Like a walk through the country side living on a small farm is full of daily surprises, sometimes wonderful and amazing, and other times puzzling and sad. I hope you will walk with me as I live out my dream of living on this tiny farm. You will come to know the dogs, cats, Shetland sheep and chickens that make up this farm and what goes into keeping them happy and healthy. Come and join the journey with me.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Sittin' at Home, Counting Flowers on the Wall...

...well, maybe not flowers, but cobwebs? Today is a 'snow day', or more accurately in this case a sleet/ice day. So far we have missed the worstest of the worst (large accumulations of ice), which is going to those poor slobs to the south of us. (Sorry , guys, but better you than us....we spent our time in the bad dark places of the mind, driven there by multiple inches of ice and it's lingering affects..or so I hope).

Last night the sleet and freezing rain tapped the windows constantly for hours. I thought I might go insane(er). I did have one NOOOO I can't take it anymore moment, but the cats and dogs just looked at me and then went back to sleep, and so it seemed rather useless to be dramatic. I crawled in bed, turned the t.v. up loud and finished watching the Last Templar.

Early morning driveway view

At five this morning, I groggily pushed the buttons on the two remotes, two because the t.v. is now hooked up to it's HDtv box and evidently this countries' great genius fails at combining remotes. Ahem.. anyway, I lay there covered up entirely, listening to the dire news of slick roads and falling precipitation, deciding if I should even try to go to work. I had mostly made my mind up not to, since over 200 schools in the area were closed as well as many work places. The clincher was when I finally dragged out of bed and went outside. It was beginning to sleet/freeze rain again, and I decided no way, no how. Snow, maybe, but ice, she is a different animal. The forecast for the day is for continued precipitation to move through, which also factors in to the decision. If I get stranded anywhere, I sure want it to be at home!

The sheep were all bent out of shape last night and yelling at me when I walked out to do a final check. I ended up going back out later to check them again, because they were acting so weird and I didn't get a head count. My great imagination had sheep caught in the hay ring, rams loose, ad nauseum. Sometimes I hate my imagination. Gracie was dashing around like a race horse, and when I accidentally rattled the plastic baggie that covered the gate latch, the whole flock came screaming down there. Cookies! She's got cookies! I didn't have cookies, so you can imagine how that went over.

Today, I thought I'd update my sadly neglected blog, list some stuff on Craigslist (22 sheep for sale--today only! Just kidding....), order seeds and tackle the dreaded tax information gathering, sorting and spreadsheeting. It's a chilly 16 degrees today, so I'm trying to keep warm, bundled up in sweaters and booties. Hope all that nasty stuff misses you, wherever you might be!

Snow treads on and ready to go. Check.

7 comments:

thecrazysheeplady said...

So far, so good. Although I did just get done running the vacuum and making sure the laundry was caught up and am getting ready to make a casserole of some sort so we can microwave - via generator - some hot food if the worst happens. They are saying up to an inch of freezing rain. Ugh. We had our fair share several years ago - no power for 11 days!

Tammy said...

I hope it misses you! We were out of electricity for 13 days in Jan. 2007 (probably the same system you went through). Still cleaning up the mess from the trees. It sure makes you think twice about being prepared.
Take care!
Tammy

Janna's Page said...

I understand what you mean! It is NO fun being trapped in the house!

And dealing with all the frozen water! The Boys are doing good, but I am constantly fighting with their water, trying to keep it thawed out!

Tonia said...

Hey I am counting the cobwebs too! Lol J/K I have lots to do otherwise.. Organinzing my mountain of a desk... Yuck I hate it.. My sheep and goats were highly upset with me tillI rolled the middle out of the haybale and theyn it was YEAH! mountians to climb and new HAY!!! We had sleety stuff and it piled up a little less then 2 inches I think and its cold and we can only run one water heater at a time so cows/horses during the day and sheep/goats/chicken at night.. Dogs are free range,.. they get it where they can.. Lol

Pat in east TN said...

I feel for you Tammy, it doesn't sound like fun and it just looks down right cold/miserable in your pictures!

I do like the pictures of Boone though ... that gave me a good laugh, even the small print on picture one!

Michelle said...

Glad you stayed home, and pray the power stays on this time through!

Tammy said...

We came through it all fine, the folks down south in Arkansas are really suffering though. Tonia--I don't see how you keep up with everything, all that lambing and kidding in this weather! Jana--I get tired of toting water too, and this year the temps have remained low enough that it's an everyday job, since the hose doesn't thaw out.
Tammy