Friday, December 17, 2010

White Death part deux

OMG YALL! It's seriously fucked up out there!

We hadn't checked the weather for a couple of days, because it's been the same (high of 40-50, chance of rain or snow) for 10 days. So there was no food here except eggs and frozen hamburgers, and my husband's kinda squicked out about eggs that come out of chickens, so I needed to go to the store. He needs the truck this afternoon so I had a small window to get it done. I couldn't even make it into town to my regular store - they haven't even started plowing the highways. Bumper to bumper 15 mph slush in pouring snow. I got off at the next exit and backtracked to the groceries by the house.

Of course the better grocery is on a hill. The truck in front of me went woop-woop making the left onto the hill road so I went extra slow and gave him a lot of room, which was good cause he had to stop for 5 minutes because the tiny car in front of HIM just couldn't make the hill. They had to slide sideways and back out of the way and then crawl around chaining up. All of us cowperson badasses in trucks just put it in 4 low and crept up the hill.

Getting snowed in calls for good food so I got a little prime rib roast (on sale!) and a liter of coke. If you're snowed in you might as well be drunk, right? And of course I got bananas for the four-leggers and some corn and broccoli for the angry chickens - if they're gonna feed me I gotta feed them.

Getting home wasn't too bad, except the dude who almost ate ditch behind me. The highway toward my house is 4 lane divided part of the way, with a ridiculously big ditch separating the lanes. I was easing along following the tracks in the snow at about 25, when the tracks dropped off the pavement to the right. I bumped off the road, swung left, went woop-woop left and right just a wee bit, and straightened up. The big work truck behind me bumped off the road going too fast, went woooop sliding left toward the big ditch, jammed his wheels to the right, got enough traction to hit the gas, went woooooop sliding toward the road signs on the right, and finally slammed on his brakes and stopped for a while a couple inches away from the signs.

He went much slower when he started up again.

Now I'm home and my brave/stupid husband is off to lunch with his ex-work peeps and then a meeting with his ex-manager. He called while I was writing this to say he saw the tip of the trunk of a Camry in the same ditch, but they've finally plowed the highway and started plowing the road out to our place.

Dixie appears perfectly content. When I got home, they'd eaten about half their breakfast hay. The goats were in the run-in complaining miserably and Dixie was standing in one of her usual corners of the pasture getting snowed on. She looks wet and snowy to me but she doesn't feel or act cold. I'll keep the hay topped up all day and I think she'll be fine.

10 comments:

  1. I thought I was the ONLY person who knew someone who is grossed out by the fact that my farm eggs come from actual chickens. Ummm... where exactly did you think they came from?

    However, this same individual is just fine with grocery store eggs, because those come in neat Styrofoam packages and no chickens were involved.

    Right. No chickens were involved in the laying of those eggs... (can you hear my eyes rolling?)

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  2. I'm amazed at the number of people who get squicked out by eggs from real chickens, including my long-gone ex-husband.

    Sorry, "slave eggs" (my coworker's term!) are waaaaaaay ickier!

    As for the sn*w. Well. I think we all know where I stand on that issue!

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  3. Cowperson badasses... Heh!! I can't imagine not owning a truck with 4 wheel drive... everyone without a truck makes fun of my gas mileage until they need me to pull them out of the ditch!

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  4. Eggs from chickens? How`d that happen Jeez!
    We just sold our poultry business this year. It wasnt to big nor too small, but hell eggs come right out of them "bad ass" birds! I say this `cos my sister camt to saty while we went on a first holiday for 10 years!! She got the list of things to do. When we got back she hadnt lifted a single egg in two weeks!!! She paid some guy to do it!!Lol! Just `cos the eggs might have some bird shit on them!!!!Lol!

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  5. The egg thing does sound really silly. He knows that a) all eggs come from chickens b) there's nothing magical about the trip through the grocery store and c) our eggs are indisputably better, but he's still freaked out. By now he'll eat them IN something, but he can't handle a scrambled backyard egg yet. :) I'm glad he's not alone!

    It snowed all day, at least 6". Then at 11 pm the temp started to RISE. It's 40 now and quite windy. Weird weird weather!

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  6. This morning several of us were pushing a truck that couldn't get traction and then a guy went and tapped on the window and gently told the driver to put it into 4WD. She didn't know that one had to flick a switch from 2WD to 4WD. That says something about how often we get snow here.

    In the afternoon we saw some police with shovels clearing a road. I guess that the doughnut delivery truck reported problems.

    Eggs from chickens! Whatever next? Funder, get a cow and make him drink the milk in his tea.

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  7. Ahahah, too funny Julian!

    I have been gradually working him up to the idea that yes, I really am going to breed and milk and drink the milk from those cute baby Nigerian goats I have. Nigerian milk doesn't taste goaty in the slightest - it just tastes like the Platonic ideal of milk.

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  8. Too funny about the eggs! My hubs would probably do that. He'd be looking at that coop and flipping some switch in his brain, I'm pretty darn sure.

    Sounds like you had the usual nutty drivers to contend with. I'm glad you made the trip safe and sound. I hope you got more than beef and cola while you were stocking up, although I guess if you're drunk you might not notice you're hungry. LOL

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  9. My sister is also one who prefers to think that eggs come from a carton and meat comes from a cellophane package.

    As far as snow and cold weather generally - it is no secret how I feel about that!

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  10. I'm shocked that anyone with thier own chuck -would venture to eat store bought! Shame on him for being freaked...fresh is so much better!
    Okay, I'm learning to me a better"truck girl" when in doubt...
    4 W L!

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