Historic Winter Storm of 2021

I haven't posted anything since December.  It just hasn't been a top priority.  Maybe 13 years of keeping up this blog is long enough?  I'm not sure.  Maybe I just need to get back in the habit! But today I really felt like I wanted to record our "once in a lifetime weather event" so maybe that will get me going again.

I know.  All of the people living in the north were not that impressed with our weather event.  But, in the south we are not made for this kind of cold.  We are made to keep cool not warm!  We dont have snow gear, salt trucks, snow plows, or anything like that.  And apparently the power and water companies cannot keep up with the demand for electricity and water during long periods of cold.  We average 2.4 inches of snow a year according to one source I read.  We ended up with more then 11inches last week. We stayed below freezing every day from Saturday February 13th until Thursday February 18th with two days of negative lows and record setting temperatures.

I had started worrying about the weather when the extended forecast came out last Monday and showed that not only did we have a good chance for freezing rain on February 11th but a strong possibility of snow on February 15th.  We were also showing lows of 14 degrees on the 16th.  This worried me because I had baby goats due that day.  As the next couple of days went by they started showing a strong chance that a second storm could be coming through later in the week. Alex and I went shopping on Wednesday to get some groceries to get us through but then the next day the forecast was looking even worse and added two more days of snow!  We started working on making the barn more comfortable for cold weather and moved the rabbits in. We did not get any freezing rain in the area on Thursday.  Art and I went to Walmart on Friday evening to lay in more groceries just in case we got snowed in but of course people were buying up everything. We got what we could.

Saturday was very cold. We did some more work on the barn trying to prepare for the possibility that our baby goats would be born in very cold weather. The predicted low for Monday night was 3 degrees! I told Nick that he needed to either head back to school (he usually goes back Sunday evening) or be prepared to stay the whole week. He had not brought his laptop home so he went back to school.

Sunday morning we started getting some sleet and freezing rain followed by about an inch of snow. Then it stopped. The children discovered that the driveway was a great place to try out the sled, but they couldn't stay out very long because it was so cold.

Monday morning I woke up to 7 inches of snow on the ground and it was still coming down! We could not use our well water so we had to drag the buckets down from the barn to the house. We started getting warnings from electric companies that they may have to start rolling power outages. We lowered the thermostat 4 degrees and did not run any appliances. We worked on insulating the mother goats stall a little further. The snow was very light and powdery and could not pack. The children spent time in it off and on and did some sledding down the front hill.

Tuesday morning it was -5 when I got up to do the chores!! -5!!! They actually recorded -14 as the low not far from my house.  It was an all time record low. When I got to the barn the goat was being very vocal so I knew she was in the beginning stages of labor. It did warm up to 27 that day. The girls found some snow they could pack on the neighbors porch and made a snowman with the neighbor girl.

We rotated doing goat checks every 30 minutes to check for labor progress. At 2 o clock I went out and her contractions were 2 minutes apart. We all gathered around and moved heat lamps to prepare for the upcoming birth. Just before 3 we could see the bubble. At 3:24 we had a baby girl on the ground! Alex quickly jumped into the pen and while the mama was licking the baby he was drying her off with towels as quickly as he could. We got her dried off and warmed up and she was doing really well. 

 

 By 5 o'clock I was pretty cold. Outside the pen where the lamps were was not warm!! I went inside to drink some tea and throw some supper in the Instantpot. I headed back out at 5:15. Art and Alex came out too so they could measure the doorway so we could cover it with Plywood to help keep the heat from the three lamps in. I watched the goat laying down licking her baby when all of a sudden she made noise, a bubble appeared, she pushed once and at 5:39 a tiny baby boy torpedoed out!! It is very unusual for multiples to be born so far apart. We thought she was only going to have the one! The boy's sack did not break. Alex had to break it, hold him upside down and shake him while I wiped his mouth. For a few minutes we thought he was dead but then he started breathing and making noise.

The boy was not warming up outside so we took him in to get him all dried off. Once he was dry we put him back in the pen for the night and added another heat lamp to make sure they stayed warm. I checked on them three times during the night and they were all cuddled up and sleeping.

 

The next morning (Wednesday ) was cold. I went out early and tried to make sure both babies were eating well. The little boy would not suck at all. He wouldn't even try. We took a syringe and milked his mothers milk into it (she only let us get a little) and fed him that way and then gave another syringe of milk replacement. I checked on him later and he wasn't as warm as the sister and still would not eat or try to suck. We brought him back into the house and Alex taught him to suck by putting his finger in his mouth and feeding him with a syringe. It started snowing again. Hard. Big white fluffy flakes. Biggest flakes I had seen since living in New York. We got another 4 inches of snow bringing our total up to 11 inches.

Thursday we put the baby boy back in the pen with his mother and were so excited that he was able to nurse! He is so small though. Half the size of his sister. It made me wonder if there is something else wrong with him. It was a little warmer Thursday so the snow could pack and being outside was a but more fun for the children. They sledded, made giant snowballs, and snowmen. Things started melting during the day and then froze again when the sun went down. The baby goat seemed to be doing well so we left him in the barn under the lamps.

 

Friday morning there wasn't any new snow. Just cold and icy where snow melted and then refroze. Art was able to get to work for the first time all week. If it wasn't for 4 wheel drive he wouldn't have made it. My van was in the other driveway and there still was a good 6-8 inches of snow in places in our very long driveway. The children were sick of playing in the snow but went out for awhile. They want it to be warm again! The baby boy goat (Cocoa) started showing signs of pneumonia so we brought him back in and gave him a shot of antibiotics. The girl (Snowflake) was doing great.

They thought the stuffed animal would help him not feel lonely.  It didn't work.  He cried a lot.

Art took me to the local grocery store after he got home from work. Supply trucks were not able to get in since last Saturday so it was pretty slim pickings. They didn't have any milk but they did have chocolate milk (the kids were crushed I brought this home.) They didn't have sandwich bread but they had a loaf of French Bread and a pack of Kings Hawaaiin rolls, so I got those. We were able to pick up a few other things that we were out of as well to get us through until Monday when I can do our real grocery shopping. The temperature dropped down to 18 degrees so everything that melted froze again. Cocoa spent the night in the house with us feeding him milk replacement from a bottle.

It was 18 this morning when I went out to do the animal chores. But, it is 47 right now!!! It feels so warm!!!  Lots of melting going on. We are so ready to see the end of winter! There has been snow on the ground now for 7 days in a row. I am so thankful for so many things though. Too many to count but I can think of a few off the top of my head. We did not loose power, our water pipes did not freeze, our heat continued to work even though our unit has been having problems for awhile and is being replaced next week. I got brand new insulted Muck boots for Christmas that are tall. My other boots are only ankle high and I would not have been able to make it in those with so much snow. We had plenty of food. My grown children stayed safe where they were and though they lost power managed ok. Our baby goats survived, so far.  I am not sure about the boy. We will see how he does in the next day or two. We are trying to do everything we can for him. He is so small.  WE have him back in the barn now but his mother does not recognize him as hers anymore and will not willingly feed or take care of him. Being out there though he can be with his sister and Alex is holding the goat and making her feed him because that milk is so much better for him then what we have been feeding him.

Snow is beautiful and it can be fun and exciting when you do not get to see it very often. But I will be glad to see it gone! It is supposed to be 59 degrees Tuesday and maybe we can get life back to a little more normal. We have done no schoolwork this week. All of our time has spent taking care of animals, playing in short spurts, and staying warm. I didn't have much energy for anything extra after the hard work outside each day and being up half the night checking on or taking care of animals. We have watched some movies together everyday.  We did make some snow ice cream and they have been making snow cones.

Our evening read aloud that we started about a week before the weather hit is The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Interesting how that worked out. Reading that while we have been going though this has put some things into perspective. I truly cannot imagine 40 degrees below zero with little heat in their home. When the children complained about being out of some of the foods they like to eat I reminded them to be very thankful we didn't have to eat a slice of brown bread everyday for months on end.

Our animals have had some funny reactions to the snow. We brought the female outside cat in this week and kept her in the girls room (our other cat is not friendly.) She was not impressed when I let her out for some fresh air Thursday morning.

Our male cats would not be willing to come inside and they would spray all over my house so we fixed them up a shelter inside a shelter and gave them a warm heating mat and a small camping heater to keep them warm.

Our male goat would not even step foot in the snow. Our girls weren't sure about it but dealt with it ok while I was cleaning the barn one day.

 

 

It definitely has been an adventure!

I hope you had a great week where-ever you are!

Happy Homeschooling!

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