up to the sound of my neighbor Calvin plowing my driveway.  He felt a foot of snow was too much for me to shovel.  He even plowed a path to the hayshed for me to drive.  I shoveled a path from his hayshed plowed path to my corral's north gate as Daisy likes to take that route to the hayshed.  The reason Calvin's male cat spends so much time in my hayshed is that he refuses to use the litterbox and had made messes in the house and therefore is exiled from the house for a good amount of the day.

I also shoveled snow away from my mailbox as the county plowed the road this morning and left a huge pile of snow in front of my mailbox.  Even though it is President's Day - and a holiday for federal, state, and county workers - a county snowplow came by this morning and cleared off my road.  The county had to do it else I am sure heads would have rolled since no plowing was done on Saturday or Sunday and the roads were in poor condition.   The Daily Interlake newspaper canceled deliveries on Sunday due to the storm.  Donna said she didn't get a paper today either. She said late this morning a road grader went by, then a snowplow truck. The newspaper is generally delivered very early in the morning.

No bicycle riding again today for me.

Good thing I already have enough logs split for firewood.

This was from an area that didn't have much snow.

Path to hayshed

Daisy helped for a while in the afternoon by batting some small snowballs around.  She went in the house early due to cold paws.

After the latest Winter storm

The wind died down and the snow had quit by the time I woke up.  Unfortunately the foot of snow we got did not blow away.  Most snow stayed and in some areas it even piled up higher in drifts.  Donna called in the morning and told me the snow drifted over the top of her turkeys' house roof.

For my buildings, if it wasn't sealed, snow got in there.  Even though my pickup was parked in the pole-shed with a load of hay, and the pole-shed's opening was away from the wind, the pickup and hay were covered in snow.  The cattle huddled in the loafing shed and under the barn's lean-to and all weathered the weather well.  I shoveled a path between the pickup and corral even though this was one of the few places where most of the snow blew away.  I shoveled out the cattle's feeder and around the feeder so I could drive next to it and not get stuck.  Otherwise the pickup's four-wheel drive was required to drive through the rest of the corral.

The heifers and bad-leg cow's hay level was down flat to the feeder ring level.  So naturally I had to shovel snow off their hay.  In the evening I gave them another bale of straw to lay on even though it seems as if they eat most of it.  Even though it is just straw, the cattle seem to like it as roughage and variety to their hay.

Now that the snow had ended the cold is coming.  The temperature stayed in the teens all day and is predicted to fall below zero tonight and be cold for the next several days.   These temperatures are well below normal for us. I want my global warming back now!

Otherwise to walk anywhere I had to shovel a path.  The GFCI electric outlet for the well for the cattle's water trough tripped. Snow must have gotten somewhere. That outlet is a pain!  I had to string several electric cords to a regular outlet in the toolshed to run the pump.  Usually one cycle of the pump running fixes the GFCI problem but not today.  So I have to continue to use the electric cords to a regular outlet.

Late morning the wind came back up causing some snow to drift.  After Daisy and I warmed and slept by the wood stove after breakfast I went outside.  I didn't feel like starting the tractor to move snow, especially if snow would drift in again.  So I shoveled a path from the corral to the hayshed for me to drive and get more hay.  The 'path' was shoveling two wheel tracks for the pickup and then an area in which I could open a gate to the NE pasture and then the gate to the hayshed.  And I had to shovel out some snow in the hayshed as snow made it all the way to the hay bales inside, which rarely happens.  The snow is so deep in spots that the underside of the pickup rubs on the snow - and the pickup is not low.

That snow shoveling was a few hours. My back is mostly recovered from the two falls on ice last week.  So I'll see if tomorrow I start the tractor or if I go for more exercise.  I have time if I decide to shovel the snow as I have no need to go anywhere.  I shouldn't have to say it, but no, I didn't ride my bicycle today.  There was little traffic on the road today and I didn't notice if the county had any snowplows out.  I doubt it.

No snow photos as it was hard to show any depth.  Late afternoon at times it could be hard to see my 'paths' for the wheels when driving.  All the white blended together.

Another Winter storm

We are under another Winter storm.  A blizzard watch until 11 am Sunday.  I woke up to snow falling and the snow fell steady all day and piled up.  The prediction was 8 to 12 inches and we got something in that range.  The wind was light all day until about 7 pm when it started to roar.  I checked the weather statistics and for the last few hours the wind speed had been in the 32 to 34 mph range with gusts up to 43 mph.  I certainly can hear the wind roar right now!  All that fresh snow will be rearranged by morning.

The county road department doesn't like to work on weekends so the roads near me haven't been plowed.  A lot less traffic than usual.  I was able to ride 15 miles on my bicycle through the snow - with extra effort.

Snow stacking on a female box elder tree before the wind started.

This evening I finished another large hay bale for the cows.  Due to the predicted storm I started my tractor and got another large hay bale to the ground (on the wood pallets in the lower right corner of the photo) and some hay loaded into the pickup to give to the cattle tomorrow morning.  Easier to do that this evening before the wind started up.  I also put down another bale of straw for the heifers and bad-leg cow to lay on.

Freezer quit

After going to the grocery store today I had a few items that were difficult to fit into my refrigerator's freezer so I went to the basement to place them in my small extra freezer.  That's when I discovered the freezer had quit working.  As things were soft and/or smelly... the freezer had quit working some time ago.

From an almost full freezer, all got tossed into the garbage.  Over half the items were frozen pumpkin paste from back when I had a garden.  Donna drops off baked goodies for me so I haven't baked pumpkin bread in ages.

Among the many butter or cool whip sized containers of pumpkin paste I found chokecherries with which I had never got around to making jelly.  It hurt to throw away the small bag of huckleberries I had forgotten I had.

I had other items I forgotten I had.  The freezer was down in the basement - out of sight, out of mind.

I don't plan on buying a new freezer.  I haven't had a garden in a number of years and I don't want extra storage which I would end up eventually filling and potentially getting into this same situation.

I have no clue why the freezer quit working.  The electrical outlet still works so the problem wasn't with that.  The brand of freezer is Avanti.  I bought the freezer the end of November 2007 - just over ten years ago.   Now, my mother's/brother's large chest freezer had been working since the mid-1970s until a few years ago when my brother unplugged it as he didn't need the extra freezer space - about 40 years.

My back continues to improve.  Moving the freezer didn't help my back though.  Once I got the freezer outside the house I dropped the freezer on my left big toe.  I haven't looked at the toe but from how it feels it must be black and blue.

Winter storm aftermath

The strong winds died down by morning and the sun mostly came out.  Snow was here and there where it collected out of the wind and in places that usually doesn't get snow, and not in other places where the wind kept it moving.

I had parked my bicycle south of the house so it would be out of the wind and not get blown over.

The only building damage was that this fiberglass sheet blew up.  Several wires across the roof kept the sheet from blowing away.  This sheet was next to the temporary repair job to the left of the sheet.  All the temp roof repair jobs held in place.

Here is the hay bale core I mentioned that had tipped to stand upright.  Still strange that it had done so.

This photo is not where it happened, but I included it to show where icy sections are under the snow.  Late this morning I shoveled snow from a few areas on the driveway.  Daisy came walking from the north pasture as I carried and tossed some snow onto a snow pile.  Unfortunately as I looked at Daisy and tossed the snow I was standing on a small area of ice covered by a thin layer of snow.  My feet flipped up and I fell on my sore back, making my back - which had been feeling much better - more sore.  This time I also hit my head.  I didn't lose consciousness but I did find blood mixed with my hair.  I am feeling better this evening as I write this as my back is almost back to where I was before this latest Fall.

Here is a photo of my neighbor's structure that flipped over in the storm.  It had been standing over the stacked logs.  I don't know how well he had anchored the structure when he built it.

Wicked Winter Storm

The weather changed quite a bit today as a strong cold front pushed over from the east the Rocky Mountains.

I live well to the left (West) of this image.

The morning was quite warm as we reached 50 degrees.    Then in the early afternoon it changed.  Usually when we have a massive cold air system east of the mountains trying to push over the mountains, the cold air is held out of the Valley until near sundown as the day's heat usually keeps the cold air back.  But this cold air mass must have been really massive.  The wind started to pick up slightly around 1 pm.  Before 2 pm I decided to ride my bicycle uptown to the library even though that meant riding back against the wind.  I looked over to the gap in the mountains that leads to Marias Pass.  I could see the cold air starting to come out of the gap.  I really wanted to ride to the library and thought I could get back home before the full force arrived to my part of the Valley.

That didn't happen.  I was a very optimistic fool.

The wind increased as I rode my bicycle home and at the end I was riding against 30 to 37 mph winds with gusts over 40 mph.  At times I was riding only 8 mph.  One 5 to 10 minute period snow pellets were driven in the wind against me.  They stung fierce.  Once I had gotten home I had ridden 36 miles for the day.

Once I got home a little after 4 pm the outside temperature was 20 degrees.  It was colder than I thought but that may have been because I was generating so much heat from the effort.  I lit a fire in my wood stove and as I write this near 10 pm I am still working on getting the house to a nice normal warm temperature.  I even placed a couple of old t-shirts between the door and the storm door to help stop the cold air blowing in under the storm door.

I found my bicycle cat spinner laying on the ground.  The plastic tip in the ground had broken off.  Somehow the spinner didn't blow away to the next county.  I brought it inside the house.

At 5 pm I went out to give hay to the cattle who were all standing in shelter of the loafing shed.  By now some fresh snow was flying through the air unable to land.  In the hay shed I found the core making up half of one hay bale standing on end.  While there wasn't much wind inside the shed I can only imagine the wind gave a nudge to the slippery oat/barley/pea hay and tipped the core.

Once I loaded the pickup with hay I put two wood pallets on top of the hay.  I didn't want the hay to blow out of the pickup as I drove over to the cattle's feeder.  I got most of the hay into the feeders.  I fought to keep the hay - and me - from blowing away.  By now - according to the local weather statistics - the wind was blowing 40 to 42 mph with gusts up to 56 mph.

I filled the pickup again with hay for the cattle in the morning, tossed another pallet on the hay, drove the pickup into the pole shed and called it a night after filling the cattle's water trough.

All this with a sore back.  A few days ago I slipped on some ice and my lower back fell on/against some concrete blocks.  That sore back got even sorer when loading hay into the pickup that evening and due to my sore back I pulled a muscle on one side of my back.

As I was driving to feed the cattle I saw that my neighbor Calvin's large shed had blown over and was a twisted and broken mess.  A few years ago he had built a decent sized shed to store his split firewood.  Unfortunately the shed's open side was the direction of the wind.  His stacked firewood is still standing.  My buildings are rattling loudly but so far - at least to dark - they are still standing.

The wind is roaring outside.  Daisy hasn't even once asked to go outside.  A few times she looked outside through the windows.  The rest of the time she lays by the wood stove all stretched out.

The storm is supposed to end 11 am tomorrow.

Feeding cattle hay

I am still on my twice a day feeding schedule for the cattle.  They appear to be fat and happy.

Some cattle can't wait for the hay to be put into the feeder and try to eat it out of the pickup.

With so many cattle trying to eat as soon as I put some hay into the feeder, it can be hard to fill the feeder to the top.  I have to be careful not to poke the cattle with the pitchfork.

Some cattle don't like to eat next to other cattle.  The black cattle pick on the red cattle.  As a result Mama (seen below) often have to circle the feeder to find a spot to squeeze in while taking care not to stand next to a cow who doesn't like them.

I also put some hay into the feeder next to the barn so the cattle don't need to squeeze in so tight at the main feeder.   Red and Mama are first over to eat here as I unload the hay.  Before I get all of the hay out of the pickup Sugar will walk around the pickup and chase Mama away and take her place.  Mama then has to go back to the main feeder and find a place to eat.

Red and Sugar love eating the barley and oat seeds and will lick it from the pickup before I can sweep all the seeds out and into the feeder.

January bicycle mileage record

The second half of this past January has overall been decent.  Other than a few days of snow and/or rain, it has been dry and a little warmer than usual.  I took advantage and rode more miles on my bicycle.

I set a new monthly maximum for January.  The old record was 410 miles.  The new record is 550 miles.  Now that I have ridden over 500 miles this January that makes it all months of the year where I have ridden over 500 miles at least once.

Normally January is a low mileage month.  Prior to this year my average mileage amount in January was 130 miles.  But that was a result of living so many years in North Dakota and Minnesota where they have a real Winter.  Since living here in western Montana my January mileage has been higher.

This January I had ridden 400 miles over the last two weeks of the month versus 150 miles over the first two weeks.