We got an inch or two of snow Sunday night and then the arctic polar blast hit us Monday and Tuesday. Everything weathered this winter event just fine around here, though. The coldest real temperature we saw on our thermometer was two degrees below zero, but they say that the wind chill temperature was below zero for most of those two days. We used some kerosene heaters, as well as the propane heater and some electric heat in the house at Pure Water Pastures. We also really enjoyed the fireplace! At times, we had parts of the drafty house warmer than need be!
The $25 stock tank heater that I purchased last Friday worked incredibly well as the water in that tank never froze at all! The cows at Pure Water Hollow were in the closed up barn with plenty of hay. The cold made it a bit harder on us carrying water and food over there to them, but we managed. The hog just laid around in his pen covered up in hay. The chickens did OK confined to their coop, with the extra hay and the tarp I put up for a wind break. We just had to run water out to them from time to time. I'm a bit concerned about the comb and wattles on our roosters, though. The tips have turned black on both of the roosters and the buff rooster's waddles have darkened. I guess they got frost bit a little. We moved all the rabbits into the shop at Pure Water Pastures and kept their water bottles rotated with thawed out water, so they did fine. The dogs and cats just kept each other warm under the house at Pure Water Hollow.
Wednesday the temperatures got up to the 32 degree mark and then Thursday and Friday had highs above freezing. Sort of normal January temperature for us. Today has been rainy, windy, and warm with temperatures in the 50s! I guess there could be plenty more winter ahead of us, but I'm glad to know that we can survive!
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Friday, January 3, 2014
Sled Riding At Pure Water Pastures
We got a couple inches of snow last night, much to the delight of Timothy. His snow playing and sled riding time has been limited during his brief 5 years of life, so when he wakes up to a snow it is still a very magical time! He was glad that Simon joined him for a bit of sledding, even though Simon did not stay out as long as Timothy did. It was cold, but at least it was sunny. I took a few pictures of our arctic adventurers as they were braving the cold and having fun.
The yard beside the house is a pretty good sled riding hill.
Watch out below! Coming down the hill!
Here are the two snow loving brothers.
Timothy had fun sledding all by himself, too.
Timothy was giving a two thumbs up rating for that sled ride down the hill!
After playing in the snow it was time for lunch and an afternoon of work. The animals had to be taken care of at Johnson County and there was work to be done in the house there, too, so we all spent the afternoon at Pure Water Hollow. I did run to town to do some banking and get some kerosene. I love getting paid while on vacation!
I decided to buy a stock tank heater while I was in town and had money in my pocket. They are predicting a few more inches of snow for Sunday and then below zero temperatures Monday night! Both Monday and Tuesday may only be in the single digits and since we can run an extension cord down to the field at Pure Water Pastures, I thought a tank heater might be a pretty neat feature. It's worth a try, anyway.
I'll try to come back here and let you know how it goes.
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Moving In and Starting New
It's a new year with new living arrangements for our family, so why not a new blog to record it all in? My previous blog has been our life at our Pure Water Hollow homestead. Now I'm changing focus to our Pure Water Pastures homestead!
It's hard to believe that it's been two and half years already since we purchased the property down the road from Pure Water Hollow! But now we are moving in and feel like we are having a new start, of sorts.
It was way back on June 15th, 2011 when we handed the $77,000 over to Virgie and filed the deed at the courthouse in our name. I thought it was a good price for 30 acres, a barn and a house. Virgie kept living in the house for some time and we were not in any hurry to move her out, but we did make use of the land beginning that summer.
The most useful part of the land we now call Pure Water Pastures is a couple of acres of flat land that was in hay. We used the hay for our animals those first two summers. I don't have a tractor of my own yet, so we hired some neighbors from across the river to cut, rake, and bail the hay for us in square bales.
During 2012 we kept busy at Pure Water Hollow and didn't do much work to the house here. Erica, our oldest daughter lived in it for part of the year, but other than that we just used the field and barn. 2013 was the year that we began to make some good changes at Pure Water Pastures with a large fencing project in the fields and moving in some animals. Matthew, our oldest son, also worked periodically on a major re-construction job on part of the house throughout the year.
The end of 2013 saw the family moving in to the house and we celebrated the holidays in the charm of our old farmhouse under construction! We still have very much work that we want to do in the house, but we decided to move on in anyway.
We are actually spread out between the two properties right now, which we plan on continuing as we gradually get more and more settled into the new house. We still have many of our animals at Pure Water Hollow Homestead, so we will continue going there regularly to tend to them.
Since I'm beginning this blog with a fresh start I hope to be filling in details of our life and family as I go along. I mainly just wanted to get a start with this post today and see what a second blog might look like. I believe I will be having much to record about our transition to Pure Water Pastures and the re-modeling project that is in the works!
Happy New Year!
It's hard to believe that it's been two and half years already since we purchased the property down the road from Pure Water Hollow! But now we are moving in and feel like we are having a new start, of sorts.
It was way back on June 15th, 2011 when we handed the $77,000 over to Virgie and filed the deed at the courthouse in our name. I thought it was a good price for 30 acres, a barn and a house. Virgie kept living in the house for some time and we were not in any hurry to move her out, but we did make use of the land beginning that summer.
The front part of the house was built around 1900, perhaps even the late 1890s. It has 4 bedrooms and a large shop/garage connected to the back.
The most useful part of the land we now call Pure Water Pastures is a couple of acres of flat land that was in hay. We used the hay for our animals those first two summers. I don't have a tractor of my own yet, so we hired some neighbors from across the river to cut, rake, and bail the hay for us in square bales.
Here is a nice picture of part of the field from that summer. I love the old tractor they were using!
During 2012 we kept busy at Pure Water Hollow and didn't do much work to the house here. Erica, our oldest daughter lived in it for part of the year, but other than that we just used the field and barn. 2013 was the year that we began to make some good changes at Pure Water Pastures with a large fencing project in the fields and moving in some animals. Matthew, our oldest son, also worked periodically on a major re-construction job on part of the house throughout the year.
The end of 2013 saw the family moving in to the house and we celebrated the holidays in the charm of our old farmhouse under construction! We still have very much work that we want to do in the house, but we decided to move on in anyway.
We are actually spread out between the two properties right now, which we plan on continuing as we gradually get more and more settled into the new house. We still have many of our animals at Pure Water Hollow Homestead, so we will continue going there regularly to tend to them.
Since I'm beginning this blog with a fresh start I hope to be filling in details of our life and family as I go along. I mainly just wanted to get a start with this post today and see what a second blog might look like. I believe I will be having much to record about our transition to Pure Water Pastures and the re-modeling project that is in the works!
Happy New Year!
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