Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Snow Day!

I often get asked "What do you do (with the animals) in the winter?"

The answer is quite simple- whatever it takes!

We found out last night that school was closed and the kids cheered. I turned to Jerry as the lightning-yes lightning!!-flashed outside and asked if he was excited about a snow day. We came to the conclusion that we were scared more than excited.
Already this week the weather has brought on a lot of extra work: pumps, pipes, watercups, equipment- just to name a few and that was only by Tuesday! We didn't know what a big pile of snow would add to the mix....

About 16inches of snow fell and drifted at the farm last night/early this morning. And really, it wasn't as bad as we anticipated. Everything just took a lot of time. Mostly due to snow removal, making sure everyone got to and from work safe, and pulling folks(myself included) out of (well I was going to say ditch but really it was just the drifts in the road! A couple roads weren't cleared until after 5pm around here).
Here are some pics:

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Uncle Tom came to the rescue and pulled the Kent County Plow Truck out of a drift with the big bad 4 wheeler tractor and then plowed the road and driveway for my sister so she could go to work as an RN.

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Every single door/walk way needed to be shoveled.

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Snow even managed to blow into the barns! Look at how nice and snug that little heifer is peeking out of her straw bed with her little jacket on:)

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The guys went around yesterday and buttoned up the curtains in all of the cow barns. Not much snow got in and even better kept that awful wind off the cows. Check out the icicles on this barn though!! Makes me a little nervous- we heard of a roof collapsing at a dairy today.

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These piles are amazing! The kids had a blast playing on them after chores tonight!

I saw this post on facebook and wanted to make sure to share it:
BREAKING NEWS: There will be no farms closed due to the upcoming BLIZZARD.

Each & every farmer will be out in the blistery, cold, blowing wind and heavy snow fall tending to their livestock. They will be praying for machinery to work and non-frozen water pipes. If you know or LOVE a farmer, say a prayer for him or her and repost so the... prayerline may grow for all our farmers to be safe through the blizzard.


Well those prayers worked! We survived! Well so far anyway....Jerry is making the last round for the night as I type...lets just keep praying!