The last few months have been a blur. Days and then weeks and then whole entire months are gone and it seems impossible. I look back over our first winter in our country home and it has gone by so fast. Some days it seems spring will never return to thaw out our tiny parcel of paradise and other days it feels that winter this year wasn’t such a big deal. I can do this, even in the dead of winter on the Front.
The chill of winter took on a whole different meaning this year. Before, venturing out in the early morning and during the dark cold of evening in the negative arctic wind would have never even been a thought on my mind. I just would have simply refused with a giggle. Much like a hibernating bear I tend not to stray from the comfort and heat of my den. Now, it is daily routine. The negative fifteen degree wind often threatens to slice open my face. Once that same wind trapped me inside the barn. Too strong against the metal doors for me to open against its force. Luckily the other door on the opposite side was a slider and I could get out and drop hay as quickly as possible. My goats, horse and chickens need food and water whatever the temperature may be. Whether or not the wind tries it’s hardest to blow me over they need to be cared for. Insulated carhart bibs and oversized mittens keep me warm and a headlamp guides my way from the house to the barn and chicken coop. The chicken water is always frozen and the horse’s eyelashes covered in frost. Sammy, our baby goat nibbles frozen finger tips hoping for a milk soaked nipple or carrot. Even in the dead of cold my faithful hens leave for us several eggs, however many days they too are frozen. The length of three heavy hoses is hard to fully drain. They sit frozen nearly solid and unable to bring water to our trough. It can be a job starting a fire to heat the garage to defrost the hose to fill the water trough. Daddy doesn’t seem to mind this part of winter chore too much. He likes his man-space. Tinkering in a warm garage free from wife and kids, I think it would suit most husbands. When cold spells last more that four days and the trough is near empty and we do what you have to to get the animals water. Sometimes a 5 gallon bucket gets the job done.
All of this to say, every frozen minute has truly been a dream come true. New dreams I never knew I had are starting to brew and the next five years will be something entirely different than anything I’ve ever really imagined. And that is exciting. I pretty much survive winter. Every day, tending to the animals that I love or not, I am eager for warm summer days. I am desperaetly looking forward to warm evenings on the porch swing, early mornings in the garden and new baby goats and chicks to cuddle this spring!
Almost nightly, the sun puts itself to bed with the most impressive light and color show. Photographing the sunset over the same mountains will never get old, because every night it is different and somehow a little better than the night before.
On the inside the dust on the logs glistens and the wood stove crackles and warms us from the inside out. Our wood pile is holding out and we love, love, love our wood heat stove. Several times the wind blew out the pilot light on our furnace and we were thankful to have the back up heat source.
My two tiny humans we wrangle are wild animals that we daily try to tame! They love the freedom of country life. When trapped indoors for long periods of time their energy explodes and teases the integrity and stregnth of the logs. Addi’s favorite indoor activity is “log climbing” our walls and railings. If she isn’t practicing hand holds she is practicing gymnastics on some indoor surface. Landon loves the wood floors and drives his bat mobile as fast as his little legs can propel him. Often stopping only when he slams into a wall or a dog.
It has been a wild, wonderful experience, our first winter here on our farm. Truly I am just a city-slicker, hippy, country-wannabe from the liberal land of Missoula. I am wild with fresh ideas of being self-sufficient on self-sustaining land growing and raising my family on fresh vegetables, eggs and meat. Farming is as foreign to me as raising a basket of cobras. Every day is a new chance. And these past several months have gotten me closer to those dreams that in a million years I could have never expected for Dylan and I. This path called life …. who would have known!
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