(AF) WINTER BLAST PREPARATIONS

January 2009

  It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL outside today! It is so warm, it is almost t-shirt weather. Once you get to working outside a bit, it is t-shirt weather. So what will Dave and I be spending our time doing today? Preparing for yet another, unusually early Arctic blast, this one even colder and longer in duration that the last! We will be working together, today, at Anna's Farm, then this evening and tomorrow on each separate farm. Oh, do we ever long for the day we finally have our Two Farms combined!

Although weather patterns often change over the decades,  figuring in the past 3 or 4 decades, this is the kind of weather we only see in mid January, and only in an occasional Winter. Add in to that, it is also uncommon to have this type of extreme weather repeatedly and so close together. Usually, anymore, it is one big bout in a season, if at all. This is already our second this season, and it isn't even officially Winter, yet!

Today is supposed to be pretty and warm . . . . tomorrow the same. Wednesday will be dry with so-so temps. Then the bottom falls out of everything! Our lows will be going down into the teens and single digits  *brrrrrr* with the highs staying well below freezing. Once it drops below freezing Wednesday night, we won't get out of the deep freeze for at least 6 days to a week or more. Oh, and we mustn't forget the added in sleet, snow and freezing rain. Ugh!!!

Since we do not expect this type of weather for at least another month to 6 weeks, naturally we are far from prepared and ready for it. This time frame is usually spent preparing for Christmas, then we prepare for possible extreme cold blasts. So we now find ourselves dropping everything to prepare us, our farms, and our critters for temps we often don't even see at all in our winters. Even plants that don't have to normally be brought in/covered will have to be readied.

We will try to get on here as much as possible to share our progress with you, but for the next few days, our posts may be few and short as we prepare. Funny part is, it is when we don't have so much time to post that we have the best things to post! My water pressure is already running low right now, and my power is dim, so  we are really hoping and praying that both stays on through all of this. But since it usually goes out as these types of Winter storms hits, and often stays off for one to two weeks, we have to prepare us and all of our very dependent critters for that possibility, too. We also long for the day that we are totally off-grid and this won't even be a worry at all! Times like this brings the urgency of meeting that goal to the front of our minds!

Have a great day, everyone, and may Mother Nature treat you kindly!

(DF) LOOKS A BIT LIKE WINTER

This morning, I woke up to find snow on the ground. Not much snow, sloppy wet snow, with the temperature barely below freezing letting it melt from underneath. It is enough to make me wish the field was already plowed to take full advantage though. This is the first snow of the year here, and after the warm winter leading up to it, this seems a bit wintery. Looking back though, and comparing it to this time last year, it is not so bad at all ............... almost tropical in fact.

Last year at this time, we had spent the past two weeks with what passes for deep snow and extreme cold here in Oklahoma. Driving conditions were lousy, the cold was bitter and nobody was prepared for it to stay on so long It was much more like the winters I remember from childhood.

With the rest of February and all of March ahead, it is almost certain that this won't be the last white stuff we will see. Nor will the mud it leaves in its wake be the last, but though it is inconvenient, the moisture and cold temperatures are necessary for things on the farm to grow and produce properly. For this reason, even those who don't like winter weather should consider it cause for gratitude. And of course, it could be worse.

With the world we know changing around us; everything from the economy to the climate shifting constantly, it is good to see things resemble what they have always been. However, lets not stop experimenting and preparing for the possibility of change. Learning new and more versatile ways will make any transition easier, but for now, it is good to see the seasonal cycles still working.