Homestead Snow Day in the PNW: Animal care, homestead “sledding”, and baking cookies
We finally got snow!! With all of the staying home of 2020 and 2021, we Stevenses have been hoping for some snow to make it interesting… it took all the way until February to get, and boy was it worth it! We got over 12 inches of snow yesterday and its been snowing some more for the first part of today… we probably have another couple of inches today! It’s supposed to turn to rain in the late morning, early afternoon and then it will be a slushy mess for the next few days, at least, so I’m glad we got out and fully enjoyed it yesterday!!!
Most of the animals on the homestead were fine! Their water containers needed to be thawed and checked on throughout the day, and the grazing animals (alpacas and sheep) needed extra hay to make up for the lack of grass.
The bunnies have warm, dry spaces to hang out but they both jumped in and out of the snow and were interested in what it was… then back to warm and dry and snuggling together!
The alpacas also have a covered shelter where they can stay dry and warm up, but they often choose not to be there, in the rain and in the snow. They hunker down and just take it! But they’ll take breaks inside the shelter. Yesterday I caught them doing both.
The sheep were not pleased… they came out of their shelter in the morning and stood about two feet out of it most of the day… just staring. They look mad, don’t they?!
The chickens were not good, though. I was really worried when I went down for for morning farm chores. The wind really whipped up the snow overnight and all of their normally dry spots, including most of their coop was covered with snow. They do not like snow… two of our older chickens, Buffarina and Twisty, were just standing in the snow, not under cover or anything… they were coooooold. And so cold that they didn’t mind when I picked them up to move them. Usually when I get close to the chickens and seem like I might grab them, they do that scared bird thing and flap their wings and run away… both of them just sat there. Not good. 🙁 I trudged up to the garage to grab straw to put on top of the snow so that they had somewhere dry-ish and not so cold to stand, and I got a bunch of it so they would scratch it around and use their feet, and so they could use it to keep their bodies warm, too. I put more straw in all of the sleeping areas and inside the coop, too. Several of the chickens were scared of the snow and were trying to fly from one dry-ish spot to another… no problem for some of our chickens, but others ended up not making the expanse between and then freaking out even more.
We’re not really set up for this kind of weather because we don’t get a lot of it and it never lasts long enough to make it worth the cost to have coop heaters and water heaters and things… (however, we may be reconsidering this after this snow).
Poor Sparkle (second rooster who lives up high above the other chickens) doesn’t really have any covered space either. In the rain, he just jumps over to the sheep field and hangs out with the sheep in their shelter… but there was too much snow between his spot and the sheep. Nolan (our other rooster) usually chases him when he tries to be with the other chickens but yesterday, Nolan was too cold (and scared of the snow) to chase him so Sparkle flew down and hung out in Nolan’s house to get warm and dry.
Bedtime was rough for the chickens, too, because some of them couldn’t get from their warm, dry outside straw place to their dry sleeping space. I ended up having to lift a three of them to their beds… I wonder if they won’t be as scared for me to grab them when all of this is over since I rescued them in the snow… doubt it… I really love them, but they’re not the smartest animal on the homestead. 🙂
The cutest animal in the snow is, of course, our long-haired dachshund, Chesney!
He runs and hops and swims through the yard and his fullest speed, until he can’t anymore and then he just stops until you pick him up! He has a lot long hair on his chest and it gets completely covered with mini snowballs and I think it’s heavy and it hurts to run with it so he just stops in his tracks!
It’s funny and a little sad. You’d think he’d be exhausted and not want to go out again, but nope… he still tries to get out every time we open the sliding glass door… and whines if we leave him in!
The other dogs had fun in the snow, too… Moose – our 8 year old chocolate lab is definitely slowing down and had the least fun running in it but he’s having fun exploring and smelling the new smells… then he’s tired and ready for his day-long nap!
Cotter is a crazy man running all around the yard, hopping and playing and causing a ruckus for Chesney, who doesn’t seem to mind.
One of the kids woke up at 12:30 am the night that the snow started, and woke the other one up! It was like Christmas, they knew it was coming so they had to check in the middle of the night! Once they saw that it was indeed snowing, there was no sleep for them… they couldn’t relax, they had to keep getting up to make sure that it was sticking and hadn’t melted… they couldn’t wait to get out there in the snow!
They were really excited about snowball fights! We don’t have proper kid (or mom) snow gear (Carson hunts and fishes in all weather so he’s geared up for the weather even it it’s not official snow gear) … so there’s a lot of playing outside then stripping down all the wet layers in the mudroom to put all of the clothes in the dryer for the next outing! They lasted outside longer than they ever have! Snow angels, snow ball fights, and just falling down and trying to get up took up most of the day!
In the afternoon, Shaleigh, our little baker, decided to make some cookies – okay, fine, I wanted some cookies and asked her to make some!! We decided on peanut butter cookies, and she got right to work! After she got them in the oven, Braden and Carson were outside playing in the snow and she was itching to get back out… I told her I’d finish up so she could go play! I am really that selfless!! 🙂 I also had to test the cookies to make sure they weren’t poisonous… it’s my duty as the mother to check, you know, and I take it very seriously!
All of this was super fun, of course, but the highlight of the kids’ day was when Carson got the tractor out! He made a few paths through the yard to help me with farm chores and for the dogs… and then he started making a sledding hill!!
I will admit that I was inside (eating cookies!) thinking, “daylight’s running out, will this be worth the effort?” He saw my skepticism through the window and pointed to his temple, which means, “I have a plan!!” Alrighty then… you go!!!
We don’t have any sleds… every year, we say we’re going to get one jsut to have on hand, but every year we don’t! I always tell the kids about how my brothers and I used garbage bags to slide down hills when we were little … there may have been some garbage can lids used, too, I’m not sure! Shaleigh tried the garbage bag yesterday and was very disappointed, even mad when it didn’t work!
Braden came out from the garden shed with these sheets of laminate that one of our neighbors gave us for craft projects, and I saw what he was thinking!! Awesome!
He spent about 15 seconds trying it and then saw that Carson was blowing up a raft and he thought that would be a better idea (more on that below!!). Shaleigh, however, spent about 45 minutes trying all kinds of different ways … nothing really worked in the end but I was impressed with her persistence and investment!
And then, it became the best day ever when Carson came up from the barn on the tractor, towing Braden in the raft behind it! Shaleigh ran over and jumped in and he towed them around the yard.
They even tried the raft on the “sledding hill”.
Here’s a pretty picture from evening farm chores… so peaceful and lovely.
Somehow, even with just a few hours of sleep the night before and lots of activity and outside time, the kids lasted until they’re 7:00 bedtime! They slept really well last night… all the way until 5:15 am!
They say that it’s going to warm up today and the snow will turn to rain, but it’s after noon and it’s still snowing pretty hard… and they’re outside playing again, making snow people and soaking it up!!
