The three day storm

What a few days I have had! The forecasters did warn of a storm headed our way but there were three systems involved and even the computers didn't seem to have answers. Out here it started at dark on Tuesday the 27th when the winds began picking up.

I began taking notes that afternoon just out of curiousity to see how things would progress. It'll probably put most of you asleep but here are a few stats:

Tuesday 4pm
48F
0 wind chill
Winds 11mph
Gusts 15mph
Just a couple drfits left from last week's storm.



Tuesday 9pm
36F
24F Wind Chill
Winds 24mph
Gusts 32mph

Wednesday 6am
27F
12F Wind Chill
Winds 26mph
Gusts 42mph








Thursday 9am
24F
3F Wind Chill
Winds 41mph
Gusts 56mph

Thursday 7pm
20F
7F Wind Chill
Winds 25F
Gusts 31mph

This storm was a reality check for me. I know that this area is well known for heafty storms. That's not an issue with me. What was the shocker is that this house is not up to standards that make it comfortable to live in during conditions like I went through the last three days.


Previously I'd noticed air movement during high winds that was coming from along the baseboards. Thursday I found a layer of snow had blown in on the carpet in the bedroom and living room from along the same spots. bacci's bed had a layer of snow on it.


I had to put blankets up in the stairway to keep the cold air upstairs. Apparently the landlord sort of misrepresented herself about the place being well insulated. You can feel cold air passing through the walls. So then partioned off the desk area and used a heater to keep it somewhat warm.... Until the breaker popped. It got up to a balmy 51F. So I am trying to come up with Plan B and move my desk downstairs to my bedroom and shut off the upstairs until Spring.


I don't want anyone who reads this to be too worried that I am going to freeze to death. I am a survivor. I have put far too much hard work and money into making this place "mine" to sit idle and wait for a miracle of change. And I don't plan to sit in my living room and watch snow drifts form in front of my chair!


Friday 7am
15F
5F Wind Chill
Winds 7mph
Gusts 9mph

The blue sky and sunrise were a very comforting thing to see!



Friday 2pm
45F
0 Wind Chill
Winds 11mph
Gusts12mph


I am sure that everyone wants to know snow totals but there's no way to tell out here. The snow was blowing horizontal the whole storm. My snow is in New Mexico! Blizzard warnings were out and most roads were closed during Thursday.


Regardless of all this happening, all will work out. My glass is half full!

The close of day

One thing I don't think I'll ever grow tired of out here are the skies that I get to see. We had a beautiful sunrise and a beautiful sunset all in one day. Quite a difference from 24 and 48 hours ago.

Sunrise Friday October 23

My blabbering would just ruin the pictures. Not much needs to be said ...

The day after

Well, this is what I woke up to this morning ... No more snow and the winds are back to a decent 21mph, the temperature was 27F. The drifting wasn't too bad really. I expected worse. The barn pets are all doing well. The temp in the barn was 41F at 545am this morning and no snow blew in overnight. Closing up the doors and building and installing the new window really helped.

Now at 10am the sun has started showing itself and the temp has risen to 32F. Not too bad! The roads in many areas I am told are sketchy. I see people having trouble getting up the hill to the west of me on Mid Jones. I had planned to go to town today for groceries and errands but I think I'll put that off for tomorrow!

WOOOOO - HOOOOO!!!!!!!

Y'all just made my morning!!! And warmed my chilly body from the cold fingers to the frozen toes!



I just noticed that I now have TWENTY, 20, t-w-e-n-t-y followers! I am so very flattered and surprised that you take the time to see what's going on here in my little patch of the planet!



Thanks for making me put on a big goofy grin! Good thing you can't see that! LOL!

6 hours later ...

So two days ago the forecasters said this storm would be a one day event and be cleared out by afternoon. Uh, ... I think they messed up on this prediction.



Temp 31F (has hardly moved today)
Wind Chill 17F
Winds 23mph
Gusts 29mph


And the snowing is now getting heavier. This is what it looks like at 4pm

Just 14 hours

Late yesterday afternoon far in the distance the I could see the silhouettes of the Twin Sisters . The "Sisters" are due west of Pueblo to the southwest of here and are part of the magnificent Sangre de Christo Mountain chain.



This is what I woke up to this morning ... 14hours after I took the picture of the mountains last night.
Temp 31F
Wind Chill 15F
Winds 37mph
Gusts 44mph

The house has been hammered by high winds since I went to bed last night. I barely slept. The house vibrates so much that it was shaking my bed and my computer monitor is shaking as I type now.

The barn pets are all snug. I closed them up late last night. I just checked them and it was about 38F in the barn where the goats are. The chicken coop was at 44F. They make lots of heat.



This weekend they say it will be back up in the 60's! Geez, I can't wait! LOL!

Another project done

I know it's kind of dumb to write about a stupid wooden post. But these darned things where like a bad dream. Each day I'd walk to the barn, or look out the attic window and see these things standing in my way to progress. The previuos tenant used them for fencing in horses. They are 8" in diameter, 8' feet long, weigh about 75lbs, and were buried 3' deep!!! They left a total of 17 in the ground. They had to be hand dug out. It's back breaking work. But determination got them out of the way ...


The view at 6pm last night. The last of them.

The plots

After last week's horrible fogs and freezing, the weather, that is always changing, dramatically changed. About two days after that messy weekend the weather like it does so frequently here changed dramatically. Two days after that messy weekend the sun came out and began a warming trend. This past weekend we saw highs nearing 80F! I had my shirt off and was soaking up the vitamin D!

Since the weather has been cooperating, lots of work has been progressing. Last week the garden plots got tilled up. These aren't good pictures because the soil and the dried grass and weeds kind of blend in. There are four "plots". The main plot in the center is 30'x45. It's flanked by to plots that are 30'x12'. And the last plot is running along the front of the three others and it is 62"x6'.

The middle main plot will be for all root crops, greens, tomatoes, and along the back I plan to have a trellis for beans and some ornamental gourds

The two side plots are for sweet and ornamental corns and squashes.

The long narrow plot will be for my flowers.

I enjoy growing heritage vegetables. I have a bag in the refrigerator that is packed full of seeds I have been collecting seeds for years Some seeds last a very long time others don't. I'm just going to experiment. The other experiment will be working with this very loose sandy soil. I need to add LOTS of goat manure and old hay and some chicken manure and bedding to build up the organic matter to help retain moisture. I do plan to water with soaker hoses and lay down some sort of mulch that these awful winds don't blow away.

If you look very closely the plots are all in line with the corner of the barn. The small pine tree in the upper right sits at the edge of the long narrow flower bed running across to the barn. behind that is the one corn plot to the right, the big veggie plot is center, and the other corn plot is to the left close to the barn.

The "over engineered" nest boxes

I got a LOT of grief from my friend Bill of the Matrix Compound about the time and energy I spent on the nest boxes for my chickens. That's where to quote of "over engineered" came from. But I enjoy working with wood and I like giving the projects a little kick of style in a tongue in cheek way. I did that with my Victorian styled chicken coop in the north GA mountains too. I took a long time building this set of boxes. And I was even more excited that I used a lot of recycled lumber. That was one reason it took so long but I saved a ton of money in doing so. I just looked at receipts and it cost me $11.00 in total building this set of nest boxes. Not bad eh?

I had pictures of the earlier steps but they came out looking like a pile of wood debris so here's later in the process

The pieces go together ... and I guess Shadow and Hunter approve! I hope that's a good sign that the chickens will use it, hmmm or not!

I even used old paint and a $2.00 "Ooops!" paint mix from Walmart. The colors are washed out but the light color is a cream and the darker is a sage green

The final masterpiece! And the first egg got laid in the cadillac nest boxes the very next morning. When I check the birds before bed many of the boxes are being used to sleep in. My two young pullets even share the same box.

The icy weekend!

Here's what Rob and I experienced this weekend

What a weekend

This weekend was a great weekend for me.

Meet my Alabama farmer friend Rob

After two and a half years a very close friend from northern Alabama came out to visit me. His plan was to go nowhere while he was here. All he wanted to do was to help me get things done around here. That's telling you how nice he is. Rob arrive Saturday afternoon during the first part of nasty ugly weather. That morning there were several multiple car accidents on I-25 in Colorado Springs because of ice. He got here safely from DIA. We had lots of time to talk about animals and his 55 acre farm and all his great collection of animals and about my place. Rob has donkeys, cattle including a long horn, chickens, a couple hogs, geese, ducks, turkeys, and a beautiful flock of Jacob's sheep. Google Jacob's sheep to see how cool they are.

The weekend was pretty dismal and very cold for a visitor from Alabama. I felt awful about it but we managed to still have a nice time. We talked, drank hot tea, and watched movies. The weather was very odd. Fog rolled in early Saturday during the freezing weather. temps were between 6-23F most of the time. The moisture began collecting on everything creating what appeared from a distance as snow but it you looked up close the ice crystal were forming all kinds of cool shapes. We got some very interesting pictures you can see below.

Sunday I was kind of stir crazy and wanted to get out a bit but the roads were very icy. We ventured over to the Matrix Compound to borrow the flatbed trailer. We need to get some 16' cattle panels to add to my fencing in the barnyard. I have never driven my truck on ice until then and adding the 16' flatbed to the mix made it well, interesting. I had a very hairy experience when I put on the breaks going about 30mph as I approached an intersection. I lost control and the trailer began to fish tail then the truck did too! I did manage to keep it on the road and at the end was pretty much in the right direction. Now Rob is setting next to me saying "it's OK, take it easy, it'll be OK" Blah. blah, blah! LOL! If you know Rob you'd now that his dander is hard to raise, his relaxed attitude is hard for me to understand, we are total opposites when it comes to that. LOL! I don't suppose his heart skipped a beat during all of this. Mine shut down! LOL! I was a ball of nerves for the next hour!

We did manage to pick up the fencing, a water heater and heat lamps for the chickens, went to eat, and hit the W (Walmart) before heading back home. It was a scary ride for me but quite pretty at the same time. We unloaded the trailer then took it back. We picked up Tuscon, the young Nubian buck that I want Tuesday bred to. Pics to come!

Sunday evening we watched Into the Wild and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I really enjoyed Into the Wild. Of course it's a sad story for the most part. But for me it was very thought provoking and brought up a lot of feelings and thoughts about my life. I want to blog more about all the soon.

Monday we woke to a beautiful sunrise, enjoyed some tea, talked some, then Al came over for breakfast and a chat. After that Rob and I began a fast pace attempt to get a lot of work done and we succeeded. I am grateful for his incredible help. We got my goat pen expanded and the chicken run fenced in. All that needs done is a gate and fencing over the top to keep out the predators. Al helped us get their rototiller over here so I can break ground on a new garden. We had a very full day. Rob headed back to Denver at about 330pm to stay over at Micheal's (my roomie) so he could fly back home this morning.

I had a full and nice weekend with his visit here and I'm hoping to be able to fly to AL sometime in late spring after my garden is in so I can work on his place and return his awesome favor.

Rob was lucky enough to land this nice little rig at the airport rental

Spotted Horse Barnyard

I just wanted to give some publicity to my new found German friend Dorit who owns and runs the petting zoo in the Black Forest called Spotted Horse Barnyard. Dorit is as crazy as I am about farm animals (maybe more - LOL) but runs a great little place. I've only had one visit with her so we don't know each other that well but my intuition says that she's a sweet woman. We've been shooting emails back and forth for a week now full of stories and helpful hints. She's been nice enough to offer to take me riding on her horses! I can't wait. Dorit has a website and a blog that is very interesting if you like all that farm chatter like I do!

www.spottedhorsebarnyard.com

New additions

Yesterday I picked up three new Ameracauna chickens for my flock. One rooster who was free and two hens. These birds with add a lot of color and variation in the flock. Ameracaunas are the birds that lay the blue-green eggs. I don't however know if my birds really meet the requirements set by the American Ameracauna Breeders Club. According to them many commercially sold birds are nothing more than chickens that lay blue-green eggs. I have not gotten up close and personal with my birds (if ya know what I mean) to see if they meet the standards as purebreds. I just know I want blue-green eggs someday soon!


The rooster


The very timid hen born Aug 27th




And the silver hen was born Aug 6th with the rooster

Catching up

I haven't blogged much lately because it seems that I have been going in six directions at the same time. My plate has been full. I have many things to catch all of you up on but I haven't got the time to do it.

Such a fine Nubian ...

Nicole went on a little trip. She's being borrowed by a goat dairy just a mile down the road. They were not able to fill milk orders and I heard about the problem so I volunteered Nicole. Tuesday is well past time for weaning and I don't have separate spaces to lock them apart. Volunteering Nicole serves a couple proposes. I get to help a neighbor in need, I get Tuesday weaned, my new hay supply will be drastically saved, and Nicole is going to be bred by a very high quality pure bred Nubian buck before she comes home!

My gal and I the day she left

Tuesday went crazy over Nicole leaving. She cried so much for two days that she sounded like she was being slaughtered. Her voice was cracking. She's settling down now ... that is until she sees me outside and the yelling begins all over.

Investing in the future

Here's today's work waiting for me ...



Yesterday began bright and early for me. I woke up feeling beaten up and bruised from the previous day's visit to the dentist and a neurology appointment to test the nerves in my arms, hands, feet, and legs. If you don't know about it basically the stick small needles into the muscles, send a pulse of electricity through the muscles and see if it twitches or you scream like holy he** and go through the ceiling. Then just to make sure it was a correct response they preform the test on the same location again. I think they are all secretively (or not) into SM! Anyway, I came home from a long drive extremely tired on Monday.


Yesterday morning I was trying to get my steam up to go out and do chores and was cruising through the farm and garden section on Craig's List. In the past I have found some pretty good deals on used items that may have ended up at the dump. I like to know that I have recycled and item and that I have save a lot of money. I bought a flat head scoop shovel on CL for $2.00 and the cheapest one at Home Depot was $27.00. $25.00 is a huge savings for me.


So as I was looking through the ads so badly wanting to buy every horse, goat, and chicken I saw an ad for hay. I have been going to the local Big R Farm Supply to buy my hay about each week and a half. Big R is a big fancy farm supply store that is pricey and the customer service just bites big ones. (Being a veteran of retail management I know good service when I see it) And they sure as shoot have it. And I hate giving up money to stores that don't have good service. My mind has been eating at me for a couple months. I have to make a large hay purchase to get my goats through winter. Hay is much like heating oil. The colder and nastier the weather the higher the price. I was paying $7.99 to 8.99 a bale at the farm store and yesterday I got it for $5.00 a bale!!!


Once again my friends Al & Bill of the Matrix Compound joined forces and we all had a productive busy day. Bill and I drove in his truck and hauling a trailer about 70 miles north of here to a hay ranch to pick up some hay for me. These guys (Al & Bill) do just about anything for me, and me for them. I've discovered that pooling our resources whether its knowledge or brute strength or neighborly support is a wonderful thing! So I'd planned to buy about 40 bales. After seeing the high quality of the hay Bill decided he wanted some. So we brought home 95 bales.


I'm taking 50 bales since my barn is so small and Bill's taking 45. It was a big outlay of cash but now I can sleep easier knowing that I have invested in the future feed bill and should carry me through until about February and I'm not bleeding money out to a store I don't care for.


And if you haven't done the math:

50 bales @ $7.99 = $399.00 Big R

50 bales @ $5.00 = $250.00 Rancher


Get the picture?