OoooooooooWeeeeeeeee!
It's cold outside!
As I write this it is Thursday, noontime and the thermometer reads 10 degrees.
Add to that 20 to 30 mph winds (constant)
and you get something that feels like zero degrees (Fahrenheit)!
If perhaps I have given you a romantic impression of life on a farm...
here is a little reality check.
We were out of bed, dressed in multiple layers and out to do first feeding by 5 AM.
By 6:15 everyone had been fed, waters changed, and poop scooped.
Hay had been thrown down from the hayloft to fill the feed room.
It would be wonderful to just sit by the fire while the winds whistle all day.
The thing is... it's days like this that require more frequent visits to check on the animals.
I feed hay more often (which requires more frequent poop clean-up)
so that everyone has enough fuel for their internal furnaces...
as animals rely upon their metabolism to keep warm in this weather.
Chicken waters get changed again in the afternoon
because wild birds become winter squatters in the henhouse (seeking warmth and food)
and in exchange poop in the waterers.
(I think we need to discuss this matter.)
The amazing thing about winter is that no matter how harsh the weather,
the animals seem to tolerate it better than they do the heat of summer.
(And truth be told, I do as well!)
************
On another subject....
Every time that I leave our farm and head to the city,
I pass this little house along the way.
It's always been a curiosity to me...
this cute little house.
It's lines make me think that it might have been a one-room school house in the past.
During warmer months, as I'd drive by, I would see it's owner...
an elderly, short and stout lady with pure white hair.
In the earlier years I would see her working around her yard,
keeping the weeds at bay...
or walking to the mailbox to check her daily delivery.
The last few years I would mostly see her sitting outside...
passing the day in the shade of her front porch,
her granny panties neatly hung to dry on a clothesline lining that porch.
Then this summer I noticed an Amish or Mennonite lady sitting with her each day
(a caretaker, I assumed).
A few weeks ago, a dumpster arrived at this bungalow;
several persons were moving the furniture out of the house.
The house now stands empty.
I assume the woman passed away.
It makes me sad...
sad that I never met this woman...
sad that I don't know her story.
Sad, because I will never know if she was well-loved or if she is missed.
I hope her life was full...
I will miss seeing her...sitting on her porch.
And then I think to myself...
someday that will be me.
(See comment #3 for her story....Thanks! kcchick!)
(See comment #3 for her story....Thanks! kcchick!)
Comments
Stay toasty!
I have taken care of geriatric patients/ clients for 40 years and kcchick's story just struck home to me and want to thank her for sharing. Bev, I bet if you had of just stopped in she would of welcomed you and had a lot of great stories to tell you.
I read Shonda Rhimes' "Year of Yes" and I think she would have stopped to talk to this woman. She spent a year saying YES to things she would have normally not had the courage/time/inclination to do, and just by saying yes to them, her life opened and altered beyond her wildest dreams. I think I have something to learn from her, and I always learn something from you, Bev! THANK YOU!! Karla from Coal City, IL
It also warms my heart how much you love and care for your animals. Thank You.
Kaye
Stay warm everyone and I agree with you about feeling more comfortable in the winter then in the brutal summer heat.
I know that house...Glad you were able to find out the story that goes with it.Stay warm..Watch the ice tomorrow..xxoo
Anna Galentine
How sad...but I love the house.
Oh, and your sheep look a bit pissed...Hahaa
hughugs
Sad though too . . .
Grandma was one of a kind and many of my favorite memories of my childhood were spent with my pap and her, as well as my brother and cousins, in that little house. It was a house filled with love and her famous sugar cookies. Grandma loved her family and friends, to bake, to garden, her cats and shopping at the Share and Care.
She is dearly loved and badly missed. She was a wonderful grandma. I hope to be half as kind and caring as she was to others. This has been a difficult past few months for her family--there is just an empty place without her.
Thank you again for posting this blog. Such wonderful memories of a beautiful heart. If you would like to know more, she actually wrote a few stories about her life growing up that I would be happy to share with you.
>^..^<