Pioneer Woman at Heart

  The snow storm has passed, and most places here got about 9-10 inches of snow.  The worst part for us, is that the frigid temperatures now return with a deep freeze.  They are still talking about temps dipping to -25°F after all this snow dumped.  The cold temperatures are said to be with us for the next week. First issue was to find someone to plow us out.  Second was to shovel a path to the coop, and finally order more pre-paid propane (bad timing) for delivery.   More snow is on the way.   Plowing was accomplished, and very thankful for that.  The trash bin will need shoveled out before trash day, but all is well in our neck of the woods. Deep cleaning is being done, but I ran out of one cleaner I make (does well on any grease on the stove vents etc).  I will need to restock my distilled water (we have well water). Exciting winter news right? Ha! You know those small vents on the oven door that are inconveniently behind the sto...

I did the usual "storm prep" Wednesday- washed, dried and put away all the dishes, ran dishwasher, emptied dishwasher, finished any laundry etc.  We just got rain all day, but snow moved in the last two days.  In fact, Daughter K's car is buried in a snow drift this morning.  Smart husband parked out at the end of the drive and got out this morning.  I'm waiting to make sure he made it to work though.  Some roads he takes to work are impassable if not cleared. Daughter K made an attempt to get to work yesterday.  She called and was stuck in a drift between two main roads to get there.  She ended up coming home and calling off work.  Our county Sheriff only called a road emergency level 1 at the time, later changing it to a 2, but said "he'd never call a level 3" and this is why we all tried to vote him out of his position.  He just can't do his job. There were too many accidents yesterday just during the level 1 warning.  Some businesses...

  The boys also shoveled me a path to get to the other side of the drive, but I needed to shovel out getting into the coop.  There was snow in the coop and a huge drift in the run.  Lovely. We got 12 inches of snow by Tuesday morning.   We have 17 inches on the ground.  A nephew came and plowed us out, but more snow is coming.  Sigh. They predicted -8°F last night.  I filled water jugs.  Woke up to a wind-chill of -11°F.  I made sure there was plenty of food for leftovers for today too. Daughter K made it to work yesterday, as the downgraded us before she had to be to work (level 3 is a level the Sheriff can give you a ticket for being on the road). She got to work, but said all the stores in the strip she works in were closed.  She just wanted to go home, as the roads are still not good and no one was shopping (as should be). Youngest was told she should not go to work, and if the salon opened, they'd just have two people there....

I told Hubby it's gonna take a back hoe or bulldozer to clean my coop when the weather clears up.  I just keep tossing in new straw for now.  I'm pretty sore from cutting wood Saturday.  We cut large barn beams in pieces, loaded them up and cut them.  Then loaded them to them to the house.  Heavy stuff, but burns and heats great.  My knee is just feeling it though. Here are some snow pictures from yesterday: The snow drifted from 2-4 feet all across our driveway. I sent ham, rolls and cheese for Hubby Saturday, and the guys working with him too.  I'm sure they needed it working in the brisk wind and cold.  By 8am, we got up to 4°F.  I literally had several drifts to trudge through to get to the barn and take the dog out. Just to get Jesse to a flat spot, we had to go through many drifts and way out of the way.  We only lost one bootie that trip out.  His Mom didn't send his scarf, so I may crochet one. S...