It is currently howling away outside. High wind, heavy snow, and just general yuckness. I dislike storms intensely — most especially windstorms. I always did, even when we lived in an actual house that had withstood weather events for 100+ years. Then we lived in a tent, where ‘ordinary’ stiff wind would make me fear for our roof, and high wind was terrifying. Now we live in a bus. Busses shake in wind. A lot. Depending on the directionality, it can be rather like trying to sleep in a carnival ride. And of course, the wind is forecast to be the worst at 3am. It’s always at 3am. When it is pitchdark and all you can do is imagine the damage and wait until sunrise to see if everything is still in place.

I probably won’t sleep much.

Youtube, here I come.

I’ve been watching permaculture videos a lot today because 1) I needed to be distracted from obsessive thoughts and 2) Spring is coming sooner or later and having a good solid plan in mind will help prevent orchard chaos when it comes time to plant. I have also been gleaning ideas for fodder crops and nutritive forage for the ladies, given that they are idiots when it comes to grass hay and we can’t really count on that for winter feed.

It is both spring and winter today. Springlike temperatures and sunlight, leading straight into winter storm. So, basically, that means the driveway was ooze by noon, and we have nowhere safe to park the van. With snowstorm, there will be plowing, so side of the road is not an option. Even by 7pm, the driveway was still 3+ inches of slime layer, so pulling into the drive was also not an option. Our best choice finally shook out to be semi-beaching it in snow on an unused field access point across the road. It will definitely get walled in by the plow, and we MIGHT need the tractor to pull it out, but it’s off the road. We’ve GOT to get the driveway situation addressed this year. Full stop. Whatever it takes, we need it stabilized.

On the spring side of things, we got our first eggs of the season today. Our birds are entirely indoors until we can get a fence up, because the predator numbers are pretty high out here, so their light level isnt as high as it could be. They have a fairly large window, but it faces East. Two eggs waiting for me in the boxes today is a great beginning.

These eggs and a few more are headed for the incubator, not the table. Our flock is getting up there in age and it is time to add some new members. Mom would like some chicks from my birds, and I’ll take some from hers and we’ll increase the genetic diversity for each of us.