The Wind also Blows

Today it is snowing ... on only half of the ranch. The snow is coming down outside my West-facing window, but not outside my North-facing window. If anyone can explain that to me I'd love to hear it. Meanwhile, I'll tell you about yesterday's weather, which wasn't so much strange and frightening.

The wind roared through our little valley yesterday. It wasn't just gusty, it was constant and very strong. From my office window I watched trees bending at unnatural angles. A rabbit hutch, which took three strong guys to move, was casually flipped over on its roof. The same for the goose shelter. Roofing was ripped off the small barn, and tarps were torn from hay stacks. However, the biggest issue, by far, was the downed trees.

I watched with guts twisting as more and more trees fell. Oh, there went a fence in the Upper Little Barn pasture. Ah, another one blocking the driveway. By the time I finished work for the day, 8-10 trees had fallen across our driveway. I had to clear these before I could take food to the Middle 20 and Back 20. Before I could do that, I noticed that there were too many black horses over by the young boys herd.

Ryder and Blackie were in the Goat Barn pasture while we fixed fences knocked down last week. The fences got fixed, but I hadn't gotten around the moving them back yet. Well, the fence that borders the property to the South was almost completely destroyed by several fallen trees, so Ryder and Blackie decided to go exploring. I got them put back in Ryder's pasture (Lower Little Barn) and grabbed my chainsaw.

I lost track of time, but it must have been a little over an hour later, I straightened up, looked around and realized I had cleared enough of the driveway for a vehicle to pass. It was well past dusk, but I could still see to walk around so I quickly got the feeding done. By the time that was done, it was pretty much full dark. I was able to see by the light on our little John Deere lawn tractor (which we use to haul hay around for feeding) that there had been a few trees down along Mill Creek Road, but that other people had cut and cleared them. When I got to the little road that leads to The Cabin, I noted at least 4 large trees that fell from the Middle 20 to the Back 20, taking out fences on both sides of the road. They will have to wait for another day.

The feeding was done, but unfortunately I couldn't go in yet because I didn't have any firewood in the house or on the porch. Luckily I knew just where to go for some fresh fallen timber, some of which was even already dead and dry. I won't complain about my various aches and pains, I'll just say I slept really well last night. Today after work I will try to survey more of the damage while there's daylight.