It's That Time Of Year Again

-
Not that we were totally unprepared, but it sure got cold fast. Fortunately the winter garb was never far away.  It dropped from -5C (23F )to -21C (-5.8F) overnight a couple of nights ago and has stayed frozen since.  Which has given me a few opportunities to beef up the cold weather protection.  Job one this morning is to thaw out the Jeep which froze up on the side of highway 16 last night.  Poor or non existant anti-freeze, and as it turns out a crappy thermostat.  Anti-freeze fog in the distributer cap makes for no start.


The snow came pretty much on schedule and it was time to do the first plow.  By the time I had done some commercial accounts and my neighbors and my driveway and yard Four hours had passed and the ginger anti-motion pills had worn off!



Got out these "Thrum" mitts my Wife's Aunty knitted for me.  They're wonderful and I was glad to have them with me when the Jeep froze up and I waited a couple of hours for the tow truck to arrive from Burns Lake, 52 kilometeres West of where I broke down.. With out my cell phone.  Thankfully I was wearing my heavy duty surplus Canadian Armed Forces winter parka.

 

We are getting ready to harvest six hogs and 19 Roosters.  Tomorrow we'll be helping our butcher friend slice and dice a couple of cows and a lamb.  All good practice.

Now to thaw out the Jeep, which is languishing at my Brother Tom's place with a tarp over it and propane blower heater telling it Spring is here..

This is Maya, a friends of ours dog, who proclaimed my lap a perfect place to snuggle in while we watched the fire vision..  

Hope you have a warm lap to snuggle up in!

Comments

Donna OShaughnessy said…
Maya. In your lap. And I thought winter was difficult for you up north.
6:22 AM
Art Blomquist said…
Nah, Winter is just another season. Okay, remind me I said that in about five months...
9:52 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Much Wood

-
Image
I'm late with the annual wood cutting chore.  Certainly I am earlier than last year when I was tunnelling through a kilometre of four foot deep snow to find the cut up wood that was somewhere under a white expanse.  This wood shed and three more like it need to be filled to see us comfortably through the next six months of winter.  Due to some cardiac issues it isn't an option for me to lug heavy rounds of wood around.  The skid-steer helps with that option.  I've tried loading it with the pallet forks and then dropping it into a saw buck but have found that it makes it just as easy to cut it on the forks.  Being careful, of course, to avoid saw parts and metal forks!   I have the green house growing. But need to make some weather proofing amendments to see us through the white times.  The Swiss Chard, Basil and Tomatoes are doing great:     All the leaves are gone.  We've even had a couple of inches of snow.  But it didn't last.  It will take
Read more

I'm Back!

-
Image
Haven't been posting anything for a while.  A combination of moving to different technology - tablets and hand helds  and having my Laptop getting a keyboard replaced.  All nice and spiffy now. But the spell check is not working in Blogger so that should make it interesting. Been wondering about the whole farming thing.  Attending a lot of of courses and reading the farmers messiah, Joel Salatin.  He's been an amazing inspiration.  Here's our new chicken tractor based on his design.  This one has adjustable trailer wheels cuz I was too lazy to build his simple lift and puller.  I will do that when I build some more tractors.  This one comes with a built in spilt feed cleaner!     As you might be able to tell.  This lot's about ready for some processing.  I am getting an urge for baked chicken!  Had a couple of roosters fall prey to what I think was a fox.  Last night all the dogs and I slept out on the veranda to keep a watch.  Well, I tried to sleep.  The Doggies
Read more

We've Sprung a Leak

-
Image
The snow is melting like, well, snow in spring time.  The top of the tire garden is starting to show through the snow.  Those are three logging truck tires on top of each other filled with soil.  So still a bit of snow to go before I have to weed whack the grass.  I will plant some spinach and spring onions before the snow is all gone.  I will put some plastic over the tires to speed up the process.  It's going to be a late spring. Melt water has turned road ruts into impromptu ditches. Fortunately all the water here is diverted onto our Southern fields. Attempting to get to the wood pile.  Not gong to happen until the road gets a bit more solid.  Like in a couple of weeks.  The piggies are partly to blame.  This part of the road is South facing and the snow melted off it first leaving bare ground.  Ideal for rootevators who have just walked on the snow over the fences!  Four sows in stalls, three of which decided to have their babies within a couple of days of
Read more