This weekend we had 23 inches of snow. I lost electric power at 3 AM on Saturday and as of Sunday there still is no power. No power means no water and no heat. But fortunately I live surrounded by a forest so I had plenty of firewood to keep the house warm.
I brought a handful of books to read but when the power winked off I turned on my portable radio and listened to WTOP news which was my link to civilization. Without internet, television, lights, one suddenly feels cut off from modernity even when more antiquated pleasures (books) fill the house.
The snow was so deep my dozen pregnant goats could hardly walk through the same. The ones that ventured out from their little barn descended onto a pine tree which fell across the yard--they like to eat pine needles. Yuck! The little female Spanish goat, the one who is so flighty, hopped like a rabbit in the head high snow. "Dog" the little goat that I bottle fed followed the Great Pyrenees guard dog to the house to be near to me. This goat's mother died the day she was born. So she thinks I am her mother.
Sunday I left for the city for a house with heat and a hot shower leaving the animals with a bale of hay and dog and cat pails filled to the top. It was no problem for me to get out of the farm and drive back to the city on Sunday as I parked my truck next to the neighbors driveway. He has a huge John Deere tractor so plowed his drive. I sold my tractor last year so my goatherd will have to trudge 1/4 mile up to the house on foot since the snow is too deep to navigate even in a 4x4. (I pay her double salary when the snow piles deep.)
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