Thursday, December 25, 2008

A Modern Day Christmas Poem

My mom e-mailed me this poem last night...


The Night before Christmas
(the rural version...)


'Twas the night before Christmas and out on the ranch
The pond was froze over and so was the branch.
The snow was piled up belly-deep to a mule.
The kids were all home on vacation from school,
And happier young folks you never did see-
Just all sprawled around a-watchin' TV.

Then suddenly, some time around 8 o'clock,
There came a surprise that gave them a shock!
The power went off, the TV went dead!
When Grandpa came in from out in the shed
With an armload of wood, the house was all dark.
"Just what I expected," they heard him remark.
"Them power line wires must be down from the snow.
Seems sorter like times on the ranch long ago."

"I'll hunt up some candles," said Mom. "With their light,
And the fireplace, I reckon we'll make out all right."
The teen-agers all seemed enveloped in gloom.
Then Grandpa came back from a trip to his room,
Uncased his old fiddle and started to play
That old Christmas song about bells on a sleigh.
Mom started to sing, and 1st thing they knew
Both Pop and the kids were all singing it, too.

They sang Christmas carols, they sang "Holy Night,"
Their eyes all a-shine in the ruddy firelight.
They played some charades Mom recalled from her youth,
And Pop read a passage from God's Book of Truth.
They stayed up till midnight-and, would you believe,
The youngsters agreed 'twas a fine Christmas Eve.

Grandpa rose early, some time before dawn;
And when the kids wakened, the power was on.
"The power company sure got the line repaired quick,"
Said Grandpa - and no one suspected his trick.
Last night, for the sake of some old-fashioned fun,
He had pulled the main switch - the old Son-of-a-Gun!
-Anonymous

Best wishes for a Joyous Christmas!
Karen & Doug
and all of the critters at bide a wee farm

Monday, December 22, 2008

Let it stop, let it stop, let it stop...

Still snowing!! We have about 16" now. It's still incredibly beautiful but getting less fun by the minute. The temperature warm up the weather guys promised has now been delayed until this weekend so we'll be hauling water for the rest of the week. The newest forecast is calling for up 5 to 8 more inches of snow on Christmas day. I don't recall ever having a white Christmas before. The kid in me is thrilled, the adult is dreading the idea of MORE snow.



The snow truly is beautiful so I couldn't resist taking a few more photos. I promise to stop after this batch...

THE TRUCK AND FLATBED
WHERE IT'S BEEN PARKED SINCE THE HAY EPISODE ON SATURDAY

THE CAR (I THINK!)



THE NEIGHBOR'S HAZELNUT ORCHARD (SO ORGANIZED!)

KOS, THE GUARD LLAMA, AND HIS BOYS


KOS AGAIN, CHECKING ME OUT.
WILL HE SPIT TODAY OR NOT?



N-C RAM; CAESAR

And my favorite, one of the trees in our yard. It reminds me of the trees in my favorite animated Christmas show "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer"...


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
More later...

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Still more snow! And a bit of freezing rain...

It's been snowing since early yesterday with a brief break late last night for freezing rain. I measured the snow on our patio table early this morning and we had 8" of snow with an inch of ice on top of that. Pretty amazing for us. Tonight it's snowing again and the weatherman isn't predicting a warm up until at least Wednesday.


We were getting low on grass hay so Doug picked some up yesterday afternoon. Unloading hay is definitely more challenging when it's snowing...



UNTYING THE TARP

UNLOADING (WITH HELP?)

We eventually had to unload the hay onto our small truck and ferry it around the property in batches because the snow drifts prevented us from getting the big truck and flatbed trailer into close to the barns...



Fortunately the sheep are loving the snow and while all of them have access to barns or shelters, many of them have been choosing to sleep outside. Below is a picture of Javier, one of our yearling rams. He wasn't the least bit bothered by the heavy snow but his pals were holed up in their shelter. Guess it's really perfect weather for a sheep in full fleece.

More later...




Saturday, December 20, 2008

Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Welcome to our farm blog. I've been enjoying the blogs of fellow shepherds for months now and have decided it's time to join the flock...

OUR MAIN BARN

It's snowing here at bide a wee farm. Snow is a rare commodity in Western Oregon. We usually get a dusting once a year but it rarely stays around for long. This year we're having an honest-to-goodness cold snap. At the start of the week the temperature dropped below freezing and stayed there for days. Because our climate is so moderate, our barns and water systems are not set up for freezing temperatures. The first day our water to the barn froze, then the pipes in the well house froze and we lost power - ugh! Fortunately the power is back on now and the well thawed without any broken pipes (yeah!) but we're still hauling water around the property and probably will be until the weather warms up. The exiting news is that we may have a white Christmas - that would really be a rare occurrence!

THE DOGS; (LEFT TO RIGHT) SUE, WILLIS AND NERO

Yesterday was sunny and beautiful so I shirked my duties and spent some time taking snow photos. I've posted some below - my apologies to those of you who get lots of snow and have seen this all before...

JACOB EWE LAMBS; SHELBY, WINSOME & ELOISE


NAVAJO-CHURRO FLOCK SIRES; MTF MR. MAJESTIC, PDF HARRY AND BAW SALAZAR

JACOB FLOCK SIRES; BIDEAWEE GERALD AND BIDEAWEE TUCKER

A FEW OF OUR CHICKENS (THESE ARE RHODE ISLAND REDS)

LARRY, THE GUARD LLAMA

JACOB EWES; TORRI AND ELLA

NAVAJO-CHURRO EWE LAMB; YOLANDA

OUR GRAND OLD JACOB RAM - SWALLOW LANE MONTGOMERY (ALMOST TEN NOW)

AND THE NEIGHBOR'S HORSE 'BLAZE' WHO CAME OVER TO SEE WHAT I WAS UP TO

OK, better head out and get my chores done. Learning how this blog works has been fun but time consuming. To paraphrase an old adage: you can teach an old shepherd new tricks but you can't make her learn them quickly!

Thanks for visiting our blog. I'll do my best to keep it current so I hope you'll check back again soon. Merry Christmas from our family to yours!