25°f, about -4°C. Clear after yesterday's snowy, blowy day. Expect a low of 12°f tonight, or -11°C.
Our friend Annette posted that she had hens for sale. We lost 2 hens this winter, one that just up and died as chickens sometimes will, and one that escaped and would not be caught until a hawk or a fox or some other predator ended her bid for freedom. We were down to 5 girls, laying 2 to 4 eggs a day. It was enough, but just barely; I am not accustomed to rationing egg use since we have always kept a good flock. I was finding this paucity a bit limiting.
So off to Annette's we went in the snow and the blow, and came home with 3 new girls for our coop. (No worry about bird flu, as her chickens, like mine, are being kept in the coop for the winter.)
The new girls on the block. I can't remember the breed name but it doesn't matter as long as they lay brown eggs.
We came home to find the power off, which should not have surprised us, but I hadn't done my usual prep of running extra water, etc, and our phones needed to be charged. We adjusted plans though, and there was enough water to make tea, so I settled down with my book while Larry put together another of those 8-foot windmill yard ornaments that we sell from time to time. Within a couple hours the lights were back on, thanks to those amazing power company workers.
But the satellite internet did not boot back up, and neither did the cell phones. I wasn't too surprised about the internet, as lately our satellite has issues in bad weather (must call them tomorrow to see about that) but the phones? That was odd. Our signal here isn't great but it usually works okay.
I spent the evening reading while Larry watched a movie, expecting both phones and internet to be working this morning. Except they weren't. Larry went out and knocked ice and snow off the satellite, and whether that helped I don't know but within an hour or so it was working again. The cell phones, not. That took a call to tech support, and they reset something so finally we had phones again.
Now, I lived a long time up here with neither phone nor internet-- it wasn't even a thing back then. It was not that big a deal, but I was young and strong and fearless. Now I am old and not as strong and a lot more careful. It is an odd comfort to know that 9-1-1 can be dialed easily enough, but still. I was beginning to think that maybe taking out the landlines 5 years ago wasn't such a great idea. Except that it often didn't work anyway, and it usually took weeks for repairs.
Today has been bitter cold, not fit for man or beast so I have been working on inside stuff again. I made spaghetti and painted a table and priced stuff and packed ebay and did all those routine housekeeping things while Larry was outside taking care of critters and unloading the van. Then he took a well-earned nap. It was a pretty nice day, all round. Just a bit off-center, if you know what I mean.
I did finish my book, and I hated to see the end of it, really. It is the best book I have read this year. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, was published in 2011 and was his first novel. The book reads like a love letter to New York City, but from a lover who accepts her, dirt, glamor, pathos, glitter and all. Set in the year 1938, the story follows Kate as she and her friends dive into predicament after predicament, sometimes with tragic consequences, other times with a brash but wary bravado. At the center of the story is Tinker Grey, obviously well-heeled and Ivy League...or is he? If you read and enjoyed Towles' A Gentleman in Moscow, you will be glad to read this story too.
Enough rambling for tonight!
John's post: From My Window
Stay well, friends.
It's minus 4C over here too, but it is SUNNY. So happy! I guess the internet and phone are now back and hope they stay.
ReplyDeleteCold here, too (-9C/15F)... not funny anymore. Yay for you braving up anyways! Hmmmm, fresh eggs! When I still had a car I got some in my Brother´s village, yum, not to compare with grocery ones.
ReplyDeleteWithout internet... oh-oh, I would not be able to work - we came to really NEED this! What did we do back in the day?
To Spring soon...
I’m glad the chickens have come to roost, so to speak. The freeze continues here but at least it is not snowing. Glad you have power etc and us too.
ReplyDelete...we also had snow then rain and then snow and high winds. I'm glad that we have a warm house.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about hatless Larry made me smile because my mother always asked about our hats when we were growing up. Your bitter cold has found us today, but the snow that was predicted is skirting around us, thank goodness.
ReplyDeleteI read somewhere yesterday that the 911 system was started in 1968. Just some trivia for your day! Glad you got your systems back working. Just heard Kentucky has been declared a disaster area. Sad floods shown on last night's news.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about an off-center day, though I always think of it as an off-kilter day. And every month when I get the bills for my phone/internet service, I shake my head at the percentage of my budget going toward this. But when it comes right down to it, the possibility (at least) of being able to contact someone in an emergency means I just have to keep forking over that money. And even though I'm on social media a lot less during these exhausting post-injury days, I would surely be bereft if I couldn't catch up on blogs like yours at least weekly!
ReplyDeleteMy book club read Gentleman in Moscow, so I am glad of the recommendation.
ReplyDeletePhones and internet and all that. Like you, we are very rural, although our dirt roads are not, thank goodness, as steep. We keep a generator and supply of fuel for it, and expect the internet to succumb to the weather. We kept our land line, though, as it has been pretty reliable for many years. Both the electrical repair guy s and the phone repair guys and gals do stellar work, in ice and all kinds of wind. They do not get enough credit.
My grandmother's hens were like yours; escape artists. The job of the small and agile grandkid was to crawl under the summer kitchen supports to get the eggs they stashed in there.
I hope you get some milder weather soon.
ReplyDeleteWill there be problems integrating the three new hens into the flock? I seem to remember there would be a lot of hen-pecking going on.
Brrr -4C that is cold.. and poor you with a power cut, very worrying but good they got it going again.. when we had a power cut last month, when it came back on my husband said Well done lads, meaning the men who got it going again. Stay toasty warm.
ReplyDeleteI read “Gentleman in Moscow” several years ago. Great book. I hope that your egg production line is meeting the challenge !
ReplyDeleteThe books sound good, I'll have to check our library. Good luck with the hens producing eggs for you. I hear the prices are getting very high in places.
ReplyDelete