Snowmageddon

It started snowing on Thursday and hasn't stopped.  Initially the snow was light but after midnight last night it got heavier.   Since the snow started we have gotten 18.8 inches of snow with 8.8 inches since midnight.

Needless to say I am buried. I'm not going anywhere any time soon.  I guess I should have bought an extra gallon of milk when I was at the grocery store last week.

The snow is so deep that is it almost up to my knees.  The snow tops my mud boots and gets inside.  So... I shoveled paths to all buildings (except the garage) and a path to to the corral.  In the corral I shoveled paths to the barn and the wood feeders.  I followed the cattle's path to the metal feeder in the north pasture.

I shoveled a path to the road.  I walked over to Bob and Jan's house and shoveled paths to their doors and garage and shoveled the snow off their deck. I pulled Jan out of the snow when she walked to get their mail and got stuck in the snow.

The road is straight and level but with so much snow it can be hard to tell where the road is and the ditch is. One car slid into the ditch by my fence yesterday morning.  Today three vehicles slid into the ditch between my mailbox and Bob and Jan's house on the other side of the road - and that was after the snowplow had cleared snow.  A snowplow drove by twice this morning.  The snowplow was driving the slowest I have ever seen them drive.  Maybe they weren't sure where the road was.

It snowed so hard I shoveled paths and an hour later had to re-shovel snow off the paths.

Later I shoveled from the house out towards the garage.  I shoveled a lot of snow and make a huge pile of snow but barely made a dent in the area needed to clear.  It's going to take a long time to clear the snow.  Donna offered me use of her second snow-blower but I can't get out of my driveway to go get it.

The forecast is for temperatures above freezing on Tuesday before getting colder again.  Warmer enough to change the falling snow to rain and to make the snow on the ground heavier and harder to clear.

Wednesday strong winds are forecast.

Can I just hibernate until Spring?

So much snow fell it covered the water trough.  I scraped the snow off the trough to find the water hadn't froze overnight.

The hay in the metal feeder had been eaten down to the level of the ring.  The snow buried the remaining hay.  I cleared snow out of the wooden feeder and threw a small bale for the cows and bull.

I used a pitchfork to find hay under the snow in the metal feeder.

The calves...

Look at the snow on the roof of this feeder.

Icicles or strange snow formations?

Cattle photos

Thursday afternoon when I let the cattle out of the corral to get to the large bale of hay in the north pasture they walked in single file to the hay.  Buddy the bull brought up the rear until one cow stopped to look around and Buddy passed her.

The calves back in the corral weren't too happy.  They liked having the cows just across the fence in the corral.

Mama in the lead

Beulah right behind

2013 heifer.  Mother is in next photo.

Beulah's calf from 2013 and Red Angus cow, the last cow I bought.

Buddy

Buddy

New year, same old with hay

It 'warmed' up today.  10 F this morning.  So after tossing a small bale of hay to feed and occupy the cattle I went out to drag another large bale to the feeder in the north pasture.  Time to take a break from feeding the cows small bales of hay multiple times a day.  (I still toss a bale or two to the calves each day).

The large hay bale move didn't go as smooth as last time.  The bale was sitting on two smallish pallets which were partially frozen to the ground.  I finally got the bale and pallets moving but I left some of the bottom boards frozen in the ground (as seen below).

The five inches of snow that fell last week?  I shoveled some of it but left most of it.  Under the snow was ice.  I needed the snow for traction even if it sometimes piled up in front of the bale and pallet as I pulled them.

Getting the bale to the feeder was: take a short run and jerk the bale for a ways until all of the pickup's tires were spinning.  Then repeat and repeat, etc.  A few times I shoveled away the snow that built up in front of the bale.

In the beginning I only had one chain around the pallets.  As it appeared I was moving the pallet more than the bale I added another chain around the bale.  The first pull and one of the hooks snapped off the second chain.  The cold making the chain brittle didn't help.

I reworked the chain and got the bale moving.   Then after a few more jerks I pulled the pallets out from under the bale.

I got another chain and between the three chains I had wrapped the bale good.  I could still pull the bale without the pallets as I was moving over snow and wouldn't damage or ruin the bale.  You can see how the hay made grooves in the snow.

Finally I got the bale to the feeder.


Later in the afternoon I went out to fix up the tarp covering the bales.  Daisy came with me this time.  After getting me up several times in the night to let her outside for short times (still cold- ever hopeful), then later running around the house opening partially shut inside doors and scratching and wanting in closets, Daisy slept in the morning while I moved the bale.

Cattle on a cold morning

Minus 17 F was the low this morning.   Minus 15 F when I went outside to feed the cattle.

Even with a a heater, parts of the water trough iced over.

Frosty calves

Frosty cow who had a bad leg

In the area where the calves like to lay I put down fresh straw for them to lay on.  They have some body heat as one spot where a calf had laid was snow free with a little steam rising in the cold morning air.

Later in the afternoon the calves laid on the straw.

And the straw stuck to their fur.

Late afternoon sun.

Flat on my ass

The big hay bale is almost all eaten.  The wind has picked up and the temperature dropping so a few minutes ago I decided to give the cows a bale of hay when I gave one to the calves.  The cows wanted the hay.  It took me a minute to flip the bale over and get it out of the barn. The cows were milling about between me and the feeder.  Beulah, of course, was trying to take a bite out of the bale as I carried it.  Buddy the bull then got the same idea.

Through the 5 inches of snow and around cattle I tried to move while keeping the bale away from Beulah and Buddy. When they tried to take a bite I would push the bale against them if I couldn't move it away.  Buddy got a little excited and pushed back against the bale.  The second time he did so he knocked me down.

I kept the bale on top of me - between me and Buddy in case he charged.  He didn't.  He stood there.  I was able to get up and get the bale into the feeder.  Buddy and the cattle were right there making it hard to get the two twine off the bale.  One strand of twine is still out there mixed in the hay.  I'll probably find it chewed up into a glob tomorrow.

Snow cattle skull

A few photos from this morning as I shoveled paths to a few buildings through the new 5 inches of snow.

Squirrel eating bird food

This morning a squirrel showed up to eat the bird's food.  I first saw the squirrel in the bush grabbing the cage and eating the suet through the bars.  After I took the cage down the squirrel somehow got up into the small feeder on a pole.

For both feeders I chased the squirrel off twice and it ran over to and up a nearby tree.  Daisy never saw the squirrel as each time she was elsewhere, either looking out the mud room window, or in the spare bedroom or basement.  The squirrel was gone up the tree when Daisy came into the living room.  It is a little ironic as Daisy caught a bird here yesterday when I didn't want her to and today I was hoping she would chase the squirrel off.

I had to remove what was left of the bird food to get the squirrel to leave.  I'll wait a few days before putting the food back out in hopes the squirrel will move on.   A winter storm is predicted for tomorrow so I would have liked to have the birds fill up now.

@#&% squirrel

I'm not sure how the squirrel was able to get up in the feeder as it is a small area on a thin pole.

White Christmas

While I took these photos this morning when we still had some sun, this is how Christmas Day looked.

Snowy hay move

Time to move another big hay bale.  A day earlier and the move would have been dry.  Snow started overnight and continued all day today.  While the temperature was a few degrees above freezing the precip fell as snow.  Very wet snow.  Sloppy wet.  Within minutes of working my gloves were soaked.

Otherwise the bale move went well.  I had to take a few running starts to get the bale to move as the wet snow reduced the pickup's tire's traction.  Once I got moving I kept moving.

I waited until almost dark to shovel some of the wet snow.  The weather forecast predicts below freezing temperatures after today and for the foreseeable future. While it is hard to get excited about shoveling snow that is half water, I did shovel some areas around the yard by reminding myself it will be worse to let it freeze into ice.


We got a white Christmas.  I hope you have a Merry Christmas.

Solstice sunset

Quiet here.  Temperatures in the 20s and 30s.  No wind, no fog.  Partly cloudy. The cattle and Daisy are fine.   I've been getting some end of the year bicycling in.

This evening's sunset, where the sun sets after the Winter Solstice.