It's really hard to measure how much snow fell when it was accompanied by 50 mph winds. I love it when it snows, but this snow was not fun. Livestock needs to be tended to, blizzard or not.
The tractor has been working overtime:
I will say that having the kids home has spoiled me. I didn't even go out to tend to my chickens today as our boy trudged and shoveled his way through the 4-foot snow drifts to bring hot water to my girls and keep them in pellets, as well as gathering the eggs. This morning they got oatmeal. :)
He found this little bird hiding out in the coop...smart little thing:
Our girl had a friend come out on Saturday night and he ended up staying the night on our couch. Made no sense to have him out on the road and he's stayed here often in the past. It snowed most of the day on Sunday...accompanied by those ferocious winds. DH had to check on a few pump houses and got stuck so DD and DS drove off to the rescue and also got stuck after pulling DH out. Our new camp man came over and he got stuck. I imagine there will be a few more rescues on the horizon
On Monday the day dawned sunny and cold with no wind. Yay! Time to pull on those boots and venture out. Harvey sure enjoyed his first snow
A lot!
Since we don't have grandchildren, y'all get pictures of our grand dog:
And the horses were thankful for full bunks of hay:
Its funny to watch the quail scurry about:
We ended up with probably 15-18". Its hard to measure when the winds were so strong, but town is completely closed down. Roads in all directions were closed until today. The county doesn't have snowplows so they have to call in the state to bring in equipment. The National Guard has been overwhelmed rescuing stranded motorists. This was a record snowfall for our area. Yesterday our propane tanks were barely keeping their heads above the snow:
We're not expected to get up above freezing for a week with lows in the single digits, but the sun is shining in a brilliantly blue sky and the landscape is breathtaking. My mom was supposed to fly out today and all systems were go until we got to town and received a text that her flight was cancelled. No flights available until Saturday so we booked her on a flight out of Amarillo tomorrow. It's not looking good as it snowed pretty hard again today for about 3 hours. The main road was good, but DH bladed the 2.5 miles to the pavement yesterday. It was still a harrowing ride. Last year my mom was here for 4 extra days because of an ice and snow storm and we still had to take her to Amarillo. She said she was going to stop coming at Christmas. :)
We kept busy with our annual Christmas puzzle.
Everyone joins in, but DH and I are the die hard puzzlers in the family. We don''t put together puzzles any other time of the year, but its a tradition over Christmas and we have a hard time stopping. We've been known to be up past midnight searching for the next piece. This year we had some extra help compliments of Harvey
Who was plumb wore out after his adventures in the snow this morning:
13 comments:
Had been wondering about yall.A friend used to be at the Sterling Ranch which is kinda in your area I believe. She had posted on fb that she had seen that all roads were closed in Eastern NM .Sure glad you got a new camp man.Hope he will be a good one. Probally had 3 inches here in Archer County Tx but first lots of rain as teh front hit, sleet the snow and then some more freezing rain and sleet. Really hard crust on the snow,it was really more like ice. My boss had left last Saturday and had put out lots of hay for about 150 head of heifers at one place and the few cows at his house.The heifers at his house were on TALL klein grass nearly mid theigh on me and real thickso they didnt get hay. I finally got in today and thankfully didnt get stuck really melting off .Ths global warming has us alternating between frozen tundra and swamp. This rain put Wichita Falls(about25 miles for Archer City and 30 from Windthorst) over the previous high rainfall for a year .Sure was a dry summer to be a record breaking year!Feeding hefers in troughs( yep Im pouring cubes out by hand...no feeder) I guess yall were pretty limited to hay with that much snow or did yall feed in your tracks? Hope Christmas was wonderful and have a Happy New Year.God Bless
You have been in my thoughts. We received much less than you did, although because of the wind, we don't know how much. At my house our deepest drift was about 2.5 feet. We have county workers trying to attend to highways and county roads--but only about a dozen people for over 1000 miles of roads.
The one today wasn't that bad.
Glad you were able to get your mom to Amarillo. It's been a very rough travel time for lots of people.
When I saw the storm on the news, I just knew you were getting pounded. I'm glad you had some extra help with chores.
The puzzle looks like fun even with the grand dog's contribution. ;o)
I have been concerned for my friends in the path of the big storms. Glad to know you came through okay, even though there was a lot of getting stuck.
Love the shots of Harvey and the quail in the snow.
I grew up with the tradition of a puzzle at Christmas and can spend hours at it as well. Actually did do just that while helping my Mom on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day while she recovered from a tumble down their stairs. Very relaxing in a stressful situation.
Wow Karin, it's so lovely though, isn't it?? We have been getting snow too, even got some for Christmas this year. But just an inch or so, disappearing within a day or two for the most part. We wont get deep snow till Spring, if we get any this year. Have fun playing in it :)
Sorry for all the snow, loved the jigsaw puzzle story and the animal pictures. Long ago every year my family started near Christmas with a 1000 piece puzzle out with hopes that all who visited would help get it together by the New Year. Your story brought back memories. I need to restart that tradition with my grandchildren. LOVE YOUR BLOG.
Our cold weather is just coming in, but doesn't look like it's stay long and no snow. I stocking pantry, it's bound to get here sooner or later. Harvey gets cuter every time I see him. Not being a tech savvy person, I linked to you for some fabric that made me think of you. You portray your ranch life so well with your writing and pictures, I wanted to share it. I know it's a little late now but hope you don't mind.
Be safe and try to stay warm.
Tonia
Wow! Winter weather...it all missed us we only had rain and wind.
Yes Yes, this was a crazy awful storm. Your post looks a lot like my post. As of this morning all cattle were accounted for except 3 which have been located. We've never had a storm like this before that I can remember.
Glad to see you all made through ok!
OMG. And I was worried about our 9 inches of rain and major flooding in our area. I am not real good with super cold weather AND tons of snow!! So glad you have some sturdy help with DH and son and daughter. When you get older, this type of weather gets harder. Love that you do puzzles too. My mother and I did that when I was a child.
Sorry your mother want be able to come for Christmas again :(
I am thankful you are all ok. I heard about the storms, including flooding, and that tornado in Texas. This Christmas has been hard with lives spared and lives lost. I'm glad you have family there to help. God is good.
Wow, that is a lot of snow! I wouldn't want to venture out in it either. Glad you had some extra help. Try to stay out of the ditches!
Post a Comment