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Sunday, November 16, 2014

Winter arrives with a vengeance!

November 16
The garden is all in now—see the garden page on this blog for an update.

The weather went from 60 degrees to 15 degrees in less than two hours last Sunday.  It snowed, and then got to −22F later in the week.  The ducks are in the greenhouse because there was no time to get them acclimated.  Hubby had to take vacation from work Monday thereafter to help me move them from their pen to the greenhouse—they would not be herded.  It probably had something to do with that rude wing-clipping we did Sunday when one of the ducks demonstrated her new found ability to fly!  I had considered leaving them unclipped for the winter, but after the very skillful flight the duck demonstrated, I had visions of them flying off into the wind, the cold hitting and they would die because they were not able to take the cold.  Thus, wing clipping party!

We had little luck hunting.  I did get a buck deer but Jim did not.  We also did not get any antelope.  Every trip to the ranch seemed to included 50 mph wind, making finding and then getting close enough, impossible.  We came home opening weekend and found our 21 cubic foot freezer had died.  Fortunately, it was still at 21 F and the food still frozen or at least cold.  We stuffed everything into the other freezer and coolers.  I went in search of a new freezer, only to discover hunting season is the wrong time of the year to look for a freezer.  Finally found a 21 cu ft replacement, which was bigger than I thought I needed, but turns out I was wrong.  With all the garden produce to freeze, it's working on getting full already!

It has now warmed up to mid-twenties, with wind.  If it stays that warm, the ducks can go back out to their pen.  They'd be happy!