1.14.24
At a little after 2 o’clock this morning, I slipped from our nice warm bed and made my way into the living room. It was not exactly cold in there as I had banked good sized wood chunks into the woodstove before Darrell and I went to bed last night, but somehow when the reading on the thermometer outside is zero it still feels chilly. Our girls, Bella and Bonnie lay snuggled warmly on their blanket in the laundry room but still jumped up eagerly when I opened the door encouraging them outside for a few minutes. Bella, who is in the senior citizen category – for a Rottweiler – now has trouble going more than a few hours without a much-needed bathroom break. Bonnie, the youngster, just loves the snow and is more than happy to go leaping off the deck into the fluffy white stuff any chance she gets. After restoking the fire, I let the girls back inside and took myself back to bed, snuggling close to Darrell, my human hot water bottle!
Yes, it is cold out there. Now I know my pals in Alaska will probably be laughing at me since temperatures hovering around zero with a foot and a half of snow are mere child’s play to them. A normal, somewhat balmy day they might say and yes, in some ways it is. However, when one has gone from nights barely dipping into the mid-twenties and days in the forties, this sudden plunge into frigidity rather takes one by surprise. We expect it, we usually are prepared for it, sometimes actually want it then of course tend to complain about it when Mother Nature gives it to us.
Have you ever noticed just how much we talk about the weather? “Well, I wonder what the weather will be like tomorrow,” or “We got down to 5 degrees last night! How about where you are?” Then if we should happen to get some snow, “I stuck a ruler in the snow, and it was almost 11 inches deep!” … okay, so yes, I admit I did do that yesterday! We humans love to talk about the weather. Turn on the telly and flip to a local station – well local for us which is actually a good 200 plus miles away as the crow flies – and all they can talk about is the weather. The reporter stands bundled up to the eyeballs in a pristine fluffy down parka, standing in an inch of snow at the side of the road looking quite glamorous as she delivers her report.
Meanwhile, after a quick cup of coffee and tea we get ready to head outside to start morning chores. A scarf is wrapped securely around my neck and pulled up high to try to protect my face which does not appreciate the cold anymore. Next comes my jacket that never seems to be free of a few stray pieces of hay, my trusty old wooly hat gets plonked on my head before I stuff my feet into my wellies and grab an extra pair of gloves. Darrell is similarly attired yet always tends to look quite dashing. Maybe it is because he wears his well-oiled lace up leather boots instead of wellies and jeans instead of an old pair of fluffies!
When the morning temperature drops into the single digits, as in 9 degrees and below, I forego my milking chore, instead opting for Heidi’s calf to take care of morning milking for me. The pulsator on my milker, despite attempts to keep it toasty warm by having a heated sock filled with rice securely attached to it, makes its disgruntlement known that it does not like cold weather! A grumpy pulsator can make the usually delightful chore of milking become something, shall we say, less than conducive to keeping one in a good mood? So, Henrietta gets to enjoy double her daily milk ration.
Tending animals in this sort of weather does make chores more of a chore. There is ice to be cleared daily from stock water troughs, extra hay fed to all the ruminants and horses, the pigs need plenty of straw in their house to nestle into and fires in outbuildings kept stoked. Paths cleared to the chicken and milk house, hoses always kept well drained after topping of water buckets and tubs… who needs to go to the gym? Often chilled to the bone when we finally head back to the house, we come inside to welcome warmth. Doing chores may keep you warm but that last walk to the house always seems to make you aware of the bitter wind that seems to suck the last body heat away from noses, fingers and toes.
Yes, we sometimes grumble and complain about the weather when it changes so suddenly like this, finally giving us the dose of winter that we actually need. We peer frequently out the window to see how much new accumulation of snow there is on the deck steps that were recently swept clear. Placed strategically just outside the kitchen window is a thermometer that gets a glance every time I am working at the kitchen sink as if the difference between 3 degrees and 5 degrees is something celebratory to talk about!
Yesterday as I sat in my easy chair, my fingers wrapped around a cup of steaming hot tea, the fire burning strongly in the stove, Darrell dozing in his chair beside me, I glanced out the window at the snow coming down. Knowing there would be even more snow to slog through in the morning, making farm chores that much more challenging, it was okay. The animals were all well fed and watered, the wood bins stocked for the coming night, the dogs laying contentedly on their rugs by the warm stove. I felt at peace with the world.
Today will bring its challenges and we will deal with them. The snow will eventually stop falling and the temperatures will warm. Instead of snow we will have mud, and human nature being what it is, we will most likely be complaining about that and wishing for slightly cooler temperatures to return! Before we know it there will be spikes of green grass poking up from the earth signaling spring is around the corner. Life passes all too quickly. Instead of complaining about the winter weather we are only just now receiving, fretting about all the things I should and could be doing, I am going to take my dearest Darrell’s advice… relax, don’t fret, enjoy the quiet time. Yes, that sounds pretty good to me. I will take the quiet time and embrace it.
