Sunday, February 14
Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s basically another day ’round here. We’ve stopped making a big production out of it years ago. Good thing since we’re basically iced in these past few days.
It was another rough night for LizzieBelle. I brought her downstairs around 1:30 and we slept the rest of the night on the couch with a few bouts of coughing. Bless her heart, the poor girl. Today should be her last dose of antibiotic.
There was no church again this morning due to illness and the weather. As I mentioned, we are iced in and haven’t left the farm since last Tuesday. This makes day five at home for me. The forecasters are predicting snow accumulation starting tonight and possibly more ice. I spent the morning getting a batch of yogurt going, threw in a load of laundry, and got set up to work from home just in case. That’s provided we don’t lose power. The newspaper staff is scattered throughout the county so hopefully we’ll all have power and can get the paper out this week even if we can’t physically make it into the office. The publisher/owner is quite lucky to have such a dedicated staff.
I’ve spent much of the day sitting in front of the fireplace and doing some cross-stitch. Below are then and now images…
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I received an email today saying that our seeds have shipped! We STILL need to order the rest.
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Farm news: 17 eggs!!!
Monday, February 15
A good night’s sleep was had by all – yay! LizzieBelle coughed a few times during the night but they didn’t last long and we all fell right back asleep. She did wake us up at 5:30 though. CountryBoy took her downstairs, let her out to do her business, let her get a drink, then put her on the couch where she curled up in a pile of blankets and went to sleep. He came back upstairs and we slept in until 7:30. Maybe it was even 7:45. I knew I wouldn’t be going in to work today so I didn’t really care what time we got up.
Speaking of work, I actually worked from home today…
It was a little crazy trying to work while the server was down. again. Bit by bit we managed to work around it but not without some gnashing of teeth and pulling out of eyebrows! I won’t mention any names, ha. Me? I had Stress Away and a couple drops of Wintergreen in the diffuser. Provided everyone’s power is still on tomorrow morning we should be able to get another edition of the paper out. That’s also provided that the print company’s power stays on as well. They are about an hour south of us and are also experiencing this weather system. However, when we stepped outside this evening we could hear trees snapping and popping all around. Fingers crossed the power stays on and no one gets hurt.
Despite the craziness of trying to work without the server I rather enjoyed working from home. I have always wanted to be able to work from home but have never had the right job to do so. In reality, I would love to be able to stay home and put all my concentration and efforts on the farm but that’s just not meant to be right now and that’s OK. The time will come when the time is right.
We are on Day 6 of being iced in with more freezing rain and snow on the way tonight. Our driveway and bridge is a solid sheet of ice so we’re staying put which really doesn’t bother us at all.
This afternoon it was literally raining balls of ice. According to the forecast we have another week of cold, sketchy weather. Sunday it’s supposed to be sunny and 50 degrees. Won’t that be nice! I can see everyone donning their t-shirts and flip-flops on a sunny 50 degree day.
I’ve seen lots of people on Facebook and Instagram pining for Spring. I can’t say that I really blame them but can’t we just enjoy (or make the most of) the season we’re in and not always wish time away? Spring is certainly a beautiful time of year but Spring also brings with her the beginning of lots of work. Work that doesn’t end until next Winter (provided the gardens do well). So I’m choosing to embrace whatever ‘ol man Winter has to throw our way because Winter is a time of rest here at the farm. We don’t attempt to do very much above and beyond tending the animals and trying to stay warm. ESPECIALLY in February! Sitting in front of the fireplace becomes our favorite location and pastime during Winter (unless CountryBoy is watching TV then he’s huddled up in his recliner!). And when we get that snowfall we so desperately long for? It’s sheer icing on the Winter cake exciting us like two kids in a candy store! I don’t think these two Florida transplants will ever tire of it.
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Farm news: 14 eggs
Tuesday, February 16
We woke up to snow – FINALLY!!! After six days of an icy tundra the ground now has a beautiful layer of snow on top of the ice. I walked around this evening taking a few photos and as I walked the ground literally crunched under each footstep. I decided to walk along the road to get a different view of the farm and I figured I’d check the mail while I was there. As I came up to the road I noticed it was still icy underneath a layer of snow and everyone that had traveled up and down the road today stayed in the middle. I was fascinated with the road and started looking around for photo ops and completely forget about the mail. I walked to the neighbor’s driveway to get an overall view of the farm…
I cut across the field and got a different angle of the barn than I typically shoot…
I walked along the creek until I found a place I could cross then headed back to the warmth of the house. After dinner I locked the chickens up and finally went and got the mail. I would’ve left it there overnight but I was concerned that maybe the seeds we had ordered might’ve come in. Thankfully they hadn’t arrived yet.
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This morning I put my second mug ‘o coffee in my travel cup and headed over to my desk at 9 o’clock to start work. My desk is in the dining room and it stays cold in there unless we turn on the gas heater. Wanting to conserve gas I had a small space heater at my back but the rest of the room remained cold which means a hot cuppa coffee quickly becomes cold. That’s what happened yesterday so today CountryBoy filled my travel mug, I kissed him ‘goodbye’ and said the usual ‘see me later’ and seconds later I was ‘at work’. It was awesome! Not so much the work part but the working from home part. The actual work was a little tedious since the server was still down so there was a lot of shuffling of files and proofs back and forth but we were all just glad that our electricity was on so that we could work. I was a little concerned last night since ours went off around 7:50. It came back on some time during the night and has stayed on all day. Our pages were approved early afternoon which is our normal time so we were all quite pleased. To be able to get a paper out, two papers actually, in the midst of this winter storm where everyone has been hunkered down at home for days was quite an accomplishment. At the end of the day the owner/publisher said to the editor that she was blessed to have such a good group of employees.
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I didn’t sleep very well last night. LizzeBelle had several coughing spells and I was cold most of the night even though I was between flannel sheets and under a heavy quilt and afghan. It wasn’t until the electricity came back on and CountryBoy turned the space heater on that I started to feel a little more comfortable. Not warm by any means but comfortable enough to fall asleep. The space heater basically knocks some of the chill out of the room but since the house is a box-frame house and has no insulation the bedroom, or any room for that matter, will never be toasty during the winter. The farmhouse has come a long way since we moved in so to have what we have now we’re OK with not being toasty all the time but at least comfortable. I can’t imagine the life of the pioneers and the hardships they faced in the winter months.
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Farm news: 12 eggs
Dream Valley Farmstead 