Deep Snow

Ah, winter, there you are.  It just doesn't feel like the New England winter without a lot of snow.  There's something magical about not being able to see around snow plow piles, or walking 3 feet without getting snow in your boots.  This is the part I usually want to hurry up and get here so we can hurry up and get past it.  All in good time, I suppose.

After dropping 30" in about 36 hours Tuesday and Wednesday we definitely had our work cut out for us.  The snow blower and a few hours outside took care of the worst of it, but as a little more snow persists in falling today I find myself wondering if we are well and truly buried now until spring.

Some years the snow comes and the snow goes.  Big storms with a lot of accumulation spread out between long periods where the snow melts or blows away usually just in time for the next big blow.  Other years the snow falls, and falls, and falls and before you know it you're digging pathways just trying to find your pathways and the hope that it might melt off some before the next snow sounds like crazy talk. (continued)

Incoming!  Collision in...3....2....1....

There are benefits to deep snow too.  It protects overwintering plants for one, though that's less exciting after weeks and months of temperatures below freezing with no snow-blanket.  The snow wears out the puppy too, which is no small feat at his age.  He loves running in it also, which is adorable (and tiring) to watch.  This level of accumulation is more like what I expected when I designed the hoop coops too, which have proven (under their new snowy insulation) to be just as cozy as I originally imagined... once you dig out the door, of course.


















The pigs would definitely prefer that the snow stop.  I can tell because they can only be lead into "clean" snow areas with a heavy incentive and a lot of cajoling. The latest snow is more than deep enough to completely cover the electric fence, but they remember where it is.  I suspect it is some combination of the aversion to the snow and the recollection that the fence is under there somewhere keeping them "home" for now.

They (quite predictably) followed our tracks from the paddock to the house last night just before dinnertime. Even though they never spend time so close to the house they had no trouble finding (and digging down to) the pile of feathers under the chicken processing branch of the apple tree. A little blood and a lot of feathers is apparently like a neon sign to them even with 2+ feet of powder covering it.  So the pigs got dinner a little early last night and I got to play pied piper too which often looks fun even if the pigs are nosing at my ankles the whole way.

Thinking about it now I should probably make it a point to check on them (and maybe prevent it) before they start exploring today.  Home grown chicken dinner tonight going in the oven shortly and definitely worth looking forward to... but only if I get it in there early enough to be ready by supper time!  Thanks for stopping by, I've got to rush a rooster into the oven.