Spring Snowstorm on the Homestead

Yesterday the US experienced a strong mix of heavy rain, wet snow and tornadoes through the north-east. Time magazine said in a weather issue that came out last year that this is the ‘new normal’; meaning intense hard rain storms, tornadoes, snow storms and more.

The heavy snow has doubled over the river birch tree.

In SW Michigan we received about 8 -10″ inches of heavy, wet snow. It is beautiful to look at be sure however it is really physically hard to remove on an aging body like ours. On our homestead the chore of snow removal falls totally on us and this is with using a snow blower and hand shovels.

The playhouse looks adorable under the overnight snowfall.

We do get asked sometimes, why don’t you just hire someone? Once when our snow blower was broken and we received 12″-15″ of wet snow dumped overnight we paid a local guy to come and plow our two driveways. Unfortunately he knew he has us over a barrel and charged us $90.00. I almost flipped out as Gene was making a little over $7.00 an hour at Menard’s at that time and that represented a weeks worth of income for us. Our retirees budget can’t sustain that on a regular basis so we must handle the snow removal ourselves.

Snow on the roof of the covered run. I am thankful for having a covered run for the long winter months.

The hard plastic roofing panels on the covered coop run hold the snow and the three side tarps keep out snow but allow for good ventilation.

The heavy snow pulled down our netting so repairs will be needed.

I was really getting used to the unexpected patch of spring-like weather we have had here these past two weeks. I must admit I am disappointed that winter weather has returned.

The main road in front of our home is deserted.

We hustled and took advantage of the warmer weather to get some maintenance chores done. Gene washed, vacuumed and waxed my Subaru as well as vacuumed out his truck. We drove to the car wash and washed his truck and sandy undercarriage, as well as the dirty winter boot tray and dog kennel after the sick chicken was in it.

The snoopy yardstick says 6″ of snow on the hot tub cover.

                           Our snow-covered hot tub and deer fencing.

I also picked up load after load of sticks and twigs from the yard and spent hours outside with the chickens giving them a chance to free range as much as possible during the lull in the snowfall. I personally would have loved more time without snow but that was not meant to be.

Thick snow has covered the chain link fencing surrounding our pool.

Snow is now a mixed blessing here. Yes, it is very beautiful to look at and we do need the water in the water table but…this thick wet snow coating every surface means a lot of hard physical work head for us.

Todays path to the chicken coop to do our morning chores.

This lifestyle IS our priority…but it is also one of the most difficult realities of homesteading and aging bodies…

The giant White Oak at the front of our property is like a sentinel showing the way.

Small house homesteader Donna