This is it

And the world is white once again.  If my intuition and experience are pointing me in the right direction, this snow is here to stay until spring breakup.  It's just in time, too...

I've had one heck of a time up here on the mountain.  First, I stupidly cracked the case on our bigass water pump when the temperature precipitously plummeted one night.  I had pulled the pickup hose but didn't leave the cap off.  Ooops.  So the pump was broken when we had a nice thaw where I could have topped everything off with water.  First strike.

The second strike came when I was hauling 80 gallon loads of water up the mountain from our lovely spring, and realized that the trailer frame was busted nearly in half at the midline hitch attachment.  And I don't know how to weld, yet.  Sigh.  It gets worse.

Strike three came in rapid succession when the big generator seized up before I started milking the first goat in the morning.  Having no generator makes it tough to weld, even if you know how.  Ouch.

So I called in reinforcements.  Ben had a few down days in hunting camp, because our early mountain goat and brown bear hunters limited out quickly.  Home he came to the rescue.  Since the weather forecast wasn't good he didn't fly over the top of the Chugach Range, but instead drove the big box van over Thompson Pass and snaked his way home on the road system.

By that time, I had the pump repaired but it never warmed up again... and it won't either.  It turned out that the trailer was not easily repairable- and is too much of a project to take on right now.  He picked up a used one in town and it's working out better than any trailer we've ever had.  The generator has a badly stuck valve and may or may not be fixable... in addition to the failed low oil shut-off.  We put it out next to the nearly identical model in the yard, so sometime when we're not so busy they can be combined into one.  

And the new generator is pretty awesome.  But, it has a problem with our milkhouse wiring for some unknown and incomprehensible reason.  We had to drill a hole in the wall and run extension cords out to the generator shed to make everything work.  

Then, when we jacked up the 4 wheeler to put on chains for the inbetween season we realized that the front wheel bearings are out.  So now I'm really, really happy that snow is here and the easy season for off-road travel is here.  Just in time.  I'll be starting up a snowmachine this morning to blow the cobwebs out.  I'd like to see another foot of snow before I really put it to work, but it's great to know that's right around the corner.

And all's well

It's a crisp and clear 20 degrees this morning.  For the last several days, we've had a thaw in the late afternoon- and that's about it.  Otherwise things are staying frozen.  It's time.

Some of the goats are having a rough adjustment to the idea of dealing with icy buckets.  They pretty much have to wait for me to get up in the morning to break ice or bring water from the cabin, and it's throwing them off their feed.  So yesterday I bit the bullet and ordered a 250W tank heater/de-icer.  It won't run overnight, but maybe if I insulate a cover for the stock tank it will help enough.  

All my hens are locked in the newly expanded chicken house right now, getting them used to roosting indoors with supplemental light and heated water and lots of feed.  That, too, is hard for them to get used to, but they're doing okay.  Having them all contained gives me a good chance to sort through them and filter out some who are done laying, as well as some roosters.

There's been a bit of excitement around here... as usual, all the epics happen when Ben is gone guiding and flying- this time to the coast of Prince William Sound for our remote mountain goat and brown bear hunts.

I'm starting to feel like a decent vet tech.  A couple of days ago, my freshest doe had no milk.  I tried to drench her with baking soda in case her rumen was too acidic, but it turned out that she couldn't swallow at all.  I quickly realized she had a fully blocked esophagus, put together a rudimentary rescue kit, and saved her life.  I'm so thankful it all worked out.

On the same day, I found a meatbird with a major sinus infection.  He's living next to our woodstove while I work on him a couple times a day.  Yesterday I decided to do surgery and unpack his impacted sinus... there's a first time for everything.  So far so good.  He'll have to live or die under my care, because antibiotics are not on the agenda for our food.

Then yesterday, a woman called and wanted to come out right away to meet and buy my big Romney ram.  Oliver is a gentle giant, but it took everything I had to get him into the trailer to take down the mountain.  Of course, they fell in love right away, and now he's in his new home with 5 llamas and a goat and 4 kids.  I love it when things work out that way.  

I ran the pump for what is probably the last time this fall, topping off every container I could find with water while it's still easy to get.  Today will find me installing a new bilge pump at the spring, and putting together a water wagon so I can haul one 55 gallon drum of water at a time until spring breakup.

Other things on the list today include installing a propane heater in the cheeseroom, harvesting a bunch of birds, and getting as much picked up outdoors as possible because there is snow in the forecast for this weekend- and who knows, it might not leave until April.  

Back to fall

It warmed up and rained.  Whew.  That first cold snap sure makes you sit up and take notice.  It's a relief to not have to break ice for the goats and chickens to drink... yet.  Of course, we all know that the time is coming quickly.  But until then, we have a few more days to pick things up and put things away and hunker down.

I'm in the mode, one hundred percent.  Every fiber of my being is caught up in preparing for winter, as if I'm a mama bear digging her den and putting on fat.  I love it.  As much work as this time of year is, just knowing that winter is right around the corner is a real solace.  It's been a long summer, if you want to call it that.  At least it was light out and the potatoes/garlic grew.

A guy called out of the blue this week and bought my ewes.  So now I have to decide what to do with my ram.  He's really big, and soft and sweet.  Any takers out there?  And there's still 2 bucklings and 2 wethers that are ready to move on in life.  Oh, and 100ish meatbirds left to harvest.  Lotsa critters around here.

Overall, we're wrapping things up, stocking barns with feed and bedding, and getting ready.  Are you?

Marking time

Cool.  It snowed this morning while I was doing chores.  And the ground is cold enough to let it stick.  I don't think we're in line for a big dump yet, but it's gonna happen eventually.  

Meanwhile, due to the changes in weather, egg production is down.  Milk production is down.  My email account isn't working properly, so I can't communicate with my shareholders.  

But at least I don't have to complain that we were without power- like dozens of people I know whose refrigerators are full of spoiled food.

That three day windstorm dropped thousands of trees and power outages in the Matanuska-Susitna valleys were widespread.  Some folks went without for as many as 40 hours.  Not us.

In fact, our power usage is on the decline because finally temperatures are low enough to help keep our freezers frozen.   Woohoo!  Here comes winter!

(Note to self:  must dig potatoes...)