AFTER THE STORM

It is only 8:01 AM and I am beginning to write my blog. During my usual blog time I will be digging paths out to the chicken coop and the sheep watering spot.

Yes, I was wrong about the snowstorm missing us and the forecasters were wrong. Friday they predicted a 60% chance of snow and only a few inches of accumulation; they changed the forecast to 100% and several inches on Saturday. I don't know how much we got. Yesterday, I was going to dig out to the chicken coop and I was stopped by a drift that just seemed too much at the time [I knew the chickens were okay in terms of survival. They had plenty of food]. After coming in and contemplating waiting for today, I decided just to bull my way through the drift so I could get the eggs and check on them. The drift wasn't too bad, about knee deep. They were low on water but otherwise okay. I tossed in some snow so they would be okay until today. They like pecking at snow.

I can see the sheep from the house, they are lounging around their watering place hoping I will come out. I won't be able to get to them for a few hours, I will do the chickens first. The chickens need water. The sheep can get by eating snow for awhile. I have had sheep that preferred eating snow and never drank water but these sheep are spoiled by my routine of bringing them water about this time every Morning.

I have a Weather Guide calendar that has the normal highs and lows for each day plus some little saying or remark. Yesterday it said, “the beginning of the lawn mowing season” was that adding insult to injury? By the way, the normal high for today is 58 degrees F. We will miss that by close to 30 degrees. The record high is 88. Hard to believe looking out on this sea of snow.

I have been rather cheery through this storm, an occasional moment of depression perhaps, but only a moment. It has been a spectacular event for April. In my 84 Aprils on planet Earth we have had many April snowstorms, this is the first one I remember that followed a Winter without a break. We usually have a couple weeks of Spring like weather in late March or early April. This year we have had continuous snow cover. We may have had a day or two where the temps went close to fifty but not in a string.

Well I love Mother Nature and I am enthralled by weather and other aspects of our natural surroundings. I hope all the birds are okay. I am sure they have ways of survival. It isn't that cold. It is 29.8 F right now. I wonder what the herons eat? They usually persist on frogs and other water creatures. The robins and bluebirds will be okay, they often arrive before Spring gets a firm grip.

I will keep my mood up through the shoveling. I have to shovel because my snowblower isn't available; that is a long story, I won't go into it now.

I am going to muscle my way out to the sheep before I shovel a path. I can't take their moping around their water bucket. Anyway, I am going to love this adventure. [What else can we do but love it] It is good exercise for this old body and it will make a good story come July.

Love and Peace, Gregg

P.S. I just got back from traipsing out to the sheep. It was much worse than I anticipated and I was lucky I didn't take a header into a snowdrift. I can't judge how much snow we got but the drifts are over two feet deep.