Livin' the life.......

This is not the view I am accustomed to seeing out my windows at this time of year (and it will be back to reality soon enough).

I'm almost embarrassed to write this post. Just almost. For the next few days, I am living the life of ease. My friend, Teresa, and I flew down to Ft. Meyers Beach, Florida yesterday to spend a few days with my sweet mother-in-law, Carojean. It's like landing in paradise after the weather in Kentucky last week! Now, I love having four seasons and would really have a hard time living somewhere it was warm most all the time, but boy-oh, is it nice to have a few days of walking on the beach in just one layer of clothes! I do feel a little guilty leaving my husband at home to do all of his work and all of my barn chores, but it was with his blessing that I'm here. The sad fact is that it is very difficult for us to both be away from the farm at the same time. We don't have a farm sitter at the moment and, until we find someone who can handle all the different resident species on the farm, we are limited to traveling separately. Sometimes, in the summer, we can call on one of our children to pitch in and keep and eye on the farm, but during the winter it is just too complicated.

It is so different here it feels as though we could hardly be in the same world. We had a near perfect day. The sky was clear blue and the temperature was in the low 80's. (And at home, poor Mike was dealing with rain, rain and more rain.) I'm going to try to carry this memory with me when lambing starts and I'm cold, wet, tired and dirty!!

Heavy traffic

There's been heavy traffic at the bird feeders that are just above the koi pond and outside my kitchen window (it's a view I never get tired of). Sometimes I will glance out and see 7 or 8 pairs of cardinals on the feeders and on the ground. Cardinals are very territorial and will fight each other usually, but when the weather is this cold and the ground is covered with snow, they seem to decide mainly to ignore each other. We gets lots of different kinds of birds-cardinals, chickadees, tufted titmouse, junco's, goldfinches, purple finches and several different kinds of woodpeckers. Often we'll see a dove or two feeding on the ground under the feeders. We feed only black oil sunflower seeds because all the birds will eat them and there doesn't seem to be a lot of waste. I sometimes have sunflowers sprout in the flower beds directly under the feeders, but mainly the hulls act as mulch and disappear when the perennials come up. I buy 50 lb. bags of sunflower seeds at the feed store when picking up feed for the rest of the critters around here. We go through a lot of bags of bird feed over the course of the winter. Once I start feeding, usually in late summer or early fall, I feel a real obligation to keep the feeders full. I know that the birds come to depend on that source of nourishment. It's a reasonably inexpensive source of entertainment for me and I feel as though I'm doing a good deed. Of course, it could just be that I'm easily entertained!

Snowing again......

It's snowing again here in central Kentucky and that's okay with me, as long as my power stays on! Our electricity was restored Sunday evening and I have a renewed appreciation for central heat and hot water! Holly and Teeny are apparently unaware that it is really cold out there.

That's the late, great Pauladeen's baby girl there with snow under her chin. She is growing up to be a big girl, just like her mother and, just like her mother, she is very sweet and loves to be scratched behind the ears. The animals continue on in their usual routines. Weather matters very little to them because we provide them with a steady supply of nourishment and shelter when they need it (or when we think they need it). The sheep would just as soon bed down outside in a snow storm as be in a nice, warm(ish) pen inside the barn. They don't like to be wet and cold at the same time and will seek shelter then. It's going to be quite cold here tonight. It's already down to 11 degrees and I decided they would spend the night in the barn. I sleep better knowing they are protected from the elements. It's only about six weeks before the first lambs should arrive. I checked a few of the ewe's udders last week and they are beginning to bag up. My method of checking milk bags is not the most efficient, but it's one I can pull off (usually) by myself. All of the ewes are in full fleece now and it's impossible to see under there, so I just sneak up on them from behind while they are eating and stick my hand under there. Some of them jump and run and others just look at me in a way that shows they think I'm a nuisance!

As for me, I spent most of my day trying to catch up on laundry and baking bread. One of my goals for this coming year is to learn to make really good bread and lots of different varieties. We tend to favor a more rustic whole wheat loaf, but today I made Susan's farmhouse white bread and I think I'm in love. Her recipe makes three good sized loaves of sandwich bread and is quite easy to do. I followed her directions completely (well, except for that part about waiting 40 minutes before cutting into the loaf after you take it out of the oven. I mean---come on now, is that realistic?) I can certainly recommend this recipe for beginners and the end result is good enough that even an experienced bread baker will like it. Yummy!

I'm so hopeful that I will be able to get off the farm tomorrow for Wednesday afternoon knitting. I have really missed getting together with my little group.

Stay warm wherever you are tonight.

Reporting in.........

Yes, reporting in from the land of no power! (that would be our farm) Actually, I'm not in the land of no power at the moment. Our power went out on Friday and our farm lane is still impassable. We managed to get off the farm by driving back through two of our fields and across into a neighbor's farm, across their field, through their barnyard and onto their farm road, which is relatively flat and tree-less. All I can say is thank goodness for four-wheel drive! We decided to make a break for it today and come out into civilization to wash some clothes and take a hot shower. Wow, what a luxury that is after heating pans of water on the stove for several days!

The sun is out today and the temperature is up to 50, so if we are lucky the ice on the farm road will melt off before it cools down tonight. Even with no electricity, animals have to be fed and watered. They are oblivious to the fact that there are no lights on in the barn. As long as the food shows up when it's supposed to, they are content. Speaking of food, today is the end of the grace period for food in our refrigerator. Guess that's one way to get the refrigerator cleaned out!

Doing without the things we take for granted, I can't help thinking about how hard life was for all those women who came before us.

I'll be back soon---I hope.