That’s what the weather of the past week has been christened. We don’t get much snow in Ireland. Sometimes we get a sprinkling that is gone in a few hours, or at worst overnight.
This week, however, we were on lockdown! On Tuesday we had a sprinkling, that had all but disappeared by Wednesday morning. The weather forecasters were predicting that Thursday and Friday would be very bad. Our first job on Wednesday was to head to the mill to get grain for animals, and stock up on tea. Yes, tea! I had made the discovery that we only had a half pack of tea left…. now, if we were going to be housebound for days, I will not survive without tea!
We spent 20 minutes in the grocery store, and came out to blizzard conditions.
It was quite a frightening drive home I can tell you. The so-called ‘Beast from the East’ had arrived 24 hours early.
While shops and businesses throughout the country closed down from Thursday afternoon, we did not have that luxury. We were in and out to the animals constantly. The poor hens did not know what was going on. We did keep them in til much later in the day, and tried to get them back into bed earlier.
The whole weather situation was made so much worse by the Beast being followed immediately by Storm Emma which caused major snow drifts.
Whenever something like this happens it does cause you to reflect.
Our highs:
- We were thankful for a fully stocked freezer and dry goods cupboard. We had plenty of meat, fruit, vegetables and milk in the freezers.
- Bless them… despite the weather the hens continued to lay, so there was no shortage of eggs for both us and the neighbours.
Confused hens
- We are also grateful to our farming neighbours who cleared a pathway through the snow so we could (if we wanted to) get out.
Just enough room to drive through
- And as a little chuckle for you all…. our Big Green Egg chiminea … came to the rescue in our neighbours milking parlour… keeping everyone (animal and humans) warm!
Photo credit : My Appliance Source
- And, lastly, we have often wondered exactly what kind of a breed mix, our Ross, is…. well snow dog is definitely in there. He was in his element!
Happy Snow Dog
We didn’t really have any ‘lows’ to speak of. You just got used to piling on the multiple layers every time you went out, so now there will be a lot of laundry to be done now that that’s over.
After 4 days the snow is all but gone. Roads are still bad with high banks of snow at either side, and only room for one car at a time. We are back to sinking in mud again. The crunch of snow underfoot is becoming a memory.
How do you all survive such dramatic weather?
A Year In Redwood 
It’s just a way of life for us here in the state of Iowa in the US, every winter lots of snow. I have a tractor with a plow that we use so we can make it to the plowed roads. We always have to have a stocked pantry because you never know when you might be snowed in for a few days. We also have a big hill that we like to sled down, so we just do our best to make the most of it. My favorite thing to do is to sit by a warm fire and read a book in the comfort of our warm and cozy home.
I did quite a bit of baking… and I also managed to get one of the bathrooms painted! Last time we had snow like this was 2010… so it is a very rare phenomenon.
Farmers all around the country have done a great job keeping smaller roads open the last few days. I’m sure we weren’t the only ones where the lane was ploughed clear but the county council hadn’t managed to open the main road – though fair do’s they had a lot more to keep open. Didn’t know BGE did chimeneas, but we couldn’t resist roasting a chicken in our egg just because it was fun to look at dinner cooking out in the snow from inside in the warm. I have a little cheap ceramic chimenea that does a great job keeping frost out of the polytunnel on a handful of briquettes for a whole night. Glad you all made it through safely – my hens refused to come out of the house until the snow melted. And yes, the mud is taking over in north county dublin too – this isn’t going to be an early sowing year
Hadn’t thought of using the chiminea in the polytunnel…. clever thinking!
It’s only a tiny one – I would worry a bit about a big one in case it melted the plastic above it. But now I’m wondering about moving the BGE down next winter. Problem is you would’t dare cook with it for fear of carbon monoxide poisoning – I always open the ends and go away for a bit when I’ve had the chimenea lit in there
Yes, of course, you are right with regard to the possible damage to the plastic. We have our BGE and chiminea in under a polysomething roof, and although it is quite a high roof, I always worry if either get too hot that they will do damage.
Margaret