… snow…. Yes, it is a move towards the dark side. It’s been a few weeks since receiving the initial dose of the white stuff. Time flies when you’re having fun. Oh, it all started out innocently enough with the mountains getting a bit, which is the perfect place for snow to stick at this time of year. According to local folklore, this lower elevations around here don’t have ‘sticking snow’ until around Christmas.
Then a couple of days later another storm rolled in giving the lower elevations their first dose. It was about 3″ and half of it melted within 24 hours. We’re okay with that, that’s kind of normal. Then the weatherguessers all told us don’t worry about it leaving so soon, that we’ll get some more in a few more days. Spoilsports. Round #2 gave us 6″ of snow, and to make it really fun, promptly topped it with rain. Nice… a little ice to add to the mix.
Round #3… just 3″ of snow this time to make up for the stuff that melted. It was way better than the 6″ they threatened, but the positive part of it all is that it most certainly settled the soot and ash from the wildfire. When the wind blew it made a mess of things inside and out. Sometimes you couldn’t see the foothills or mountains from all the dirt and ash in the air.
Then there were the weird little ‘ash-devils’ that popped up… I don’t know what they are really called… jJust think dirt-devil but with a good mix of ash and dirt swirling around. We’d seen them a lot since the wildfire.
But needless to say, we’ve been hopping about trying to get things covered, moved so not to be ruined by weather (like loose bagged mineral or small equipment), buried for the next couple of months (small feed trays, gardening stuff or pots) or get wet (like the dogs or the goats). The crazy dingo dogs don’t really mind it as much as the goats. Playing in the snow is great fun for the dogs. Goats, on the other hand, aren’t all excited about ‘playing’ in the snow. They’d much rather enjoy climbing or chewing on things they are not supposed to.
Goats are weird. When they get wet they are sure they are going melt or die. I don’t know why, but they don’t like it when it rains or snows even if it just lasts a few minutes. I’m grateful none of our children when they were young never wanted to be in the county fair to show goats. All the prep work to show the animals… grooming, bathing, etc. Bathing one of these goats would be worse than giving the dogs a bath. Actually, bathing the dogs isn’t all that bad…. sort of. But the first time the original mama goats encountered snow they just about trampled me. They went frolicking out of the barn in their goofy, goaty fashion… ears flopping about, prancing and kicking up their heels until they hit the little dusting of snow and hightailed it back through the barn door and into their pen. And there wasn’t even enough snow to make a snowball. I’m pretty sure all they saw was their life flash before their eyes. Like I said, goats are weird. Great weed eaters, but weird.
And they will still get put in the corral during the day – whether they like it or not. The electric fence we use for them is difficult to keep going in the winter since it is old and starting to show the wear and tear. Last year we had to rig it to the bull charger but this year that won’t be feasible because of the wildfire throwing a wrench in the works and there won’t be any way to get the electric bull fence wire moved over to where the goats would be. So in the corral it is. And the goats are mostly banned from the barn for extended periods of time anyways. It’s an old barn and the goats are just too destructive. They’ve nibbled on old wiring, busted out some of the boards, broke through the old feed bunk and the inner wall to get into the middle of the barn just because they could. So they are going to be in some other arrangement during this winter, of which, I’m not quite sure what yet. It may include sauce…
Anyways, this year’s calves got their first initiation to the white stuff and some are not quite sure what it is all about. Most of the older cows don’t really care. But there are couple of old mama cows that predict the weather. Per the Weather Udder-ground they are saying it is going to be a cold winter. I hope they are wrong but since they are woolier earlier this year it may be of some concern. Actually, the more ‘wool’ on the udders most likely means that the cows are self-weaning their offspring.
It may be a little longer between posts due to work . Tis the season for retail and us worker bees are busy. But I’ll do my best. Until next time….
Karen
HR hobo 