Old Man Winter has Paid us Another Visit

 

Yesterday, my kidlets were helping me cut down the old juniper tree that split in half and fell over sideways during one of our last heavy, wet snowstorms.

Jeremiah was a pro at using my Fiskars Hand Saw.

Jax even came out to help when he found out how much fun we were having. Who knew hard work could be so fun?

Between the three of us, we disassembled the old juniper in no time at all.

Afterwards Jenna joined us and we carried all the branches up to The Woolies’ paddock, as the goats, llamas and sheep will enjoy eating the bark and needles.

 

The wind was picking up by the time we were done, but we saw our neighbor friend Val out hand-grazing her horses and Jenna wanted to give Nadia and Yalla! some carrots, so we walked over and visited for a little while until we were shivering from the cold.

Then around 3 am I was awakened by powerful gusts of wind slamming into my tower bedroom along with flashes of lightning, and the machine-gun like sound of hard blowing rain hitting the walls of the house. Wind like that is always unsettling to me and I wasn’t able to get back to sleep until almost 5am.

I woke up feeling old, tired and sore from all the physical exertion of cutting down the tree, along with some Spring Cleaning I did in the garage and up in the barn and paddocks, too. But the day was grey, chilly and windy, so I didn’t feel bad about taking the day to rest in bed while looking out my window onto my bedroom balcony.

But I was none too happy about Old Man Winter paying us a visit today.

(The view from our house looking up towards our pasture and paddocks)

   

And I know the chickens weren’t either.

But Mrs Cotton didn’t mind at all because she’s feeling broody again and is laying on 3 eggs.

Note: I did manage to take a photo for Grey Horse Matters so she could see Phyllis Diller, our Buff-Laced Polish hen. Arlene of Grey Horse Matters was worried that Phyllis Diller wasn’t around anymore. But as you can see, Phyllis Diller is alive and well, except for looking a little damp and limp from the rain and snow. (By the way, did you notice that our hen Phyllis has grown spurs? I thought only roosters had spurs. We know Phyllis is a hen because she lays eggs and doesn’t crow, but why the spurs?)

 

Some of our early Spring flowers looked limp and sad about the snow, too.

Our apple trees are just beginning to blossom.

And our poor peach tree is already covered in lovely pink blooms……now coated in a layer of ice and snow.

This will not turn into a good outcome for our summer peach crop at all. The chances of us having any fresh juicy peaches this year are slim now. It’s such a sad situation I could cry.

 

Even worse I feel terrible for Apache because she was soaking wet and shivering when we went up to her paddock to bring her into the barn. She’s not used to our mountain weather yet, being that I brought her up from the Rio Grande Valley, and she’s mostly shed out now, too.

I meant to buy her a blanket when I ordered my saddle, but figured the worst of our winter weather was over. Poor sweet girl.

Jax had to climb up to the roof to brush the wet snow off our Direct TV Dish so we could watch TV with a clear signal.

Just think……….Last week I spent the afternoon with my chickens, reading and relaxing in my camp chair enjoying 78 degree temps. I even ended up with sunburn. And a few days ago we had thick fog and heavy rains.

Weather can always be a little unpredictable up here above 7,000ft in the mountains, but I think most folks would be surprised that New Mexico can have springtime weather like this.

Sometimes even I am, too.