Winter Rescue Operation

 

Winter is certainly coming early this year it seems. I have been busting my A$$ trying to get ahead of it's coming this year and mostly managing but the inflation and supply line shortages have really been clobbering me and them pretty hard. One lucky side effect, at least as far as time goes, is my own deliveries have been very slow as well. I have managed to put in three full time days a week for the last three weeks instead of five or six half+ days. Even a half day ends up slowing me way down especially with the time change so four full days off does make a dent. Of course that means less usable cash at hand  without a special trip or electronic transfer (which always seem to take me hours) too. 

As I have mentioned the first thing I am seeing is required items are going up fast while "That would be nice"  items that many can just wait on seem to be dropping or remaining constant.

For instance. Outdoor extension cords  are now almost double in price. Heat bulbs and fixtures are solidly double in price or more. I had the misfortune of needing two new bulbs and a new fixture this Winter so I had to bite the bullet on those. Small ruminant grain feed is still over 50% higher, if you can find it in stock that is, and mineral blocks were out of stock for months around here until recently and then almost 60 or 70% higher too. Although the local supply store did run a very cheap special on standard blocks but they were pretty much a 100% cattle mix. I almost picked one up though and I still might if they don't sell out soon.

On the bright side I did manage to find one of the Oaf's favorite toys in stock once again. It took him about 45 minutes to remove the squeaker and show it to me. He is now steadily removing all the guts from it so that he can sling it around and hit me with it when he feels neglected. 

Nothing like a wet slap with a tattered so called indestructible dog toy to get ya moving I guess. 

Wood-wise things are already looking a little dim. Even with the smaller stove I am burning through my reserves fast as we have already had one major Arctic blast with temps into the teens, a snow storm and another arctic blast pushing in as I type this this afternoon. All of my local areas to cut in or even buy in an emergency are closed now too. I still have a bit of a reserve left but the snow we got last night has made walking treacherous just to feed and do my daily checks. I am pretty sure I got enough standing dead and trees on the ground I had already dropped to make it but I am going to need time to do and I just have not had it so far this Fall. Sucks too cause I should not even need to really start burning until December and usually the Middle before it becomes mandatory. I had hoped to get one of my dropped trees cut up this morning but the snow with the search and rescue operation ruined that idea.

So I go out this afternoon to do an animal check and water tank top off for this next Polar F^%$ing Vortex we got coming in. Every bit of uneven ground causes me to slip on this 5 or 6 inches of snow slush we got and I come up one Ewe short.

Of course it was Lilly. My 19 year old def and almost blind sweet heart. Ya she is a sweet heart too. It is amazing how long it takes to search a 20 odd acre hay field covered in snow when you are looking for a White ewe. It's like looking for an off White foam drinking cup in a sea of frothy waves and takes a lot longer to do a grid search than you might imagine. Of course Lilly had decided that a particular bunch of dried grass was especially tasty nestled in to a clump bush trees covered with snow on the back edge of the field. The nine other sheep got bored with her and left her there and she never knew she was all alone. After a few hours me and the other nine sheep that were following me, got close enough that Lilly noticed out movement ( I believe her range is now about 20 yards tops) and she came trotting, if you can call it that, up to us.

I have now made a new Small-Hold Rule. Never let the sheep out in the large fields when there is snow on the ground.

I closed off the hay field completely and opened the West pasture back up for them since the Hornet's nest is now gone.

Just in time but they were not happy about it.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!