Hard cold

Gonna be our first hard cold tonight. Hard cold? That's the cold where you have to really think about things -- if you have livestock and that kind of stuff. Put the tank heater into the old bathtub that waters the sheep and bless electricity for not having to haul buckets and buckets of water in the AM (done that, too, when a stock tank heater was too expensive to afford...as my sons will attest. Winter Chores 101). Filled up the mangers because food is heat for animals. Oh, I'm so pleased. David (my 75 year old sheep herder buddy) and I scored on some gorgeous third cutting alfalfa for 'cheap'. Nobody wants 150 lb bales. Two of us can stack 'em. We're flush with feed!

Put the little space heater set on low-low in the old trailer that is my 'root cellar'. That'll keep my squash, onions, and garlic, and other roots from freezing if it gets down to 20 as they predict. Picked all the rest of the kiwi fruit and cabbage today. Brussels sprouts are tough, so are the chinese greens, kale, collard, and chard still out in the garden. The carrots, turnips, and beets will come through okay, although better for soup than for fresh after a hard freeze. Oh well. Plenty of wood. That's the basic, isn't it? Heat and food? All those hours cutting, splitting, hauling, stacking feel so golden now. As I walk into a warm house and thaw out. (Boy they didn't feel 'golden' as I was sweating and swinging, let me tell you!)

I said a prayer for the folks out without a roof tonight...under the bridges or cooking meth up on Powell Butte. Said it to all the gods. Because it is hard to be cold. No matter why.