A Cold And BLUSTERY Day

It was nice this week - high temps mainly in the upper 40's, lows in the twenties. Thursday and Friday, we had highs in the 50's and even lower 60's!

That came to an abrupt halt this morning.

Around 4:00 am, it was nice outside - light winds, 45° - but it would soon change. By 7:00 am, the cold north wind was howling at about 30mph, and the temp had dropped into the 20's. By 11:00 am, it was 15° and wind chills in the 5 to 10 below range.

What a difference a day (or night...) makes! I was out in the barn in a sweat shirt, working around on a few things, marveling at how nice it was. It LOOKED cold, but was still in the 50's at 9:00 pm.

This morning, the wind was tossing around a bird feeder by the kitchen window so much that it was hitting the glass. I got out some wire, a screw, and proceeded to "lash" it down so it wouldn't swing so wild. When I came in the house, Peaches, met me at the door. She looked up at me with a worried look on her face as if to say " Yeah, dummy, it's cold outside and you VOLUNTEERED to be out in it..."

More like FORCED.....

Oh well, it was a productive week before the weather hit. Our Blind Angus bull is no longer walking around in circles in the pasture - he's safely camped out in the freezer. It took us all of Wednesday, most of Thursday, and a little of Friday to finally get all of him in, but the freezer is full of dead cow and dead deer.

A friend came over Wednesday to help kill/hoist, and skin "Chuck", but had to leave after we got the meat into the house.

I keep things like the tongue, tail, heart, kidneys, and testicles (where applicable...). Deb doesn't like much of any of them (and won't touch the "oysters"), so more for me!

All I know is - Yani, the cats, chickens, and possibly a few coyotes (if they can dig them out of a brush pile), are a pretty satisfied bunch right now. There were plenty of bones, fat, "innards", skin, and hooves, to feed an army of critters for a long time.

As for the fence, we still need ditch crossings and gates for the line fence, then cross fencing. I managed to find some more woven and barb wire for free, but still need more. So far, we've used two NEW rolls of barb wire on the line fence - both of which we bought years ago when it was still $35 a roll - now it's $65 or more.

I even managed to paint a few F-20 parts this week! OK, so FOUR parts isn't a LOT, but it still counts as progress! It's getting too cold to paint now, anyhow. I might have to move some smaller parts into my shop and light the stove so I can get SOMETHING done on the beast this winter. The main frame will (most likely) have to wait for warmer temps, but I can at least get some small items done.

Come on, SPRING!