The Grass/Land - Ice On Everything and Then a Blizzard

Ice On Everything and Then a Blizzard

When we woke up at 4:30 this morning there was a sheet of ice on everything at the farm.  The gravel driveway was as slippery as the wooden porch.  By 6:30, when I was supposed to leave for work, there were 17 major car wrecks across the metro area and four of our highways were closed due to accidents.  I decided to spend my day at home, instead of sitting in traffic jams.  The snow started about 10:00 am, but the winds are calm, so the blizzard hasn't gotten here as of this writing at 3:00 pm.  Our spoiled horses have been in the barn all day.  They were out last night and even they were covered in ice this morning.  They were happy to come inside. 

Maybe this will be enough for a hay crop this year!


Blizzard WarningCOZ041-046-172200-
/O.UPG.KBOU.BZ.A.0003.130417T2000Z-130418T1200Z/
/O.NEW.KBOU.BZ.W.0006.130417T2000Z-130418T1200Z/
ELBERT/CENTRAL AND EAST DOUGLAS COUNTIES ABOVE 6000 FEET-
NORTH AND NORTHEAST ELBERT COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/NORTH LINCOLN
COUNTY-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...CASTLE ROCK...ELBERT...FONDIS...KIOWA...
LARKSPUR...AGATE...HUGO...LIMON...MATHESON
752 AM MDT WED APR 17 2013

...BLIZZARD WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 6 AM
MDT THURSDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN DENVER HAS ISSUED A BLIZZARD
WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 6 AM MDT
THURSDAY. THE BLIZZARD WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.

* TIMING...SNOW AND STRONG WINDS WILL SPREAD ACROSS EASTERN
COLORADO THIS AFTERNOON. THEY WILL GRADUALLY DIMINISH FROM
NORTHWEST TO SOUTHEAST OVERNIGHT.

* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS...3 TO 8 INCHES.

* WIND/VISIBILITY...NORTH WINDS WILL INCREASE INTO THE 20 TO 35
MPH RANGE BY LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING...WITH GUSTS AS
HIGH AS 50 MPH. THIS MAY PRODUCE BLIZZARD CONDITIONS WITH
VISIBILITIES AS LOW AS 100 YARDS.

* IMPACTS...TRAVEL MAY BECOME IMPOSSIBLE DUE TO POOR VISIBILITIES
AND SEVERE DRIFTING SNOW...ESPECIALLY IN RURAL AREAS. ROADS
CLOSURES EAST OF DENVER WILL BE POSSIBLE.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE
EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. FALLING AND BLOWING SNOW WITH STRONG WINDS
AND POOR VISIBILITIES ARE LIKELY. THIS WILL LEAD TO WHITEOUT
CONDITIONS...MAKING TRAVEL EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. DO NOT TRAVEL. IF
YOU MUST TRAVEL...HAVE A WINTER SURVIVAL KIT WITH YOU. IF YOU GET
STRANDED...STAY WITH YOUR VEHICLE.

The Bees - Two New Queens with their Swarms

Two New Queens with  their Swarms

Last weekend we picked up our new bees.  Each box of bees came with a can of nutrient solution, and a little box with the queen in it, suspended in the box.  We have Top Bar hives, so we watched about 5 videos online to refresh us as to how to hive the bees and the process went very smoothly.  The bees were calm and sweet and the queens were each set loose in their respective hives without incident.

In one hive the bees quickly and quietly formed an enormous ball around the queen.  They were very inactive and almost all stayed in the hive.  The few that were stuck in the box found their way into the hive and disappeared. Some came out to drink and a couple drowned in the water pan.  But the first hive was very quiet.

The second swarm was much more acrive.  From the beginning there was a lot more general activity, buzzing around, going in and out.  But everything seemed fine.  It was a warm afternoon with an abrupt weather change on the way.  Towards evening, I photographed the insides of each hive.

Above is the second hive on the first evening.  About 3/4 of the bees are gone.  

 

The two photos above show two bee balls in the first hive. 

It looked to me as if the two queens had both settled in the first hive and that most of the bees in  both boxes had followed them in there.  I don't know why they would do this.  The queen that we put in the first hive was smaller than the one that we put in the second hive, but they both looked active and healthy. 

Update 4/16

I asked a colleague beekeeper about what I had observed and he said he would just leave them alone and let them sort it out.  I was relieved to hear that because the weather had been very cold, wet, and unsettled and openning up the hive and trying to locate the queens and stir things up didn't seem like a great idea to me either.  So we left them to their own devices.

Update 4/17

We have had another big rain/ice/snow event and there are supposed to be blizzard conditions tonight, so my husband checked the hives through the windows without opening them.  It was dark, but he could see no bees in the second hive.  There were still two bee balls in the first hive, but one was on the floor and one was on the ceiling.  Having the queen go to the floor does not seem like a good sign.  I guess time will tell.  We insulated both hives well, but it has been very cold.  And I am not sure where these bees came from.  We got  them from a supplier, but they were shipped in from somewhere; probably someplace warmer than it is here.  

Update 4/25

We had wind chills below zero.  We lost both swarms.



The Food - A Spring Blizzard Brunch with a New Combination

A Spring Blizzard Brunch with a New Combination

This morning we awoke to a cold, wet and blustery storm.  There wasn't so much snow, but the storm had come in last night with a forty degree temperature drop and rain.  So there was some much needed moisture even though we couldn't shovel it.  It is supposed to keep snowing here until five tomorrow morning, so we may have to shovel eventually, anyhow. 

For a mid-morning brunch we made farm sausage, gravy and french toast from home-made Italian wheat bread and duck eggs.  First course was french toast, sausage and gravy; and second course was french toast, berry compote, maple syrup and cinnamon.  The new combination was pairing the french toast with the sausage and gravy.  It was pretty delicious.  I think it was the eggs and the gravy flavors blending that was so pleasing. 

I suspect I have shared the recipes for these things before, but just so you don't have to search, I'll post them again. 

Farm Sausage Ingredients

1 lb of ground pork
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
pepper to taste

Mix thoroughly with your hands and shape into patties.  Cook, covered, on low for about 15 minutes a  side, uncovering for the last few minutes to brown.

Gravy Ingredients

flour
whole cow or goat milk
salt to taste

Sprinkle enough flour into the sausage drippings to absorb them.  Cook on high until it starts to brown.  Add cold milk all at once, (about a cup for every tablespoon of flour) lower heat and begin to stir.  Stirr continuously until the gravy is thick and even and starting to bubble.  My mother always said to let it bubble for about a minute to get rid of the raw flour taste.  Add salt to taste.

French Toast Ingredients

4 duck eggs (or 6 chicken eggs )
1 tsp. vanilla
3 tbs. top milk or half and half
4-6 slices of bread
2 tbs. butter

Whip the eggs, milk and vanilla in a bowl.  Soak the bread on both sides in the egg mixture and move to a medium/low heat frying pan in which the butter has been melted.  When the bread has all been nestled in the pan, pour the remaining egg mixture over it. Cover and cook slowly until golden brown.  Turn each piece of bread and cook the remaining side until golden. 

On the Side

maple syrup
fruit or berry compote
honey
cinnamon

 

The Food - A Birthday Celebration with Fast Easy Cioppino

A Birthday Celebration with Fast Easy Cioppino 3/25

Ingredients

3 tbs. olive oil
1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1 onion chopped
3 large shallots, chopped
2 tsp. salt
4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
3/4 teaspoon dried, crushed red pepper flakes (more to tast if desired)
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 (28 oz. can) diced tomatoes in juice
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
5 cups fish stock (chicken if you can't find fish)
1 bay leaf
1 lb clams, scrubbed
1 lb mussels, scrubbed and debearded
1 lb uncooked large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 1/2 lbs assorted firm-f;rshed fish such as halibut or salmon, cut into 2 inch cubes.

Directions

Heat the oil in a very large pot over medium heat.  Add the fennel,onions, shallots and salt and saute until onions are translucent, about 10 minutes.  Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, and saute 2 minutes.  Stir in the tomato paste.  Add tomatoes with their juices, wine, stock and bay leaf.  Cover and bring to a simmer.  Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer until the flavors blend, about 30 minutes.

Add the clams and mussels to the cooking liquid.  Cover and cook until the clams and  mussels begin to open, about 5 minutes.  Add the shrimp and the fish.  Simmer gently until the shrimp and the fish are just cooked through, and  the clams acompletely open, stirruing gently, about 5 minutes longer.  (Disgard any clams and mussels that do not open.)  Season soup to taste with more salt and red pepper flakes. 

Ladle the soup into bowls and serve.

I couldn't get live clams, so I used frozen ones.  They were delicious.  And I had to use chicken stock. 

Add some warm, fresh bread with olive oil and this is a wonderful fancy meal!

The Riding/Training - Gus Does Some Hill Work 3/30

Gus Does Some Hill Work 3/30

 

After some lunging, my husband took his horse for some much overdue hill work around the farm.  They looked wonderful and had a great time.  Jealous!



The Riding/Training - Elvis Has an Abscess

Elvis Has and Abscess

So, Elvis was acting like a turkey a couple of Saturdays ago.  My husband had been complaining about the fact that he would stand perfectly still until he got the halter about halfway on and then he would spin around and run away with his tail in the air.  If he could have said,  "Nanny, nanny, boo, boo!", he would have.  I hadn't done outdoor chores for several days.  It was a warm Saturday morning and I offered to do the feeding.   I went down to the barn and put Prima in the little corral, took her gazing muzzle off and gave her some hay.  There could be no confusion on anyone's part about what I was doing.  I was feeding.  I put Gus in his little eating area.  When it was Elvis's turn, I got his halter about halfway on and he spun around and took off.  I was ready.  I had closed the corral gate before I attempted to catch him.  

I used the lead rope, twizzling at my side, to drive him around and around the corral.  The rationale was that if he wouldn't stand still for me, then he would have to run around for me.  It was a dominance / submission issue.  He would have to run around until he was ready to stamnd still.  He was feeling pretty stubborn, so this went on for a few minutes.  PJ, the only other horse in the corral, came into the center with me and watched with big eyes for a while.  Then, thinking it looked like fun, she started biting and kicking and driving poor Elvis around and around with me.  This is what tipped the scale in Elvis's brain in my favor.  He decided that submitting to me was preferable to being beaten up by a little girl.   He stood quietly and I haltered him and led him out to the hitching post where he always got his grain.  I had watched carefully as I ran him around, because it was muddy and I did not want him to get hurt.  He did not fall or even stumble.  He was sound as could be as he went around.  And sound when I led him out for his grain.  I put hay out in the big corral for

everyone but Prima, let them all loose in there and went about feeding the poultry and getting my own breakfast.  

After breakfast I was having a second cup of tea and looking out over the front pasture when I noticed that Elvis wasn't eating.  This was very uncharacteristic for him.  There was something in his attitude that didn't look quite right.  Then I noticed he was standing on three legs and he wasn't moving at all.  I ran down to the corral, put on his halter and tried to lead him.  He wouldn't budge.  When I finally got him to move forward, it was terrible to see.  He hopped painfully without putting any weight whatsoever on the left hind.  I was horrified.  I thought, for sure, I had really broken him.

I hosed the leg and foot.  I could find no sign of an injury.  There was no heat, no swelling.  But he would not put any weight on it.  Something hurt.  I put him in a stall, with Gus across the aisle for company, and called my neighbor/trainer.  I put a call in to the vet.  My neighbor came over, took a look at him, but could find nothing.  I told her my whole guilty story.  She said that she thought it had to be an abscess because it was so acute and came on so suddenly.  I was sure it was something I had done.  We started him on bute and cimetidine for ulcers.  Sensitive Elvis always gets ulcer-y when he has to stay in a stall.  I waited to talk to the vet.  

When the vet called me back he said it was probably an abscess.  I was sure it wasn't.  I was sure I had caused it somehow.  He said he would be down the next morning.    When he arrived poor Elvis was no better.  He was obviously in excruciating pain.  He checked him over carefully and said it was an abscess, probably right under the frog and that I should start soaking in Epsom salts and wrap it up to keep it clean.  Elvis was in so much pain that he actually shook while we were soaking his foot that first day.  I carefully applied a poultice and wrapped the whole foot in vet wrap and duct tape.  

The next morning Elvis was almost totally sound.  He walked and happily pivoted on the foot.   I unwrapped it and sure enough: it had drained profusely into the bandage.  I soaked and re-wrapped it.  This was repeated daily for three more days.  Then there were four more days of stall rest, and out he
went into the snow with his buddies.  When a horse pulls up acutely lame you hope that it is an abscess.  It presents as terrible but it is relatively easy to treat and recovery is usually total.  I had never had a horse with an abscess until last winter.  Between them, Prima and Elvis had four.  My farrier thinks it is because we live on n old farm and in the winter and spring all sorts of old junk percolates to the top of the mud just waiting to puncture or bruise their feet.  I guess it is the price you pay for the charm of an older place. 

Four days later he pulled the shoe off of that foot.  Now we are waiting on the Farrier.

The Animals - The Best Therapy

The Best Therapy

2013 hasn't been the best year so far for me.  I had the flu. Twice.  That took from New Years Eve until early February.  Then I got a back spasm, probably because I had been lying around for a month getting fat and out of shape.  That led to pain medication, and acupuncture, and therapeutic massages, and stretching exercises and TENS  and more pain medication and visiting the spine specialist.  That led to a fight with our new insurance provider and eventually an MRI and steroid injections will be coming up this Thursday.

I mention all this because I haven't been able to post anything about riding, or training, or eventually gardening, or even cooking.   In the end, I can barely walk, sit or stand for more than a few minutes at a time.   I am taking so much medication that all I feel like doing is sleeping.  Which may be what I'm supposed to do until I get the injections.  I don't know!

These times of being an impatient patient are always educational for me in some way or other, though.  So far I have learned that my husband really can do it all himself, except the clean dishes sometimes have a little food on them.  Riding can't fix everything.  The animals we live with are empathic beyond all my expectations.  People have and maintain deep connections beyond what is generally accepted or talked about.  Mind and spirit facilitate healing. 

As I have become less and less able bodied, my husband has quietly stepped up and done dishes and laundry and vacuuming.  He has done all the chores, inside and out. He has cooked and straightened the house.  It has been seamless.  But he looks tired.  It's time for me to start pulling my weight again.

Usually when my back acts up, riding makes it feel better.  Not this time.

The day I woke up with the back spasm, I was crooked.  I went down to the barn and Elvis came up to me and wrapped his neck around me and gave me a big old horse hug.  He was very careful.  He is not a demonstrative guy.  He doesn't hold with frivolous displays of emotion.  I swear he knew I was hurting and he was trying to comfort me.

A couple of days ago I was having trouble getting started in the morning and I lay down on the couch for a session with the TENS machine.   There are only two in the picture above, but on that morning all four animals that live in the house were right there with me.  Jasmine was under my chin, Jasper was behind my knees, Gwynnie had her chin on my feet and Genji was stretched out on the floor next to the couch. 

A woman I roomed with for one sememster, freshman year, at Bennington College in1967 contacted me last Friday.  She is a long-time practioner of Kototama Life Therapy, and she lives in Santa Fe.  I haven't spoken with her for, probably, forty three years.  We talked on the phone for a bit last night and she did a remote, or telepathic session for me and my back this morning.  I feel better.  I have less pain and I have been able to be up and about for  several hours at a time, instead of only several minutes. 

I have no explanation for most of these things.  Skeptics will say that I anthropomorphize the animals and the remote healing was nothing but the placebo effect.  I have had many experiences, over the years, with the so-called placebo effect.  It is my doctors' best friend: always makes them look good.