Pages

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Bending

Sunday was a full day of rain.  It literally rained all day and most of the night.  This was followed by sleet, ice and snow.  Just a little farewell gesture by winter.  Let's hope it's a farewell gesture.  I have a very tall birch tree in the back near the sheep.  The ice brought it almost literally to its knees, if it had had any.  If you can see past the blue feeders on the fence, you will see the top of the tree on the ground.  It was amazing.  I am so glad this tree can bend without breaking - but I am hoping that the two days of a little warmer weather will melt all the ice and allow the tree to reach its graceful height again before the snow that's predicted for later in the week.  
If you biggify, you can see the top of the tree just past the blue feeders.
The sheep are pretty much oblivious, as long as there is hay available.  While putting out their mineral block this weekend, I was able to observe that two of the ewes are way ahead of where I thought they would be on the lambing front.  From the looks of it, Cocoa(nut) and Freyda will be lambing this month.  Eek.  I need to clean out the hoop house and de-llamafy it, but they spent all day Sunday and most of Monday all crammed in there.  Let's hope I have a chance this weekend.  Two years ago, when Flora and Cocoa(nut) lambed, they picked the coldest, rawest day of the month.  I am relieved that all four of them won't be lambing, one after the other.  I wonder if I can get maternity leave?

4 comments:

Jane @ Hard Work Homestead said...

I don't like the looks of that tree. Even if the ice melts I would move anything from below it. If you have a warm up it could even come up from the roots due to the misalignment of weight. I get very nervous of trees like that. They don't call them widow makers for nothing. Be very careful.

Erin said...

DE-LLAMAFY ....... LMBO! That's awesome :) That tree is amazing, hope it's melting quickly, birch trees are my favorite, I can't stop photographing them, either.

Mama Pea said...

A few years ago we had the mother of all ice storms up here. Some of the trees that were bent over never did straighten up. But most of them are still growing in that bowed over position! I'm sure they look very strange to people who don't know what happened.

Tell your expectant mamas to please, please, please pick a lovely, warm, balmy day to deliver. It's the only sensible thing to do since you can't be there 24/7 to oversee things.

Susan said...

Jane - We've had a few of those widow makers around here. Avoid them like the plague. This tree is starting to straighten up, thank goodness. I wouldn't have been able to move the feeder until all the ice and snow melts.

Erin - Wha? I love my birch and am happy it seems to be making the trip upright. We lost a lot of them in the ice storm.

Mama Pea - I be that's a sight to see! And - from your lips to their fuzzy little ears.