The beast from the East and all that goes with it!

Monday 26th Feb: It is cold this morning but not as cold as I was expecting it to be but time enough for that. Did the morning stuff had to break all the water buckets and was glad we filled them yesterday, though prolonged cold will obviously bring problems further down the line.

Made a shepherds pie with the left over slow roasted beef we had yesterday, I used the meat juices for the gravy and even fried the onions in the beef fat, just what you need to keep the cold out, I also made an apple and blackcurrant crumble again lots of vitamin c and a good stodgy pudding works wonders on the soul 😀

The rest of the day was mostly spent stoking the fire to keep the temps up inside and it’s nice and cosy so bring it on beast.

For the afternoon feeding and egg collection I dug out my duvet coat, a splendid if a little dusty affair, that came from a mountainous, snowy part of the world and is perfect for sub zero temperatures, only it wasn’t that sub zero lol, I found that the hosepipes were flowing freely so it can’t be minus anything just yet, a good opportunity to again top up the water buckets, a little snow flurry added to the ambience but that soon passed over and so we wait and see what happens next.

We are ready for most things except a loss of electric, still not got the generator sorted, the idea is to be able to plug the pump into it so that we can still run the Rayburn, I’ve got a feeling I will be cursing John if that happens and we still can’t do it.

It’s 4.30 and I’m looking out fo the window at the lovely sunshine wondering if this is all going to be something and nothing!

Made some oat and blueberry bars as I had a few oats to use up, trying to gradually use up store cupboard stuff and I will then replenish, anyone have a recipe to use up a tin of refried beans 🤣

Tuesday: Still cold although no sign of the snow that northern parts have had as yet.

Water buckets frozen solid, they take a good hard heeling to break them 😜 all the birds seem quite content and not showing any signs of the cold affecting them. Mia arrived early so it was lucky I had already got everything done except for lighting the Rayburn so I got that done quickly.

We have had snow flurries on and off all day mixed with sunshine!

I am slightly concerned for the aubergine seedlings on the window sill, although it’s warm during the day, during the night time the temp drops and where they once were thriving they are looking a little sad, I have put a clear polythene tent over them so hopefully they will recover, I only need two or three plants any way so it will be the strongest that pull through I guess. There are two melon seeds that have sprouted and they seem fine and strong, hopefully the other 4 seeds will sprout soon.

Putting the birds to bed this evening with a layering of crispy snow that looked blue in the moonlight, pure magic 😀 already -6 at 6.30 though, goodness knows how cold it will get overnight!

Wednesday: Goodness knows what the temps went down to last night I’m guessing about -10! So this morning I lit the Rayburn before going out and I wrapped up properly, my duvet coat, two pairs of gloves, one fingerless pair under the thermal gloves and my iso therm wellies. The only part of me that got cold was my face and a few gurning exercises when I came back in soon thawed it out 🤪 The water buckets were the most difficult thing this morning, as expected they were frozen solid, right to the bottom on the smaller buckets, I broke what I could which was most of them, just the one at the back that was too hard, luckily the sun is shinning this morning so it should melt off a little bit, the hens are free ranging so they will find the other water buckets soon enough. I checked the egg shed and one of the eggs had frozen and split, the others were fine but if the temperatures stay low we might have to start bringing them in over night. I have put plenty of bird seed out for the wild birds, I moved the feeder so it is now in the oak tree outside the back door which is lovely because I can see them all feeding and there are lots of them 😀

So far the ‘beast from the east’ has been more of a ‘cub’ but plenty of time left in the arctic blast to get bigger. The snow flurries are on, off, on again but the temperature has remained low all day. Went out for lunch with Shelley, Josh and Mia as it’s Shelley’s 30th Birthday today, the kids were in ‘full on’ mode, well behaved but hard work lol, luckily Mia was tired when we got back so I put her down for a sleep and went out to do the feeding and egg collecting. While I was out there I filled 4 wheelbarrows full of cut wood and bought that in and also quickly skipped out jacks stable, put some hay and water in for him so he can just be bought in later. I think tonight might be when it hits us if at all.

Thursday: The ‘beast’ was grumbling all night here, the winds never let up from 10pm till 7am, I was surprised that we didn’t have a blanket of snow. It has been steadily snowing since 7.30 now and the sky looks full, the warnings have been issued, schools and offices are closing from lunchtime, I wonder how bad it will get and I wonder if I will be the only one here tonight if the others can’t get back! As for the morning rounds, they were difficult especially watering, the buckets are frozen solid, the taps are frozen solid, I took out some cartons of water with me for the smaller animals and a bucket for the ducks. For the chickens I have moved the buckets inside, as the hens won’t come out I figured their collective body heat will melt at least a top layer of ice otherwise they will have to eat the snow which is what I guess wild animals would have to do.

From the weather reports I am expecting a white out blizzard I just hope the electric stays on! In preparation, as I have been caught out before I have charged everything up, torches, phones etc. I have learnt from previous episodes to keep an old plug straight into the phone line phone, as the ones that connect via a pod to the electric as well won’t work, all the little cogs in my survival wheel lol.

I have a beef stew in the slow cooker and I’ve made hot cross buns, without the crosses 😜

This was a recipe from the River Cottage Bread book, actually they were so easy I wondered why I had never made them before.

I have been looking at the forecast from RAF Brize Norton as it’s less than 2 miles away and the wind chill factor is -12 in the day time!

Well the afternoon round was a fun event……..NOT! The snow is coming down it’s f**king freezing in the wind and I had to spend the time carrying buckets of water from indoors to the outer reaches, they are heavy let me tell you, at least everything has had chance of a drink but my arms are hurting, pfft I know, weakling, there are times when I can easily carry stuff and times when I can’t, this is a can’t time and it’s not much fun. My blood tests came back from last week with high inflammation markers so that is the reason I am struggling with carrying. I filled up the wild bird feeder as they have gone through a fair bit of seed today, ready to hunker down no doubt.

There has been a red warning issued for tonight in the South, joy, still at least it gives me something to write about, the next few days possibly a week are going to be flipping hard work. While most people are thinking whoo hoo a snow day, I am thinking why the hell would you want to play in it 🤪

Friday: Well most people managed to get home last night and it didn’t look too bad this morning from the window but John went off in the van and came back an hour later after trying two roads out of the village both blocked by cars stuck in drifts of deep snow, he had to leave the van and walk back. So that meant with Charlie not going in either there were plenty of hands on deck as it were, good job because the girls couldn’t get here to do the horses as they were stuck in the lane for well over an hour. The stable block was full of drifted snow and so was the feed room and the hay barn, I have never seen it like this before. We fed and watered everything, cleaned snow off of the top of the poly tunnel, then I made some bread, Charlie did the cleaning and John decided he would sit on the sofa and watch tv. The livery girls got picked up and bought here, the same chap then knocked and asked John if he wanted him to tow his van back with him which he did, an egg customer came for eggs in his tractor lol, a load of sausage rolls in the Rayburn and a nice cuppa, a sit down for a while until it’s time to go back out later.

Just finished the final shift of the day putting everything to bed, it’s cold and snowy, I am sooooo over winter now it can shove off, lots of lovely pictures of people playing out in it bah humbug not me not these days 🤪everything is snuggly tucked up in stables, coops, shed, huts annnnd relax 😀

Some snow patterns lol

Saturday: In terms of the weather it’s quite pleasant this morning lol, the temperature is above freezing and I even went outside without my coat on to put out eggs after some customers came on sledges 🛷 John was here first thing to help with the water though that hopefully will be the last time we have to bucket it across as it is beginning to thaw. His phone has been going as frozen pipes begin to thaw and have burst, I went out and about 20 mins later I saw him coming back and trying to get out another way as cars are still stuck in the lane and village, eventually after going a long way round he managed to get to someone who had been stood with their finger over a pipe for two hours! The thaw will bring different problems including mud but hopefully spring will not be far away 🤞 It seems like we have been snowed in forever but it was only two days lol.

The weather has dominated everything we have done over the last few days and to be honest inbetween feeding and some wood cutting etc we did a lot of sitting on the sofa lol

Sunday: As I sat down to write this in the afternoon the heavens opened and I mean opened, hard, fast, heavy rain lol when will it ever just be normal weather again? The snow is now pretty much slush or it definitely will be now. We went round to Johns Mums first thing then down to the shop to get a few supplies, good job we didn’t need much because there was no fresh produce on the shelves!