Saturday, January 17, 2009, 07:41
With a Sigh of Relief. . .
What A Relief. . .
It was midnight Thursday when I went out to the barn to check on the horses and to give them more grain and hay. The temperature at that time was 16 degrees below zero Fahrenheit with a wind out of the west/northwest that made it feel more like 25 below, although by Friday morning, the air temperature was 22 degrees below zero with a windchill that made it feel more like 35 below. Schools were closed again on Friday.
I used to take more warm water out to the horses at night, too, but when it is very cold, for some reason, they don't drink any water at night. I was getting tired of carrying full buckets of water out to the pastures and then carrying full buckets of ice back to the house in the morning. Isabelle and Kajun generally drink most of the water I bring them in the morning and again in the evening, so I think they are getting enough to drink. When the weather warms up a little, they will probably start drinking at night again. Then I will be able to add hot water to their buckets or break the ice out of the buckets.
Anyway, whenever I go down to the barn at night, my gray kitty, Gabriel, always comes to meet me. He likes to go outside, but at night, he wants to come into the basement to sleep where it is warm. As soon as I walk in the barn and turn on the solar light, Gabriel is there meowing and then running up the path to let me know he wants to be let in the house.
Except on Thursday night, there was no Gabriel. Earlier in the evening, he had been upstairs in the house and had wanted to go outside. I told him it was very cold out, but he was insistent.
"Gabriel? Are you down here?" I called.
Squeak was there in the barn and so was Little Sister. They were waiting for some kitty food and fresh warm water to drink.
Sometimes at night when I take more hay out to Isabelle, when I turn around, there is Gabriel waiting. I thought maybe he would come to find me in Isabelle's pasture Thursday night, but after I put out more hay, still no Gabriel.
I went back to the barn to get hay for Kajun.
"Gabriel? Are you down here?" I called. I wondered if he had curled up in the hay and was sound asleep and didn't know I was there. When we bale hay in the summer, Randy stacks it so there are kitty hidey-holes all over the place. As I feed out more hay and dismantle one hidey-holes, others appear.
I put hay out for Kajun, and then I called some more for Gabriel.
But still no Gabriel.
I carried the buckets to the house and then walked around to the back of the house, calling for Gabriel. I made my way back down to the barn.
"Gabriel? Are you down here? Gabriel? Gabriel! Where are you?"
But still no Gabriel.
Just then, I felt a flicker of hope.
Earlier in the evening, while I was playing the piano (or what I call playing the piano, anyway) Randy had taken Pixie outside. I was aware that he had opened the door again a few moments after he went out, but I hadn't paid much attention to it.
Was it possible Gabriel had come in the house with Randy?
I went back to the basement, put out some canned kitty food for the barn kittens and the other kitties and then raced upstairs.
Sure enough. Gabriel was sound asleep in the rocking chair in the living room.
Thank goodness.
It is bad enough that Squeak and Little Sister are outside when it's so cold. I know I have no hope of bringing them inside. They have been outside their whole lives, and if I could get them into the basement, I know they would be frantic to get out. Little Sister is three years old. I don't know how old Squeak is -- seven, eight, ten? At any rate, they have been outside in the winter enough to know how to take care of themselves.
Unfortunately, Little Sister no longer has her mother, Momma Kitty, for company. Sometime this past fall, Momma Kitty disappeared. She was eight years old. I thought when the weather turned really cold and snowy she would come back to the barn as she has in years past. But no Momma Kitty appeared. I supposed something has happened to her. She was a wild cat that I was never able to pet. Still, she was part of my family here at Rural Route 2 and it is because of her that I have Henry and Katerina and Dora (who are actually Little Sister's kittens). But without Momma Kitty, there would be no Little Sister, and with no Little Sister, there would be no Henry, Katerina and Dora.
If something has happened to her, rest in peace, Momma Kitty. I wish we could have been friends, although you showed me that you trusted me to feed your babies when they were big enough to come out of the nest. There is nothing I can do for Momma Kitty anymore, but I can still look after those of her who are still with me, including Gabriel.
LeAnn R. Ralph
AUTOGRAPHED BOOKS MAKE GREAT GIFTS -- For yourself or someone else!
Click here to order the Rural Route 2 Cookbook
My new book, The Coldest Day of the Year, is now available.
Click here to order LeAnn's books
Thursday, January 15, 2009, 20:15
Double Brrrrrrr. . . .
The temperature Thursday morning was 26 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. A breeze out of the west/northwest made the air feel more like 40 below. Wednesday the "high" was 0. Tuesday the high was 2 degrees below zero. As of 1:30 Thursday afternoon, the temperature was 4 degrees below zero.
Schools were closed in the area on Thursday. To tell you the truth, I don't ever remember schools being closed when I was a kid because of cold weather. We all bundled up to the teeth and went to school anyway. The only concession made to the cold weather was that we were allowed to stay inside for morning, noon and afternoon recess -- as long as as we "didn't make a mess in the classroom." If we were were too messy or too noisy, then we had to go outside in spite of the cold weather.
The first winter after we moved back here, the weather was in the 20s below zero range with highs below zero for about two weeks in January. I don't recall school being closed then, either, although that was 13 years ago. What I do recall is that it was a very long and drawn out January. Actually a long and drawn out winter because we had 85 inches of snow all together. It was good, old-fashioned snow, too, with plenty of moisture in it. Not this dry fluffy stuff that falls and accumulates four inches but after it sits for a day, settles down on the ground to nothing more than a dusting. That really tells you how dry the snow is and how little little moisture there is in it.
At any rate, it's cold, that's for sure. I still don't feel all that great, either. As long as I keep acetaminophen in my system, then I can at least function a little bit. I will just have to wait it out, in the same way that I will have to wait out the cold weather. I'm sure that in July and August, we will be looking back fondly on the cold weather.
LeAnn R. Ralph
AUTOGRAPHED BOOKS MAKE GREAT GIFTS -- For yourself or someone else!
Click here to order the Rural Route 2 Cookbook
My new book, The Coldest Day of the Year, is now available.
Click here to order LeAnn's books