Tag: snow

The Weekend

Sheeps & Peeps4 Comments

After Friday’s bitter winter storm, Saturday was very much like living inside of a snowglobe.  The high winds had ceased and the snow continued, falling gently… leaving everything looking like the winter wonderland it should be in January.
Although bitterly cold on Sunday, everyone seemed to be enjoying the winter weather.  The deer came up out of the hollow and were grazing on the knoll most of the afternoon.  And Bella despite having two shelters and a dog house at her disposal, chose to sleep out on the side of the hill under the goat tree. 

Finally….Snow

Sheeps & Peeps5 Comments

It’s not very often that you find us using the words ‘finally’ and ‘snow’ in the same paragraph, let alone the same sentence…but here we are using it as a blog topic. After the last couple of days of cold, dismal rain downpours it finally changed to snow at noontime yesterday, turning everything from grey and muddy to pristine white.

And so we say “Finally….Snow”

Miss Bella is also enjoying the snow…. burying her dog treat
And the sheep are once again in their element…snow is always better than rain for them.

Appreciation for simple tools is felt once again:
New larger tires on the Ranger (which, by the way, work nearer to their full potential when you remember that you have 4-wheel drive)

And the trusty rubber mallet to get gates opened and water troughs usable.
And thus, we find ourselves saying “Welcome snow, we embrace you'”
At least for today…


 

No Maintenance Beyond This Point

Sheeps & Peeps4 Comments

After last week’s Tuesday and Wednesday snowfall, we had some pretty warm weather the rest of the week.  So Saturday on the way back from the feed store in Eglon, we decided to come home the back way, possibly for the last time until Spring.  Here we found some very pretty drifts, and you can see why this section of road becomes No Maintenance Beyond This Point  once winter settles in.  The state road crews plow either end but this turn at the top of a small hill normally blows closed and stays that way until snow-melt.

In other news, we have found the Ultimate Flickr Group – Obsessive Sheep Photographers – 1,952 members strong and 11,318 photos in the pool.  Oops… gotta go… off to make this photo of the lovely Juliet number 11,319! 

October Snow

Sheeps & Peeps6 Comments

While not the first snowfall of the season, Saturday’s snow was the first with significant accumulation – over six inches. This presented a few chanllenges, as we are never quite ready for the extra organization required to haul and feed hay. We were so much luckier than our neighbors to the northeast… some inconvenience, but really… just a lovely October snowfall.

Snow Day

Sheeps & Peeps4 Comments

  Some days you just have to endure enjoy the challenge that mother nature throws into your everyday life. Yesterday was one of those days. What better way to face a day of blowing knee-deep snow with sub-zero windchills  than to pack along the camera and take some pics while doing chores? The adventure began with the half-mile trek through the snowdrifts to the barn. 102_9792 Along the way being very thankful for the knee-high subzero boots and insulated coveralls, and wondering if the Polaris Ranger is up to the challenge of all this blowing snow. Get to the barn and feed the easiest and biggest (thanks to the weather break that allowed us to get the breeding groups back together at the barn) group first. 102_9793   Recruit the help of Bella to spread some straw in the barn: 102_9798 102_9800 Then it is time to feed the couple outlying groups. The Ranger makes it from the garage to the barn and gets loaded for the trip to the graveyard field and the ewe lamb group.  102_9801 (Hoping the shovel is just riding along for moral support) Success!! Made it across the flat drive to the field and actually found the feed pans! 102_9802 102_9803 Next, the greatest challenge, up the hill to the rams and Betty Lou Moo-Moo and Beefcakes. Once at the top the snow usually isn’t too deep ‘cause it all blows away, but on the way there are usually some deep drifts to navigate bust through. 102_9797 Will the tarp-sled need to be reinvented? Or the big gun reinforcements snow angels called in? Not today! Once again the Ranger pulls through the drifts and up the hill. 102_9805 102_9806 Betty Lou and Beef and the Rams were very thankful and an extra bale of hay was left just in case it is necessary to hoof it to the top the next day. It’s back to the garage for the Ranger to await the next day’s challenge, and back to the barn for a Bella mini-photo shoot.  Inside shot: 102_9808 Outside shot: 102_9810 Our little girl is growing up so fast. Then, fill a feed bag with hay to take to the goat boys back at the house and on the way again through the drifts through which someone had recently made a path. 102_9811  A good morning set-up for a warm afternoon/evening of knitting and spinning!

Sunday Muse

Sheeps & Peeps2 Comments

Snowflakes

Out of the bosom of the Air.
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent and soft and slow
Descends the snow.

Even as our cloudy fancies take
Suddenly shape in some divine expression,
Even as the troubled heart doth make
In the white countenance confession,
The troubled sky reveals
The grief it feels

This is the poem of the air,
Slowly in silent syllables recorded;
This is the secret of despair,
Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,
Now whispered and revealed
To wood and field.

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow