Really Something

 The forecasters have been adamant that this was going to be a very strong Winter storm from the get go.  Once this thing showed up on the forecast timeline, it didn't seem like they wavered on the "when" of it much at all.  While they were very cautious about snowfall amounts and exactly where the rain/snow line would be, they never backed down from the predictions of high wind and likely blizzard conditions anywhere there was a few flakes of snow to push around.

Our bedroom window at dawn.

We had a little icing overnight on Saturday.  Enough to make us happy we had decided not to go anywhere.  And the snow started around sundown.  It didn't take long to get everything covered.  Then the wind hit... somewhere around ten PM.

We live in an old farmhouse in the country.  So, strong winds aren't foreign to us.  But, by the same token, we might be a bit more keenly aware of what they are doing too.  The old farmhouse is part of the reason for it.  You see, old farmhouses always have something that's going to bang around in a strong wind.  And, unless you've got a huge windbreak around the house, you're going to feel the house shudder when those big gusts broadside it.

There is an old capped chimney that goes through the center of our house.  That cap apparently has something worked loose that is banging around this Winter.  The hollow chimney amplifies the noise of that something as it hits the tin covering.  Lovely.  We do love our music and we're fine with percussion.  But, we have a bit of trouble with a drummer that doesn't know which time signature to keep.

Early stages of a drift

We woke up in the morning and tried to look out our second story bedroom window.  We couldn't see much of anything other than the snow that was plastered to it.

So, we tried other windows.  They were the same.

It did not matter which direction the window faced, nor did it matter whether it was the first or second story.  Each window has well covered with snow.  Hmmm.  Must be windy.

 
 

Again, thanks to the excellent forecasting and communications, we didn't plan on going anywhere on Sunday.  But, that didn't stop us from looking at road condition reports.  Ya.  That's a fair amount of "impassible" roadways in the state.  And, people thought roads were poor a few days ago when most of the states roadways were 'partially covered.'

One of the 'a bit less' moments.

We do have hens that need food and water - and we do need to collect eggs.  So, that meant we had to venture into the great, wide world a few times during the day.  Usually, we tried to time our trips to where it seemed a bit 'less' - so to speak.

Inspector and Soup are less than pleased with this turn of events, but they've got some good places to snuggle up in the Poultry Pavilion. They come down to nibble on the food we bring or check out the fresh water, but they go right back to their hidey hole soon after we leave.

The chickens have their room with fresh straw and nice perches.  The room is not, however, air tight (nor should it be).  But, that means some of the fine snow is finding a way into parts of their room.  Not too much, just a dusting here and there.  But, it is enough to cause a few hens to give the farmers the 'evil eye' as they (the farmers) snatch eggs from laying boxes and pour water into waterers.

There was some reason to believe the hens were not sure WHO it was that was caring for them today since both farmers were bundled up more than the usual.  Inspector was not fooled and Soup didn't care.  So, in the end, as long as we were all warm enough and got our jobs done, it didn't matter much.

Our poor weather station is having one heck of a start to the year.  Not only has it recorded its lowest temp on the farm (over a 3 year period) at -29, windchill at -53, but it also looks to have set the highest reading of barometric pressure at 30.90 and very close to the lowest at 29.20 (we hit 29.18 in 2017).  At one point on Sunday it reported the average windspeed over a 10 minute period as 30 mph. It's true weather watchers can't complain about being bored over the last few years.

We'll grant everyone that we were blessed to only have gusts up to 43 mph according to our weather station.  But, it was pretty hard to tell the difference between the gusts and the consistent winds.  And we also have to add the caveat that smaller weather stations like ours tend to be a little unreliable with accurate wind measurement with high gusts.  It doesn't matter.  It was windy, that's all there is to it.

Oddly enough the skies were clear - not that you'd notice.

So far this Winter we have only lost a few chickens.  It is not abnormal for a few to die during the Winter months, but we have to admit this one has been harsher than most starting in January of this year.  Today we lost a little lady who just never did get very big to begin with.  Lowest hen on the pecking order and a runt to boot.  We probably should be surprised she made it this far, I suppose.  On the plus side, it looks like she just went to sleep and didn't wake up.

The end wasn't nearly so dignified for another bird earlier in February.  This one somehow got herself STUCK in a cinder block.  Yes.  She had her head sticking out one end and her feet sticking out the other.  Sadly for her, the humans did not notice her predicament.  After all, who is going to go looking to see if a chicken has decided to shove herself into a cinder block?  Let's just say it wasn't on our collective radar.  Of course, this bird did this on what was to be one of our colder nights so Rob went out the next morning and found frozen chicken in a block.  A chicksicle, if you will.  Chicken ala cold.  We were wondering if there was a clique in our flock that had been watching mob movies and this was their version of putting someone's feet in cement and then throwing them into Lake Michigan.

But, the worst part?  We had to wait until temps got warmer to get the darned thing OUT!

Things farmers gotta do.

Well, here is something farmers don't gotta do.  Check road reports.  It looks like things be getting a bit worse out there at 8:30pm on Sunday.  I think we'll sit tight.  And, we DID check cinder blocks this evening when we went out.