Rock falls, everyone dies!

I should have know last night when I couldn't sleep that today would be shitty.  And that thud wasn't ice falling off the roof, cuse the cat never flew off my bed at the sound of ice falling before. Well, life is never boring around here, that's for sure.  Let's see... last time I posted here, I was worried we'd lose power. Thank goodness that never happened, but we did get an inch of sleet and 7 inch of snow. And it been COLD.  No melting all week. and no getting of the Mountain either. At least, not with the vehicles we have.  Yesterday dad and bro attempted to meet the FedEX man to drop off some pagajest...And promptly went in to the ditch half way down the Mountain which then took all day and the bulldozer to get out of. Yeah, that sucked. But today was even better!  

  

That is the chimney. Chimney aren't suppose to go like.  That is bad. VERY bad. 

And there was 5 inchs of frozen ice on the roof (It use to be snow, but due to some rain we got yesterday it all froze into one big sheet of ice) 

All that ice had to come off for us to get up there and fix it. That  took most of the morning.  It was slow, it was dangerous, and nerves were shot by the time it was over.
 

Thankfully, there was a quite fix at hand, or we'd be VERY cold in the house tonight.


Yay, quick chimney! The chimney also dented the roof coming down. That's a problem we haven't dealt with yet. >.>

So, the is liek a ton of ice and rubble sitting on the front door that has to be dealt with at some point, a dent in the roof and a temprory chimney rigged up out of the discarded corpses of other chimneys.

 

Sheeter buri ashchhe dheye

Well,  winter just can't wait to get here it seems. As I'm typing this, we are in the middle of a nice winter storm that is currently sleet, but might turn to ice or snow depending on just how the front  move through. We have an inch of sleet on the ground right now. Sleet and snow, I can handle. Freezing rain, and it all goes to hell in a handbasket. 

The weather blew in rather dramatically this morning. It was cold when we got up, then it got colder, then it started raining. thankfully that only lasted a short spell, and turn over to sleet.  

  

Thankfully we had a weeks warning that it was going to get bad.  So we scrambled to shore up our meager firewood pile and secure the animals to where they were comfortable.  We were working so hard, I was so tired for the last few days, I couldn't even get to my usual bed time of 10, I was asleep by 8:30! 

And the cold, so cold. It is 19F (-7C ) right now, but thankfull no howling wind.  There is talk of getting to -4 F  (-20 C)  tomorrow night. Ech.  This will go on for at least a week.  Not much to do but stay indoor and sit tight.  I'm really hoping we still have electric in the morning. 

It really blew in some dramatic sunrises and sun sets the last few days.  That was nice. 

     

One other little treat. This morning a dozen  Double crested Cormorant blew in and settled on the pond all day.  I could see them swimming back and forth through the shop window.  Didn't want to scare them off, so I didn't get too close, but got some pic and a video.  I rather hope they stick around for a few days. 

(Video will have to come later) 

And the chill will seep to your bones.

It's winter out there.  The high was 30 F (-1 C all day, it was thick cold fog, and I could hear geese flying high over the colds to warmer grounds.  We may have a low of 18 F (about -7 C)  I'm worried it will be a cold long winter.  We're way behind on firewood, and most everything do with getting ready for winter.   I think the greens will bite it this time, I can't see how the kale and mustard will not freeze, especially if we keep drizzling/foggy all night. 

 

EDIT:
Started this two day ago, it just gotten colder.

That was the temp I woke up too.  
There was ice on the inside of the windows behind the curtains
.   
Walking up to the garden , and all the leaves on the greens shattered like  glass.

 
There have been hugeVs of geese flying over all day, flying fast.
    
So, yes, winter is settling in. 

August was like a fog in my brain, but the road goes ever on.

EDIT: Started this post yesterday, got too tried, finishing it today. 

 Good by August, you were an interesting month. I've been meaning to do a real blog post since.... the beginning of the month.  That didn't happen, obviously.  So, I'll do a rough outline highlighting the good and bad. 

First, the bad.

And the days grow long, and the nights get hot, and I think of fall.

Edit... ok, so I'm a liar, as this post proves

I'm not saying I hate summer.  Dislike it intensely, but not hate outright.  Scratch that, I hate summer.  While many are excited to get out of school, or summer vacation, I'm dreading the heat and the humidity that seem to be a staple around here now. Clearly  I am not (thanks to my mostly Irish/Scottish/Polish ancestry) meant to function in weather hotter than 80 F.  

Ok, maybe not that dramatic, but still, there is plenty to dislike about the summer. 

When it get this hot, not matter what you do, it seem you're alway one sick animal  away from a disaster. And with so many baby animals right now, it doubles the burden (we have baby chick, baby pigs, a calf, and baby rabbit right now). And the flies *shudders*. Granted. we live on a farm. And farm animals do three things without fail. Eat, try to breed, and poop. And, unless you have an excellent system to deal with that poop, you WILL have flies.  Thanks to the nice wet spring we had, we have bumper crop of flies. They are EVERYWHERE.  We have fly traps, ashes spread on the animal yards, fly paper, and are attempting to composting/removing the manure as fast as we can, but we still have flies.  *shudders*  And if anything should (lord forbid) die, and you don't find it in a 8 hour time frame...... Yeah, maggot. My sister tells me there is a tone of voice I only use when maggots are involved. 

isn't she cute?

Venting a little summer steam.

I hate this weather. I hate the hot,  I hate the summer. I can't handle it well. I literary feel weak when the humidity climbs and the temp goes above 80 F.  I feel my brain slow down and my body seize up. And my bedroom turns in to a bloody furnace form hell.  Yes, I'm whining.  I shouldn't  be, we've been luckier then last year, were the hot weather started in April. This year it at lest waited till a week before the summer.  

 Still, looking back on some of the photos form the last month, I miss the cool weather already. Damn it, be fall already!

Mother nature, you must be bipolar..... One minute you are coming on hot, then next you're giving me the cold shoulder.

The Ozarks is nothing  if not strange in the weather debarment.  But this spring might take the cake. 

Winter has been slow letting go. Which I can't complain about really,after so many years of hyper accelerated springs (daffodils in February? )  

It was nice to slow it down for and change and not rush to get the garden in before summer decided to kick in.   In fact, we were having a very pleasant (if slightly cooler) spring, complete with spring rains.  Lots of rain. 

  

          This was take some time in mid March.
               Nice and dull and gray! 

  Be warned,  lot of rainy photos to follow. 

Sun dogs... What a funny name.

So, today we got treated to that interesting phenomenon know as a son dog  .... Granted, it wasn't a full on spectacular  halo in the sky... Just two bright spots and and bit of a rim in the clouds.. But still, it was pretty cool. (Why are they call son dogs anyway? )

   

Here you can kinda see one of the the spots, with the arms coming off it. 

In fact, we've had a lot of nice clouds lately (Nice to look at, just no bloody rain. We need rain.)

A sampling