Winter in March

Winter came last night.

A bit late, but we need the water so I'm not complaining.

It doesn't look like much snow because the wind was blowing so hard. Not much snow stayed on the roof or fences.

Ooops. Hubby forgot to close the grill last night. Yes, he grills even in winter. We had grilled chicken last night. But the storm didn't start until about 9:00 PM so it wasn't a problem.

High winds last night meant that it snowed in the barn, too.

This year Hubby put a heater on the water pipe. Although it doesn't really freeze, it gets stiff enough that the handle is hard to work. One year that resulted in a part moving and we couldn't shut the water off. The heater keeps the pipe above freezing and we haven't had any trouble with the pump this year.

I love the snow! It's cold, but it's so beautiful as it covers the brown winter ground. Everything looks lovely and clean.

And even when the wind blows and rattles the windows, winter feels quiet.

Snow!

Our daughter, Spunky, and her husband live on the other side of the continent. They have had soooo much snow and cold! I don't complain about our weather, I am grateful for the chance it gives me to work on knitting and other projects that I can't work on during the spring and summer.

Here are a few photos of what they have had to live with the past few months.

Their dog thought it was great fun, until she got stuck and had to be dug out!

They thought about renting a snow blower. But they had to dig their cars to drive to town. So that kinda defeated the idea of renting a snow blower!

They are both college students (Spunky is also working full time) so buying something more than a shovel isn't on their 'to do' list. 

They worked and saved so that he could go to school without having to take out loans. Spunky decided to upgrade her degree, so she is in school, too. Her job allows her to do both. He is on the 'fast track' program and isn't allowed to work.

They are a pretty amazing couple.

Snow Before Halloween

A few photos of what we woke up to this morning. It's a good thing that we got some of the leaves raked on Monday! We don't often have snow before Halloween. I don't know if this means we are going to have a hard winter, or not.

The patio.

Beyond the fence you can see the play yard. It has a tarp on the top level and two more tarps on the sides, one on the north and one on the west. It is doing a great job of keeping the wood that is stacked underneath dry.

The maple tree in the back yard still hasn't lost it's leaves, poor thing! I'm glad it is a sturdy tree and we don't have to worry about the weight of the snow on the branches.

We have already had the wood stove going a few times this winter. Our daughter who lives in New England said they run their pellet stove all day and night now because it is so cold there already!

One more thing I wanted to write down so I don't forget... Sparky's tail FINALLY fell off yesterday! We've been checking it every day for a few weeks wondering when it was going to come off. Here is the link to the original post. It took a month for it to fall off. I don't remember the smaller lambs taking this long, but maybe they did. We'll be sure to do it when they are younger next spring.

Time to milk!

Snow in May!

Two photos from this morning, May 24th. It is supposed to be 70˚ F or higher tomorrow.
If you don't like the weather, just wait a minute, it will change!

Beautiful morning!

Wow! Today when I went out to milk the goats this morning, this is what I saw:


The pictures are a bit crooked because I was carrying the milking bucket and supplies as well as the camera. As you can see, I was heading east into the sunshine, too.

What a stunning sight to wake up to! Eight inches of new snow and the mountains wrapped in a mist of clouds hanging like a beautiful shawl and making the sight a wonder to behold. As I post this afternoon, the snow is almost all gone, and the area in front of the barn is a very large puddle! In some places the puddle is 3 inches deep. But that's why boots were invented!

Here's what we had waiting for us in the barn this morning ...
Not fun at all! Vet2Be is certainly getting some experience taking care of the goats. This little guy, Jack, was disbudded on 4/4/09. Everything was fine until a few days ago when he ended up with an infection between the two disbudding areas. We were able to debride the wound and disinfect it with iodine. It must not have been a good enough job, since this morning it was infected again.

We cleaned the wound again and the scab fell off the disbudded area (that is what looks bloody in the picture). I received two suggestions (from Med-A-Goat911) to help it heal: spray with Furol, which is a disinfectant used on horses, and/or spray with Gentocin (gentamicin sulfate with betamethasone valerate) Topical Spray.

Since we have the Gentocin, we'll give that a try. Glacier (Jack's mom) keeps licking his head, so we may have to wrap it with gauze and tape to keep her from ingesting it. I'm sure his new 'hat' will be pretty interesting looking!

Happy Birthday, Vet2Be! Snow and vet practice! What more could you ask for :o)

Update:
Here is Jack's head this afternoon. It looks much better!