Sunday Reading - The Alberta Clipper Returns

I had a couple of readers that suggested or asked if I could keep doing Sunday Reading posts and I hafta admit the request seemed reasonable. I may not be doing much except daily chores these days but perhaps a weekly recap is still possible so I will give it a try.

Of course since my last post I haven't made much progress at all on anything. The holiday season means everyone and their mother wants vacation or days off and I been filling in left and right at work. Then my supervisor decides he has had it and resigns which now opens up the question what my job will look like come the new year. Truth is I may not even have one depending on how the new manager views things. The old one tended to over staff and it's entirely possible the new one could decide having an extra fill in/floater like me is overkill.

Who knows?

This weekend of course it was time to dust off the old Alberta Clipper gear. It's been almost two years since this stuff has been needed. Last Winter was mild enough I never put on my Carhart overalls that I can remember, never needed the remote thermometers operating and barely required water tank heaters. I also did not hear Mrs. PP whining about being cold much but this weekend our old friend came a calling like 90% of American's know and brought with it ice and snow as well.

It got cold enough last night and this morning that even the sheep were not too happy about it. When the sheep get a little on the uncomfortably cool side you know it is cold. Each group, of which I have three now, one for each ram being bred and the invalid/slaughter lamb/bachelor-ette group pretty much huddled in their enclosures out of the wind and would only come out for grain.

I did manage to keep the wood furnace blower going even with the cutting North wind but it was all I could do to keep the house temps in the 60's range. Usually when these clippers arrive the wind causes the internal furnace thermometer to stop kicking the blower on but this time that hasn't been the problem it's solidly a lack of sub-zero rated insulation in this old house now. On the plus side the room closest to the furnace is staying relatively warm however so I can banish the wife into that room when her complaining gets to be too much.

As I said other than dealing with extra hours at work and preparing for this latest frigid blast nothign else has been accomplished around here. All the tractors got put away but I never did get the final barn scrapping and manure spreading done nor have a touched the old rotting fence line that remains inside the control paddock.

The control paddock, even still totally uncleared as it is, continues to be to date the most useful bit of new fencing I have done. My mother uses it to feed the useless old nags their geriatric feed mixture of beet pulp and grain because you have to separate the grumpy nags from each other when feeding them. She used to have to catch two of them and lead em into the barn to keep them apart but now she only has to open two gates and they have already learned which one goes where.

With luck I can finish up the last two major fence runs by Spring and be ready to get back to gardening and bee keeping this coming Summer. The last two runs are pretty straight forward affairs that require no gate hanging or any real brush clearing so all it really requires in warm enough temps and unfrozen ground.

Got to get through the coldest part of Winter though yet.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!