1/3 of the way through
Bright and early I went out to check how the animals had all done through the heavy snows Friday night. The snow was almost up to my knees and kept falling in small, gentle flakes. The morning was beautiful. The air had that sweet, clear feeling that only happens after a big snowfall.
I was so glad I had thought to leave the gate wedged open and secured against winds. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to force it open to get in the garden to tend the animals.
Doesn’t look like much, but that thing barely poking up out of the snow is a full-sized aluminum poultry waterer – about knee-high.
I thought I’d do a little before-and-after for ya between yesterday evening and this morning.
Looks like the tarps worked to keep extra driven snow out of the coop! You can see the higher drifts piled up outside. Not that the chickens will play in snow this deep either, though. 😛
I’m glad the drifts are there securely pinning down the bottoms of the tarps, because the winds got worse and worse as today went on. We reached near white-out conditions around 3:30 this afternoon and we could hear the howling of the wind. The strength of the storm was – in the old fashioned sense of the word – awesome.
For the moment, though, the snow has slowed. And the wind has died down enough for our neighbor to come scoop out his long driveway with his front loader for the second time today.
The ducks did fine! And I saw snowy tracked prints all over the inside of the coop too. So they do know to come inside when it really gets cold. I was thinking I might have to block off their access to the outside run, which is half their space. I didn’t want to have to do that.
Oh no, it just occurred to me that my worries aren’t over with them – I hope they had the sense to come inside before snowdrifts sealed their little pophole shut. It’s about 14 inches off the ground, so it’s possible that it will stay clear. Normally I’d go out and check, of course, but … well, not during a blizzard. In the dark. I’ll just have to cross my fingers all night.
I’m so anxious to see what everything’s like tomorrow morning.