"You're as co-o-o-o-ld as ice ... "
Down to 14F this morning; a little extra birdseed in the feeder. To get water to the poultry under these conditions we keep five gallon buckets under the inside taps that we've left dribbling, and when they are full we rotate them out to the henyard.
The ducks and geese have kiddie pools which they use for their baths, and these do still have some water in them but there is now a good three inch layer of ice. We're keeping about a third of each pool open with a pickaxe. The trick is not to punch through the bottom!
A Rosie (Rhode Island Red) tops up on ice waterIn a few days this polar outbreak will ease up, and I hope to work in the crawl space under the house again. Not, I hope, on the plumbing ...
We've put up four blankets to cut off unused parts of the house so that the wood stove will be equal to the task of keeping us warm. We're into the heavy part of our annual diet: Cornbread, split-pea soup, three-bean soup, potatoes, eggs-and-broccoli, winter squash with rice.
Hot choco alternating with home brew.
The hoophouse stood up to some spectacular winds a few days ago, and now it's standing in the still air and bright sun of the cold snap, shedding condensation ice all over its interior. The bok choi, kale, broccoli, onions, lettuce, and arugula look hammered but they seem to be coming round.
We were in the Big City a few days ago, helping Daughter move house, and I spotted a neglected female holly tree. Squirrelled away a couple of bright-red-berry laden twigs, and today I made a nice wreath, adding some Douglas fir, lodgepole pine, male holly, rosemary, and lavendar, all from home.
We're not showy and have never put up outside lights or vinyl reindeer. The wreath will go on the living room door, on the inside where we can enjoy it. On Christmas Eve we'll add an extra plate to the table and put a candle in the kitchen window. Then, in the morning ... a little extra bird seed in the feeder.
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Stay warm, my friend. I hear it's moving east... good for us, bad for them.
ReplyDelete:)
A good thing you got all that wood in.
ReplyDeleteHere the temperature is dropping too, but not to that degree. Snow in the forecast, school closings. Little one already asleep on the couch, sleeping off her H1N1 vaccination.
i made my first wreath last week! i'll have to take a picture. i was thankful that i always have wire and string on hand.
ReplyDelete<3 M, Sure, "stay warm" but I don't have anything as nice for that as your new toy!
ReplyDelete<3 K, Beloved not being real young or real old just toughed it out, it's a gruesome flu tho.
<3 h, Hah, ha! but you have magic fingers. Me, not so much. It's a "nice wreath" for me, meaning it's kinda green and kinda round. What happened was the rim fell out of my big straw hat this summer, and I said, oh, hey, this will be a wreath! And it is. I wrapped everything in black sewing thread, about twice all the way round, counterclockwise.
Three inch layer of ice?! Yikes. I am a desert wimp, I fear, as that sounds too frosty for me.
ReplyDeleteI love the blanket idea. I keep wanting to do that to cut off the front room of our house. It's an addition and has one measly little vent which is totally inadequate.
The opening between the rooms, though, is awkward with a doorway plus twice that width over a countertop that is heavily used. And the dogs are in and out of the room constantly as it has the views to the street.
I'd also like to replace the crappy cracked clay chiminea (which should never have been installed inside) with a proper wood stove. This desire was strengthened yesterday as I started removing a huge mesquite branch that slams down on the corner of the roof with every windstorm. We hate to cut off a third of the tree but it's causing damage to the roof. Mesquite dries for lovely firewood and I even kept all the small branches for our rocket stove.