When we first moved here 13 years ago the first couple of winters were impressive. We had three or four 3-foot storms that first winter. I just figured that this was par for the course around here.
Since then, the past 10 years or so, winters have not been so impressive. This makes people forgetful of what a proper New England winter is like so that this past week, when we got a snow storm (after the ice storm of some three weeks ago that put out power far and wide here) people truly lost their minds with fretting about the storm.
It was called #snowmageddon on twitter – lots of traffic then.
It wasnt a three foot storm but it did get pretty cold (close to 0 F) which is the part I kevetch about (for the animal’s sake – poor babies!)
The photos in this post share a bit of that time.
Night time fun.
Q tending her chickens
One barred rock chicken that seems to be doing an odd snow dance – first she flies out lopsided from the shed ….
Then she some how manages to go totally sideways.
The goats and the llama didnt appreciate the low temps but those low temps made a wonderful thing happen – the llama has started sleeping with the goats! This is good because she can help keep them warm and she bonds more closely with them.
This blonde goat is named Wheat.
Eating hay.
All three species.
Home-hatched chicks – very fluffy. They are a flock of four.
The garden is totally submerged but I have already started planning the plantings as well as thinking about moving the seed starting equipment down next to the wood boiler so that they can be toasty warm.
Will share more about the 2009 garden soon!
When I moved to Maine 8 years ago, the Maine winters for the fist few years were nothing to write home about, especially since my home for 30-some years prior to moving to Maine was western NY state…south of Buffalo…Lake Effect Country! A foot of snow was no big deal for us there.
However, the last two years here in Maine have been impressive and it’s only the beginning. The good news is that the days will start to get longer now…it will just seem to take forever especially since the seed catalogs have started to arrive in the mail!
I feel for your animals in the winter though. I’m sure you’d love to bring them all indoors to keep warm, but obviously, that’s not realistic. Interesting your llama is setting up “shop” with the goats! Are llama’s as sweet as they look? I have a Canadian friend who has alpacas and she adores them.
Happy spring garden planning!
Awesome images! I’m in the area of New Hampshire that sits in the corner of Mass and Vermont (in fact, Brattleboro is a mere 15 minutes or so away), and we got about two feet of snow during that second storm. The ice storm barely hit us… There was ice for one day, which rapidly melted. We’re lucky – our little corner of the world has a micro-climate which helps us avoid the worst of the ice stuff. We do get the snow, but we don’t care. For the first time ever, we were *totally* prepared for loss of power. We have water that is gravity fed, in our basement… a wood furnace that needs no electric to work (though works *better* with the blowers going)… and a huge pioneer wood cook stove for cooking on.
And we didn’t even need it.
We were snowed in for a grand total of one day… then the plows came through and we were fine. We have 115 acres of land, but the current house sits right on the road, so we have all the benefits of a road crew.
Awesome. I love that wise, curious look that llamas have. I want to have a couple of them and/or alpacas once I am finally set up back in the country. Beautiful scenery there too. I have yet to see your part of the world in person but I would love to.
I feel for you guys in the ice storm area, but I am in Alberta Canada so I win when it comes to cold and snow. We just came through a month of mid -30’s C. Snow levels haven’t been too bad yet but it is beginning to pile up and to drift badly in some places. I took some pictures on the day of Solstice and many of them looked like Planet Hoth. It was about -37 that day, after wind chill. And we’ve not hit a patch of -40’s yet, but are sure to.
Happy New Year, peace to all.
Heidi: Yeah llamas seem very even tempered and sweet – she is coming out of her shell and she is VERY gentle with the smaller kids (the goats are too tho they do put their feet up on you like a dog so thats sorta tough on the little boy who isnt heavy enough to take the goat-weight)
I really do not mind the snow – just the darn ice!
RevAllyson: thnx! Sounds like you live somewhat close to us (in a New England sort of way – if this were Texas – you would be right next door)
Awesome re: your grav-fed water! and your electricity free stove (we have one but its you usual living room wood stove with no water reservoir) I am VERY envious of your wood cook stove! It sounds like you all are living in a fantastic place! I was completely enchanted by the area you live in – all up and down the VT/NH connecticut river valley – just amazing.
Here are a couple of shots I took there last summer (may not come through this email you may have to come back and visit the blog post to see)
J: you have us utterly beat on the cold and ice – you can have it! I remember when I lived in Iowa as a kid it getting down to -50 F without windchill – it was -80 F with the windchill – WAS BRUTAL
We are looking at -5s to -10 Fs this coming week. I get really depressed in in the depths of winter when we get the couple of weeks of -20 Fs – I hope we dont this year – my skins dries to an utter crisp.
When I got this comment last night – I was watching the part of Star Wars on planet Hoth! I stopped watching because I felt even more cold and then I get your comment! Made me want to jump in a really hot shower :-/