How did you weather the nor'easter?

I have a cyber-friend who lives in Maine. I emailed her ahead of the massive nor'easter bearing down on them and asked if they were prepared. She replied, "It was -26 this morning and warmed up to a whopping 13 degrees! Heat wave!! My basic storm prep includes a batch of cookies to be made as the storm starts because we will be hanging out drinking coffee and eating cookies waiting til the storm ends to clean up. In this case the storm is two days and we will need energy from the cookies to clean up."

Before the storm hit, she wrote: "We decided to pick up a few last-minute items from the store and were there as they opened at 7am. The place was picked over and more delivery trucks won't be arriving until Monday if the east coast can dig itself out. We got what we needed and headed out to bake cookies."

After the blizzard passed, she wrote:  "The snow started at 9:45 pm, winds were kicking up at 3am so we knew it was going to be bad. We had extra wood piled in the living room, a batch of fresh butterscotch and heath bar cookies and now we wait. And wait. The wind really got bad late morning into late afternoon. Power never even flickered, but we do have a generator if needed. It snowed until about 3am this morning. Our back and side doors are blocked by drifts."

"It's is beautiful out though. Now we begin the cleanup. Raking the north side of the roofs, shoveling out the generator and dog pen, and cleaning up the driveway with the tractor and snow blower attachment on it. This will take a few hours, but it gets us outside in the fresh air and sun (although it's -12 wind chill factor)."

"A nap is definitely going to be in our future after lunch. This was not the worse nor'easter we have had, but it was a good solid 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. We will not be able to get out to church, but plan on enjoying the beauty of the Lord's work while we are shoveling it." 

"My dogs aren't leaving the house. They might have the right idea."

So that was my friend's experience. How did everyone else weather the storm?

Birthin' another baby

Saturday afternoon as I was starting some early outside chores, I happened to notice little Hickory nursing off Amy.

Let me repeat this: Hickory, who is Sparky's calf, was nursing off Amy, who (at the moment) didn't have a calf.

It's not unusual for calves to "double dip" from other willing cows, but this took on the air of absolute gorging. Greedy Hickory nursed and nursed and nursed, while Amy just stood there and took it.

After a while, Amy laid down, and Hickory still tried to figure out how to get the good stuff.

Then Amy stood up. Then she laid down. Then she gave low moos. And half an hour later, Hickory was still sucking down the milk.

So I clipped Amy's halter to a lead rope, and I tucked her into the barn, which was set with soft bedding and fresh hay. Inside the house, I told Don, "I'm about 75% sure Amy is in early labor."

A couple hours later, near evening, I said, "Since nothing's happening, maybe I'll go ahead and let Amy out of the barn."

"Don't bother," he told me. "You'd just be tucking her back in within an hour."

He was right, but since Amy didn't have any water, I filled a bucket and brought it into her pen; and saw...

She had dropped that calf literally 30 seconds before I walked in. "Not wasting any time!" I gasped, as I dashed into the house to grab my camera (which I had foolishly left behind). "Good call!" said Don, referencing my concern about tucking Amy into the barn in case she was in early labor.

The amniotic sac was still around the baby's head, so Amy got to work removing it.

The weather was chilly but not the bitter, bitter cold we had over the last week (-6F in the mornings), so I'm glad Amy held off until things improved.

I couldn't take many more photos since it was getting so dark in the barn, but I was able to determine Amy's calf was a little boy, and he wobbled to his feet and got his first drink of colostrum (what Hickory didn't suck down first, ha ha) in due time.

Today's weather has been beyond hideous. We've had blizzard conditions: howling wind, blowing snow, drifts closing our driveway and the road, etc. If ever I've been glad to have shelter for the animals, it's days like this. Amy is rather bored, alone in the pen, but at least she and her baby are sheltered from the elements.

Here's the view from the pen. What's not terribly visible are the sheets of sideways-blowing snow. Yowza it's been a wild day.

This little guy (so far unnamed) is Calf #3 out of 5. We can only hope the two remaining cows choose more decent weather to birth their babies...but if not, we'll be vigilant.

A doozy of a blizzard

I've been watching the news coverage of the blizzard of "historic" proportions approaching the east coast. Since Older Daughter is likely to be strongly affected, I've been emailing her various apocryphal warnings.

Washington D.C. had traffic snarled last night in a particularly nasty way due to an inch of snow over icy roads. Traffic was in gridlock for hours and there were hundreds of crashes; and yet they're expecting another 18 to 24 inches of snow over the next couple of days. Yikes.

"Both the weight of the snow and the heavy winds could lead to power outages. If you haven't started already, you should begin preparing for the storm," warned the article.

Drudge posted an article about chaos in stores.

While Older Daughter isn't quite in the heart of the predicted storm path -- that's apparently reserved for the D.C. area -- she's likely to be snowed in for awhile. I can only hope the family for whom she's nannying has heating and lighting backup options.

To all my dear readers in the path of this storm -- please stay warm and safe!

UPDATE: Here's a wild little video showing a grocery store with insanely long lines which wrap and wrap and wrap again around aisles. (On the upside, notice how polite and patient everyone appears to be.)

April showers bring May flowers....

...but what do April blizzards bring?

Twice this month we've woken up to snow.

Not a lot of snow, it's true, but enough to remind us winter hasn't quite lost its grip yet.

I took these photos early in the morning, and when the rest of the family woke up, they couldn't believe their eyes.

Here's our April flowers, looking cold and miserable.

This bluebird doesn't look too pleased either.

The snow melted off by afternoon, and we had a few days of spring. Then yesterday winter came roaring back again in what virtually amounted to a blizzard, with 40 mph winds and heavy wet snow.

Old Major braved the wind and snow to visit the yard, then hurried (as fast as his ancient legs could carry him) back to the woodstove.

It looked like December, not April.

Our brave little patch of daffodils withstood the onslaught.

The snow melted off soon enough, but the day was bitterly cold with howling winds, and periodic showers of sleet or snow would pass through. This photo was taken in late afternoon, with a bleary sun lighting up a distant snow shower.

Then this morning... sunny and calm. Go figure.

The daffodils looked much happier.

So did the beasties. Yesterday they were all huddled under the awning or in the barn. Today they basked in the sunshine. This is Hector and Ninja, who have become great buddies.

And the robins looked perky and ready to nest.

So what do April blizzards bring? Hopefully a warm May!

Spring fever

It seems New England is bracing for a massive blizzard.

Meanwhile I'm almost embarrassed to admit we're experiencing near-record high temperatures in north Idaho.

I screen-shot the above on Saturday. Here's today's forecast of 56F:

I'll admit spring fever is hitting hard. Don keeps talking about all the work he wants to do on the tractor. I keep walking through the sleeping garden and making plans. Must... resist...

This lovely weather isn't likely to last -- we could be due for the blizzard of the century next week -- but it sure is a nice interlude.

Meanwhile to all those in New England due to be impacted by the blizzard -- stay warm and safe!

"An era of indulgent slothfulness..."

Right now the midwest is having historic bitter cold. New England is seeing massive amounts of snow from blizzards. Chicago just had an enormous snow dump as well. In short, in many parts of the country it's good weather to hunker down, if possible. Drink hot tea/chocolate/coffee, simmer a big pot of soup on the stove, listen to music, play board games or cards with the kids, or read a good book.

Now maybe I've lived in the country for too long, but when reader Rob forwarded me an article on the etiquette of ordering takeout food during a blizzard, at first I thought it had to be a joke. Who in their right mind expects food delivery during a blizzard?

Is this something peculiar about urban living? Do people think food delivery is done by machines who don't feel cold or experience wind-chill? Whaaaaat?

But no, this was a serious (more or less) article (with an occasional expletive) with advice for people who don't want to put on pants and walk across the street to get orange juice and a bagel.

"If you live in the blizzard-ridden United States," it begins, "you might be looking out your window at a harsh, desolate, snowy wasteland. Cars in the middle of the street. Frosty despair. But you're also hungry. Here's how to order in, guilt-free."

The "guilt-free" solution, apparently, is to call ahead to see if your favorite restaurant is even delivering (this is because apparently there are now intermediary websites that take your order and relay it to your local restaurant). You're also supposed to NOT complain when your food is two hours later than normal, and please tip very generously.

"[I]t's important to reconsider, just a bit, the way you deal with the Internet Instant Food God," the article gravely informs us. "Namely, that it's powered by the service of human beings, who on snowy days in particular, deserve some extra consideration. Above all, consider the fact that delivering food to you is going to really suck for the exact reason that you don't want to go out and get it yourself. Pants will become snowy and wet, bicycles will slide around on ice, and beards will be caked with vicious snow. But this will all happen to someone else! Someone bringing you food. Tipping reasonably is always the decent thing to do, but under conditions that might look like a scene from a science fiction movie, you've got to keep others in mind. This ain't business as usual."

Um, then why the heck are you asking these hard-working delivery people to venture out into the blizzard you yourself don't want to risk? Am I missing something here?

Or, as Rob bluntly puts it, "Buy a flippin’ cookbook. Start here if nothing else. If you can use the internet to order food, you can use it to learn to do your own!"

These are not hardship cases we're discussing. These are not people who are destitute and hungry. Besides Rob's obvious point that if you have the internet to order food, then you clearly have power, I'll add: If you have the money to buy takeout food, you have the money to buy the ingredients for a hearty chili. In other words, there's not much excuse to drag some poor fellow through a blizzard to your doorstep just because you're too lazy to cook your own meal.

The article author admits, "The advent of online food delivery has ushered in an era of indulgent slothfulness..." No argument there, bub.

Not incidentally, Rob's subject line for this article was, "Why cities are set to starve out."