Things got pretty fancy down at the chicken coop last week. A few weeks ago Sarah and Tosh got an automatic chicken coop door opener and reported that it changed their lives. I was impressed, so I ordered one too. It arrived and on Monday I installed it. I used to have to go down and open the coop every morning and close it every evening. No more. The door opens and closes by itself now. I can program it to open and close at a certain time, or according to how light and dark it is. For now I have it set to open at 7:00 a.m. and close at 5:30 p.m. I can also use a remote. Now I wonder why I didn’t do this years ago. As we prepared to go down to the Thayns for the weekend, I was happy that I didn’t have to worry about getting someone to open and close the coop while I was gone. It’s a new world for me. I bless technology.
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| Our fancy automatic coop door. |
I didn’t have to worry about the coop door anymore, but we had other worries as the weekend approached. On Tuesday, the forecasters began warning that a Major Winter Storm was headed our way. One forecast predicted freezing rain, sleet, and six inches of snow over Thursday and Friday. Another one said snow mixed with rain and only an inch or two of accumulation. We didn’t know what to expect. We wondered how the storm would impact our planned trip. Stacey is extremely paranoid when it comes to driving in the snow. Not only will she not drive, she doesn’t even want to be in the car with someone else driving. She started sending out warning signals right away. Maybe we wouldn’t leave until Saturday morning instead of Friday afternoon as planned, or maybe we wouldn’t go at all, and if we did go, maybe she wouldn’t go with us. The thought of canceling our Early Christmas Celebration cast a pall of gloom over the house – not the sort of festive feeling we want at Christmas. I felt a little guilty. Was it my fault for hoping so fervently for a white Christmas? Now that my wish might be coming true, would it ruin our plans? We waited for the storm to arrive.
It was sunny, but cold on Tuesday while the storm warnings were revving up. I looked out at our mangy snow and thought how, if we weren’t traveling, I’d be pretty excited to get snow a week before Christmas. To distract myself, I spent a large part of the day fussing over my house plants. I watered and gave them all a dose of plant food. I re-potted some of my orchids. One of them had outgrown its pot and I divided it into three pots. Others needed their growing medium replaced. I read a while back about growing epiphytic orchids in charcoal, so I ordered some and that’s what I re-potted them in. We’ll see if they like it. Some of them should start to show signs of blooming soon. Speaking of blooming, two of my Schlumbergeras are in full bloom and the amaryllises that I repotted a few weeks ago are sending up flower stalks. Having plants in bloom in winter makes me happy.
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| My Schlumbergas in bloom. |
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| Amaryllises getting ready to bloom. |
Very early Wednesday morning, around 3:00, we crossed a seasonal landmark. We’re still a week away from the official first day of winter, but for the first time since last winter, we hit single digit temperatures. I have a little weather station that sits in the garden on the trellis where the kiwi vines grow. It records the weather and broadcasts it to a monitor in the house by my bedroom window. It recorded a temperature of 6° that night – a bit colder than normal for December. The really cold weather usually comes in January and February. The coldest temperature of 2022, according to my weather monitor, was 25 below zero back on January 21st.
Thursday morning at 5:30 the phone rang announcing that school was on a two-hour delay. It rang again at 7:00 announcing that school was canceled. When I went down to the barn to give the chickens their morning scratch, there was gritty ice falling, coating everything. The flock showed no interest in leaving the coop, so I threw them their scratch inside. Then I went back to the house and filled the bathtub and every pitcher in the kitchen with water just in case the power went out. Ice is the worst. It coats the tree branches and they get heavy and break and fall onto power lines and we go dark. As the morning went on, other businesses and offices announced closures. Stacey and Hannah did not go to work. I spent most of the morning sitting in the rocking chair by the wood stove reading and listening to Christmas carols. Not a bad way to spend a day when the weather outside is frightful. The power never went out and I’m grateful for that.
We kept a close watch on the weather all day on Thursday, weighing its severity and impact on our plans for the weekend, hoping conditions would improve in time for traveling on Friday. Then in the afternoon we heard from Sarah. She told us she and Daniel (Daniel and Raven are staying at the Foster’s helping with house repairs) have been sick the last few days. She felt she was over it, but Daniel not so much. Did we still want them to go to Thayn’s for the weekend? There might be a chance they’d pass their sickness to the rest of us. That threw all the plans for the weekend into doubt. Weather. Sickness. What more could winter throw at us to keep us apart?
It snowed again on Friday morning, but it wasn’t enough to deter us from traveling. We left right after I got home from school. It was snowy part of the way down, but once we were below Punxytawney, there was no snow. We arrived at the Thayn’s for our Early Christmas Celebration without mishap in time for dinner.
Saturday was a busy day. The Thayn’s ward, the Greensburg Ward, had a Christmas brunch and we went to that. After the food, which was great, the Primary children did a Nativity. June and Mable were angels, Hazel was Mary, and Russell was baby Jesus. It was very cute. Then Santa arrived and the children got to visit with him. Later that afternoon some of us went to Hazel’s basketball game. When that was over, we all met at an Indian restaurant and had a delicious, and a bit spicy dinner. On our way home from that, we stopped at the Chic-Fil-A for peppermint milkshakes to cool us down. When we got back from that, the children (and their aunts) changed into pajamas and we opened gifts. There was a lot of excitement as each gift was opened. Then the children were sent, reluctantly, to bed and the adults stayed up and played games for a while.
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| The Christmas brunch Nativity. |
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| Reading with Aunt Hannah. |
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| Dinner at an Indian restaurant. |
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| In pajamas and ready to open gifts. |
When we awoke this morning, we found that it had snowed during the night. It wasn’t a lot, just an inch or two. Our drive to church was only a little precarious. When we got back from church, we had our early Christmas dinner – ham, green bean casserole, funeral potatoes, zesty carrots, and rolls. After that there was just enough time for one last game. Hannukah began tonight, so we played dreidel. And then we headed home. There were light flurries as we drove north. The closer we got to Potter County, the more substantial they became. We arrived home just after 7:00. I could see that it had snowed here while we were gone, but not a lot. While the rest of them unloaded the car, I went down to check on my flock and collect the eggs. The chickens were all settled in for the night, but I like to think they were happy to see me as I collected the eggs.
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| A game of dreidel before heading home. |
So now we are home. Our Early Christmas Celebration is over and it was great fun. I’m sorry the Fosters and Daniel and Raven weren’t there with us. Now the real day is a week ahead. We will be busy at our house as we continue our preparations. There will be baking and gift wrapping and carol singing and movie watching. It might seem a little strange for there to be just the four of us here, but the Thayns are coming here to see the new year in with us, so that will be fun.
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| Home again. |
As things stand now, it looks like we will have a white Christmas and since we’ve no place to go, I say, let it snow. I hope that the Spirit of the Season is growing strong with you as the day approaches.
