Snow....….a Rant

 

I’m sorry all you snow lovers, but it’s true.

(photo of my side yard taken at 2pm today)

I’m feeling a little bah humbug today because Sunday was such a huge high full of joy and happiness because of the Hearts for Horses event and my twinlings Boy Scouts Court of Honor Ceremony. And here at home I actually saw some brown earth peeking out from underneath the old snow that has refused to melt for over 2 weeks. I had hope!

(I took this photo of Dobbie playing in the snow on Sunday afternoon. Do you see that little trail of brown? We actually had some meltage!)

And then BOOM! My hope was shattered last night when a thick icy fog rolled in. It was filled with thunder and lightning and the beginning flecks of snow. Driving home from Boy Scout’s Court of Honor last night was a white knuckle experience for me because the fog created a solid wall in the darkness and when the light of an oncoming car blazed in the distance, I was temporarily blinded due to both the light reflecting off the ice particles and the fact that my eye has never quite been the same since Apache kicked it a year ago.

We made it home safely, though and then I discovered that our roof was leaking….directly over the master bedroom toilet. The good thing is that the water drips right into the toilet. The bad thing is the water drips directly on you when you have to use it.

(Catlinite thinks we might need an umbrella above the toilet)

I noticed one of our neighbors on his roof the other day doing repairs. I’m really starting to regret buying a beautiful flat roofed pueblo-style home. Seriously. Whose stupid idea was it to build a flat roof home in the Rocky Mountains where it’s not uncommon to receive 2 feet of snow during a typical snowstorm?

I went to bed to the sound of snow thunder and loud claps of lightning. And apparently the noise stressed out our German Shepherd, Zuni, whom we brought inside to her crate the night before since it was snowing. She had an upset stomach and was howling all night. I kept having to wake up and come downstairs and let her outside because she had diarrhea.

I kept worrying that she’d have an accident in her crate because my washing machine has been broken now for over a month and I either wash things by hand and pop them into the dryer, or go to the nearest laundry facilities in Albuquerque and I’m pretty sure they don’t accept doggy diarrhea covered blankets in their public washing machines. And with this crazy snow storm, I’m not going anywhere for a while anyway.

It was a very long night.

 

(Photo of Dobbie Girl taken Sunday afternoon. She loves to climb anything and everything. A straw bale is not immune to her mountain climbing skills)

And this morning we woke up to a blizzard. It’s still snowing hard at noon with a heavy wet layer of snow that is weighing everything down…including the hawk netting over our chicken coop. Hubby never got around to replacing the center support beam and the weight of all this wet snow just caused it to cave in. I’m grateful that my chickens were all safely inside their cozy house!

(Photo was taken from my daughter’s room upstairs Monday morning)

As soon as it became light outside, I bundled up and walked Zuni up to the barn. Apache joined us and we crunched and stumbled over the broken-concrete-like treacherous snow and the 9-10” of new, thick, pudding-like snow. At one point my foot got caught in a deep hole and my right knee wouldn’t budge when I tried to lift it up, and that caused a jolt of pain above my knee cap. Ouch!

I finally got Zuni into her paddock and made sure her dog house had a dry blanket. I set her up with food and some warm water that I brought up from the house, and then I went into the barn to feed the llamas, goats and horse.

I gave them all some hay and gave Apache some warm grain mash using the bottle of warm water I brought up from the house. There is no water up at the barn now because everything is frozen solid and without electricity in the barn, there is no hope of any of it thawing out. I can’t even drive the truck up there to haul water and unlike last winter when we hauled warm water up in 7 gallon jugs on a sled, this year I refuse to do that again because of the treacherous conditions of the snow and the steep hill. 

When I managed to stumble back down to the house again, I took a flake of hay from the bale in the extra garage and filled up Apache’s hockey net feeder at the bottom of her paddock. When it snows as hard as this snowstorm, the llamas and goats refuse to come down to the house where the heated water tank is, but they don’t require as much water, and as often as a horse does, so I know they’ll be alright until the snow slows down.

(The llamas say, “We can survive with only cookies. Got any?” photo taken Sunday afternoon, before the blizzard)

Mud Pie says, “Cookies please?”

Luna says, “Mmm! I can almost taste them!”

Latte says, “No, I didn’t get a cookie already. Besides I’m cute and should get two”

 

But I want to make sure Apache is drinking, and I know she prefers to be outside in the snow instead of cooped up in the barn. She has access to her stall 24/7, so I can feed her more hay right beside the heated water tank and I can see her from my bedroom window, guzzling down the water as she munches her hay.

After I fed the llamas, goats, horse and dogs, I dealt with the chicken coop fiasco, having to clear away all the heavy frosting-like snow off the netting, just to enter the coop. The chickens had one peek outside when I opened their door and requested that I bring them breakfast-in-coop this morning instead. I topped off their water and refilled their grain and shut their door back up, and finally went back into the house.

(Chicken coop from ground level at 2pm)

I can’t even begin to express just how tired I am of snow this winter. We’ve been in New Mexico for close to 20 years and have been living up here in the central mountains, just east of Albuquerque, for almost 5 years. New Mexicans are used to snow because most of our state is in the high desert. But what we’re not used to is snow that doesn’t melt completely away in a day or two. We’re not used to minus zero temps for many days and having snowstorms and icy fog continually pummel us without giving us a chance to recover for a few days and enjoy seeing the ground again.

(The birds don’t seem to mind as long as they have bird seed to munch)

I am very thankful hubby left me the 4-wheel drive truck when he went to Phoneix to work for the past several weeks, or I’d have been stuck at home for 16 days. The road into our neighborhood and our driveway has been covered by 8-10” of hard-packed snow and ice for 2 weeks now. Yesterday we had some 40F degree temps and the main road actually turned into slush for a few hours. But today that’s already frozen solid again and this new snow has covered it.

I’m also thankful we have plenty of food and hot beverages in the house…..oh, and toilet paper. Thanks to Jem for reminding me last night, or we would have been in dire straits today.

So, yeah, we have lots to be thankful for, but I’m still grouchy about all this snow. I don’t want to hear how pretty it is and how you wish you could have some.

Looks are truly deceiving, because this snow is just nasty and is making daily chores a hassle and I know all of my animals are sick of it, too. I keep reminding myself of our beautiful summers here in the mountains, but I’m very tempted to become a Snowbird so I can escape the winters.

(My apple and peach orchard in my front yard

(Mustang Sally says, “I hear Mexico is warm and doesn’t have this white crap on the ground. Rápido!”)

             

I would be happy to give away all of this snow for free to anyone that asks. Any takers?