More Abominable Winter Weather

The day dawned at a reasonable 20 degrees with lightly falling snow. But by the time I got outdoors to do the chores, the temperature was plummeting, the light snow had turned to blizzard-like conditions and the winds were howling and gusting fiercely. I got the cows inside for some grain and it was clear that they'd been enduring foul weather:

After finishing their grain, the cattle went back outside to the hay bale feeder, fighting the mighty winds and driving snow the whole way:

They clustered downwind of the hay bale in an attempt to find whatever shelter they could:

The hay bale supply was going to be frozen to the ground and covered in ice:

Visibility was severely reduced and I could only aim my camera away from the driving winds. Many shots were simply not possible, at least not without ruining my camera lens:

The north field was iced in and the snow was blowing and driving in great gusts and what appeared to be "snow devils," whirling mini-storms. But mostly the snow just blew across the field:

I threw down some old, disgusting bedding hay after cleaning the manure. The cows ran back in to eat it instead of the newer hay out in the storm. I had to shoo them back outside several times. When I realized the storm would not die down, I relented and left the barn door open so the cows could take shelter indoors:

I put the dogs out briefly, where they were somewhat protected by the house:

But poor little PeeWee had to struggle against the fierce winds just to come back indoors. I thought I might have to help him, but he made it inside on his own:

Once indoors, where my gloves were drying over a heat vent, I could see the wind velocity outside had increased even more, producing near whiteout conditions:

This video shows what it was like when I went up into the hayloft to throw down some bedding hay. I could hear the winds howling and see the snow being forced up through the eaves into the loft. It was a dramatic demonstration of the power in a winter storm:


As I went back into the house, I turned my camera back toward the barn to record the awesome wind and driving snow:


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The Farm In Summertime

I returned home from the Hopkinton Summer Festival and my neighbor's miniature horses. I let the dogs out into their fenced yard and began a walk around the place to see what was new since my last visit. The first thing I noticed was the old fashioned Day Lilies in bloom. This patch, I believe, is an older version even than the usual single orange flowers one sees commonly along the roads. It is slightly double, blooms later and less profusely and has oddly folded leaves. My mother used to have a single plant like this and someone told her it was a throwback to the original, wild progenitor of all modern Day Lilies:

And just then the neighbor's horse drawn wagon passed by again (see yesterday's post for a great photo of the horses), this time with a couple of horseback riders along:

I checked out the plants growing in my old concrete silo base which I thought looked like Elderberries. They were beginning to look even more like Elderberries but the birds were eating the berries as fast as they could form, leaving almost none to ripen. That would explain why I've never seen berries there:

There had been a major windstorm two weeks earlier and it had knocked down a lot of limbs along the road. My neighbor had been piling them up:


A large section of my pear tree had been ripped off by the violent winds:

And yet the remaining parts of the tree were still on track to produce a nice crop of pears:

There were going to be a lot of apples also:

The dogs were happy and getting along well with the tenants' two young Labs:

My Phlox were in bloom:

And the tenants' vegetables were growing nicely:

Alas, the roof of a nearby trailer had been ripped off by the recent windstorm. Luckily, no one has lived there in years. Another trailer, just down the road, had much more damage. In fact, it had been demolished:

My barn roof had been finished since the last visit, with a new ridge cap and completely nailed down and coated. I'm happy to say that it made it unscathed through the big windstorm: