As I sit here this morning, in the beautiful sunshine that is surrounding me in the Lone Star State, I can’t help but wonder just how bad it’s going to be at home. They currently have no power. It went out at about 1am this morning according to Zach. And they’re forecasting 10-15 inches of snow. No power means my chickens don’t have a heat lamp, and my cowboy and the family are back to living in the stone ages. I’m worried about everyone. Which Zach would not like- since he says there’s no point in worrying if you can’t do anything about it. And of course, I can’t since I’m 1000 miles away. I missed last year’s power outage too- the ice storm that caused the state to be declared a disaster area. And while it wouldn’t be fun to live without power, I wish I were there to at least hang out with Zach. But then he’s probably thinking he’s thankful that I am getting to ride. At least we know we love each other!
I snapped some photos before I left of all the icky snow that Zach piled up from the last two blizzards and figured now is as good a time as any to share those.
Here is one of the teenie trees on our place. I have no idea how old this tree is, as I didn’t plant them. I’d say the tree is about 4 feet tall.
All of this snow was pushed out of our driveway.
You can’t see it from here, but the pile is nearly as tall as the house!
Another view:
This is a photo of the drift where he quit pushing. It’s about 3 and a half feet tall by 15 feet wide, and who knows how long. It runs about 2/3 the length of the driveway.
There is probably less snow now than when these photos were taken, as they had about a week of above freezing days, that came complete with sunshine too! But even if these piles have shrunk, another 10-15 inches will make a massive mess. Zach will get to spend the next several days after the storm in the tractor cleaning up.
I truly am grateful to be out of the mess, but I wish they had power and that they didn’t have to deal with all of this. Like I’ve said before, Mother Nature, well she’s a bitch.
Hope they get some electricity soon or I will have to worry about your chickens! Is there a mud room or utility where you could put paper down in case of emergency? Growing up I know that happened at our ranch one winter when it was really bad. My dad moved some inside a utility and I think I remember my mom yelling! Of course Z would think this is a crazy idea. I really do not think I am made of stock to live in freezing weather!!
See and that is one of the things that keeps SD a great place…not many people want to(or are strong enough) to survive there. Losing electricity isn’t really a big deal for most of the ranches. Almost everyone has a wood stove or at least a propane one for heat.
We always just lit some candles, pulled out all of the games and actually spent family time together.
I bet Zack is just hoping that Mother Nature gets all of this nasty weather out of her system before calving weather-LOL.
No wood stove for us- we wouldn’t have any wood to burn since there isn’t a real tree to be seen! We do have propane heat, and a propane stove and this winter we’re putting in a propane fireplace! I’m so excited about that! Right now, I’m sure there’s lots of cribbage being played!
We are fortunate that we don’t calve until April. Usually by then the weather has started to straighten up.
I love how half your heart is still on the ranch.
I got cold just looking at those photos!
Your photos remind me a lot of the ones that I took with our last storm over Christmas! The weather man says we’re in for up to 12 inches over the next couple of days with wind gusts up to 30 mph….yay round two of the blizzards (voice filled with sarcasm)…*sigh*. I do worry about your chickens with you! Hopefully they will be all right. We’re lucky enough that we have a large generator to power our well system and houses when needed. If its not too bad out we leave it off until the fridge and freezers need a change to cool down again. But you have to decide real carefully if you want to run the heater, washer, bath, hot water heater…only one at a time : ) We were out of power last year for 19 days so it took a lot of fuel to keep the tractor running the generator.
Wow, no electricity in a storm.
Good thing you do have propane.
Sorry about the chickens.
Man, someone who plays cribbage, but lives way too far away! Bummer.
I used to play that game with my dad and grandfather.
Dang! That is a lot of snow! I hope he’s going to be OK in all that. Kind of boring for him sitting around without you too but I know he knows your doing what you like to do, so that will comfort him!