A Rainy Start to Break

We finally have managed to get our temperatures above freezing!  Yay!  Of course, we have major rain with it.

Pistol and Antigone are the white shadows in the building.

It is a lot of rain.  And there’s a lot of wind.  I suppose I should be grateful it’s not sixteen inches of snow with those howling winds.

But we are all ready for some sunshine.

Sky

I think the water on top of the snow has been hard for the wild birds.  Even without having been feeding the birds all winter, lots of them showed up today.  (I did put more dog food out for them.)

male cardinal

female cardinal

junco

I even had three wild turkeys go by in the corn field.

wild turkey

And then it turned to snow.  But we’re supposed to get back up to warmer weather and more rain for much of the week.  Sigh…

Fionn eating in the Quonset hut

Hopefully, the rain and warm weather will at least get rid of the snow.  Then we will be in mud season!

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Iowa’s Weather

Iowa always has unpredictable weather, but we’ve even been outdoing ourselves this winter.  We are up to record amounts of snow between the first of the year and now.

Sky

Then Friday, we warmed up to 34*F (1.11*C).  It was melting weather!

By Friday evening, we had freezing rain.  Then it warmed up overnight, and it was all rain again.

Blaze

That means there’s a lovely layer of water on the snow pack/ice. Luckily, we got a break from the rain for part of the day.

Sky has decided to avoid the icy paths and go through the slushy snow.  I couldn’t disagree with that plan because I almost fell the first time out Saturday morning.

My paths in the barnyard are also sloppy, and there’s a layer of water below the hay and above the snow/ice pack.

Athena

I do worry some about my barn.  It’s a horrible design, and all the melting snow to the north of the barn has to drain through this section.  I’m sure later in the spring it will be virtually unusable by the animals.  Right now it’s still okay though.

Stormy, Mary and Flower laying in back, Zinnia, and Victoria peeking over Zinnia

I’m pretty sure that this pooling of all the melted snow and rain in my doorway means that I’m not going to be able to open these doors again until true spring arrives.

Because next came the rain showers.

This was followed closely by snow, and it was finished off with falling temperatures.

By morning we were once again covered with a fresh layer of snow.

Sky

Today’s big news is the wind to blow around the snow that fell overnight.

I missed being in the blizzard warning by one county (actually it’s just a couple of miles).  Lucky me.

Pictures don’t do justice to the blowing snow.

Both of my barn doors were frozen shut. Luckily, snow is an insulator and even though it’s freezing out, the water puddle wasn’t completely frozen.  I also used the sharp tines of the potato fork, and I managed to chip away the parts that were frozen, so I can get in to take care of the birds and feed the goats their grain!  Woo hoo!

The door for the hay is still frozen down, but this one is much more manageable since I can feed most of the hay without having to bring it out the door.  Thank heavens for Dutch doors.  I can toss my bales over and go around through the barn to carry hay to the buck room and my old ladies.

Tomorrow’s high is supposed to be 9*F (-12.78*C), and it doesn’t look like there’s any more melting in the near future.

December Rains

I am not a fan of December rain, but we’ve really had rain.  It started Wednesday morning around eleven o’clock.

It stopped the next morning, but it looks like we might still get a bit more before it’s all done.

At least we were lucky enough to have time each morning for everyone to go out to eat.

Maybeline (and Lily)

I hate trying to feed them hay in the mud.

Lily

Although, they would prefer not to have to go out when it’s like this.