Welcome to Fern Valley

Here in central Alberta prime farm country,my husband Martin and I work together raising beef cattle and Appaloosa horses. Fern valley appaloosas have long been known for their quality of temperament conformation and color.I have recently rediscovered a love of writing and have published 2 collections of poetry. "Telling Tails" and Tails Trails and Campfire stories" . I look forward to a future spreading my wings as an author and as a horse woman .

Tuesday 4 March 2014

a pretty full plate

That is what I have  going on at the moment, a pretty  full plate. So full in fact I hardly know where to start.
We  got home from our holidays and pretty much  dove  straight in!
Business as  usual, except for I am working without my regular vehicle. Sadly  on the way to the airport  before our vacation we hit a deer. I was nearly  stopped when it hit,but still hit hard enough to do some  considerable damage. The Rav can still  be  driven but the hood is loose and I prefer to be  safe.As for the deer? it took off but its hard to say if it was OK sadly I doubt it .
its  booked in to be  repaired on  Thursday, and my insurance  will provide  a rental so I wont have to drive Martins  big  truck much  longer. I don't  mind the truck but the fuel economy sucks! 
and fuel economy is what I need  these days! between the driving  I do for work and running into the city  every couple of days to help pack up mom and dads house (oh my !! 50 years of  living! ) It is a challenging task but we have  lots of help these days so there is a light at the end of the tunnel! Mom and  dad  are  doing  well in the new  place and have  many of their treasured items there , but the rest is going to be  packed in storage or  given  to family.

With all of that  going on , I have also been struggling with the forces of nature  here. since I got home it has  been cold , really cold! "minus a million" was a favorite  of my honorary  nephew  Robert, and it sure  felt that  way. Saturday I awoke to -38C with a  wind chill making it closer to -48C (keeping in mind  -40 is -40 Fahrenheit or Celsius! which is  really  freakin cold!  
went out to start chores, and all the waterers  seemed fine, but the tap in the barn  didn't  work. Oh  crap! so what it really meant is there  was no  water  going to the automatics and sure enough the cows  emptied  the one in their pen and ... nothing.
I got the  barn  water  defrosted, and 2 of the waterers working but the bottom  one was  frozen in the lines. stuck a  light bulb  in it on a pigtail (which is essentially a  light bulb  and  fixture  attached to a plug warms the inside of the automatic and helps the heat tape and heater  pan along in  defrosting it )
Then  filled  my trusty  spare  stock  tank, and  finished  afternoon  chores  before grabbing a  couple of my   books  to donate  rushing off to a benefit  for an old friend  who is sadly losing a battle  with  cancer. It was a good evening with many good old friends and new  coming together to raise money through a live and silent  auction . over $12000 was raised in that little  town in one night! 
Then  back to packing on  Sunday, and Monday.
The weather is finally breaking , and the light bulb worked so I have a (nearly ) full complement of  waterers again (old Orange is retired ) 
now if I can  just  get the lame  cow sorted out (oh yeah! got one of them too! ) and keep  Tango out of the feeder, I might actually get through this next few  weeks ! 

Martin  will be home again on Monday which  will be a huge help as well, and i have decided to take a few  more  days off  work  so I can  catch up. I figure  we should  be  just wrapping  things up right around  April 1 .Just in time for calving ! 

I decided  today at work, that days like these  require a cookie. So I had 2! 

So please  forgive me  for my absence here and on your  blogs. I will be back.
Stay  safe and  warm  my friends 


9 comments:

Ami said...

Just take care of the important stuff. We will still be here when you have time for the fluffy things. :)

Buttons Thoughts said...

Oh you are having lots of fun, well you are having lots of.... anyways. I am sorry it is so miserable and cold out there and I do hope it warms up with all you have to do and that weather it is just too much. Farming really is hard in this weather. Take care of yourself OK that is important. Good news about Mom and Dad. Hugs B

phaedra96 said...

This is the time of year when one's patience with frozen, cold, snowing and whatever is totally worn out! Just freakin' quit already, will ya? (As we are looking at another "dusting" of snow and "whatever"). I am sooooo over this!!

aurora said...

What Ami said.

Leah said...

Yes good old mother nature can add a whole new description to "BUSY" - we have finally here in Minnesota had a slight reprieve from the below zero weather (at least two nice days together) so maybe spring is coming! 50 years of stuff will take some time to go through :)

kden said...

Geesh, I think you need another vacation!

GoLightly said...

I need a vacation after reading this post!

Good grief, girl.

Really freaking cold.
I think you've finally nailed the ocrrect scale of winter we're all enduring this year, some better than others.
I'm an others.

Enough, already.

Glad you are safe, amazing what force a wild animal punches. Poor wittle truck!

Hugs to Mr.JohnnyHandsome, and please stay careful out there!

Confessions of a Closet Hoarder but you can call me Judy said...

Hopefully, the deer's leg was only broken. My sister is currently taking food and water to a small deer that was hit by a vehicle near her home. It's got a dangling leg, but other than that, it's getting its strength back and looks like it will be okay.

Glad you were able to thaw the water line without it bursting! They're such a hassle and mess! Welcome home! :)

Willow said...

2 Cookies will do it for me every time:))