Saturday, December 12, 2009, 08:07
After the Storm
When I went out to feed the horses Wednesday morning, there were knee-deep drifts in the driveway and across the path to Isabelle's pasture.
Carrying feed, hay and water was quite a challenge. By the time I waded through the drifts, when I came back for something else, my footsteps had filled in with drifted snow in only a few minutes.
I did not think it would be worthwhile to try to clear the snow while it was still so windy out of the north.
Later in the afternoon, I went down to the barn to start our 460 Farmall. The old girl started right off, and I let her run for 20 minutes or so to get good and warmed up so she would be ready to start later on. I shoveled my path around the house and down to Isabelle's pasture, and then when Randy came home from work, he used the 460 to clear the driveways.
Thank goodness for that old tractor.
Overnight Wednesday it turned very cold, below zero cold, and it was still windy. Thursday the temperature was only in the teens, and still windy. Friday the temperature warmed up to around 20.
It seems awfully early to be below-zero cold. The past few winters have had quite a lot of below zero weather. So where's the global warming the scientists are talking about? Day after day of below zero weather does not exactly seem like global warming to me.
Unfortunately, I have not seen my little Miss Kitty. I have called and called and called for her. Nothing. I am assuming that she is dead. It breaks my heart. I wish I could turn back the clock and do something differently, but I can't. And I think Miss Kitty is gone forever.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Wednesday, December 09, 2009, 06:54
Blizzard
It is snowing. And how. For once the weather forecast was right. The snow started Tuesday morning as just a light dusting. As the day wore on, it started snowing more and more.
I had to cover a village board meeting in a town five miles away Tuesday evening. The meeting started at 6 p.m., and that point, the roads were not too bad. It was snowing at a pretty good clip with a strong wind out of the north. But after I got home at 7:30 p.m., it started snowing heavier yet.
I cannot tell how much we have gotten. It is a light, fluffy snow, and the wind is blowing so much that the snow is drifting. We haven't had a snowstorm like this in years.
I can't even enjoy a good snowstorm, though. One of my inside-outside kitties is lost in the storm. I spent all day, off and on, looking for Miss Kitty, who is blind in one eye. I have called for her so much that my throat is sore. She is a shy cat but very sweet. I would have hoped that she would go down to the barn, but her mother, Little Sister, the matriarch, will not allow other cats in the barn except for the old tom, Squeak.
My one bit of hope is that Miss Kitty is holed up in a den in the big pines. During the summer she spends much of her outside time up there. A thunderstorm nearly 20 years ago now blew down some of the trees and pulled them up by their roots, so I know there are cavities under those old trees. I am hoping she is too wary of coming out in the storm and is keeping herself safe in a den. I fear the worst, though, and I am afraid I will never see her again.
So far, the horses seem to be doing all right. I have put their hay inside and gave them more grain around midnight. Isabelle is keeping herself inside her shelter. The only tracks in the snow were from her coming out to get her grain. Kajun is keeping himself close to the barn where he is out of the wind. When the weather is bad, he seems to be cautious about standing around inside, so I hope he knows enough to stay inside and eat his hay.
LeAnn R. Ralph