Snowstorms

Before the snowstorms last week, we had Winterfest in Chelan. Check it out!

Fire and Ice from Sy Stepanov on Vimeo.
If you watched the video, you'll see that we didn't have any snow in Chelan around the middle of January. This made for a busy return after the holidays. No rest for the farmers! Bill immediately started the crews pruning, and the pace didn't slow down until last week. That's when the temperature dropped and our weather (at least the Seattle area) made the world news for breaking records in snow accumulations.

So you know what that meant? Leo needed a blizzard hut ASAP!

The biting winds were too much for his wind flap and he let me know. He has a cranky yowl that makes me hup to it. I quickly gathered supplies that in combination with his heated bed made all the difference. 

Bill is on his way to get firewood. We keep pre-cut apple wood in old apple bins so we can move it from where it's stored to our carport with the tractor. Sounds dreamy right? Most of the time it is. Then there's the occasion a pack rat travels up with the bin of wood. Then the disturbed rat scurrys from the bin of wood into the engine of one of our cars. Good times on the farm!

The hens were terrified of the white stuff. They refused to come out of their coop for water. I began to  worry about their eggs dehydrating, so I pushed each one out the door and off the ramp hoping they would learn that snow was OK. I did this each morning for three days, and then they figured it out. This should go in a book titled, "Foul Weather for Fowl".

Here they are hens/snowbirds! This morning they came out on their own even with the additional snow from yesterday.

Leo's not into it. He's howling at me to protest the snowy weather and his 2012 job description. With Garth gone, he's now the senior animal on the farm. That means it's his job to protect the perimeter. He's trying to negotiate for just the porch area, also he's really missing summer and a hot carport to roll around on.