If you live in N.A. then you are most likely aware that we have had some big storms..  We were given lots of notice that this massive slow moving storm was coming. When they started talking about the trough basicly being a level 3 hurricane winds. It was time to get prepped ahead an assume that we would be without power. Extra water pulled for livestock and house use, feed shifted and prepped, sheep had just been moved into their winter barn two weeks ago.  Hubby did the last of the wanted but not needed shopping for the holidays, laundry was full caught up and we hunkered down.

It was a good call, the storm came, the winds blew in the opposite direction then normal, this proved to a very big deal indeed, both in drifting formations of the heavy wet snow and also in how the 110 plus KM winds hit and pushed. 

We lost three massive trees(two of which you can see above that thankfully did not come down on the building) and we will need to take down the rest of one big one that split, half is down and half is still up but will have to come down. These are massive old Norway Maples, I will call it a massive blessing that we only lost one 12 by 1 inch board and some big chain link fencing panels, the rest will be taken down to get access to the other half of the one tree. 

One of the other massive ones was out by the Big Barn in the Big Pasture, and it appears to have taken out the old red shed.  We had already emptied and had started the pull down of that older building so nothing was damaged there, it will just mean that we have to deal with the tree before we can finished the pull down and rebuild, that shed has a lovely cement floor and deep below frost line cement root cellar, We will be building a new expanded shed over the floor. 

We have the equipment and horse power to do most of the tree, but I will have to hire out to get big cores cut and moved, some of the biggest will be made into slabs, which will be used in a number of ways up to an including making new benches for the different food forests, the larger limbs will go into a mix of firewood and garden structures, then next layer down a mix of firewood and garden edging, the next size down will go into a blend of garden projects, wood chips and some kindling, last but not least the rest will go into a bush pile

We did lose power as expected and it was good, we used the shuttle chefs and just kept on. The snow kept coming and the winds kept blowing, drifts grew and after 48 hours working, the county pulled the snow plows for 12 hours even though many local roads were not in fact cleared yet. See local example of road down the way with a 5 foot drift over the road, where they needed to use their sled to do their farm chores.

Despite local warnings, despite OPP warnings to please stay home and off the roads, so many peaple still tried to keep their Christmas plans and so the local 417, 138 and more were full bumper to bumper as folks went off into ditches and flipped rigs and more. The Highways were closed, the 401 biggest highway was closed from Coburg to the Quebec border. 

Our local county was one of two that declared a state of emergency and the area’s in towns accessable up and down the 417 highway were opened up into warming centers for strained peaple overnight and served breakfast.  Huge shout out to the local fire department, the local community that stepped up and helped hundreds stranded and in need of help. True showing of the Christmas spirit (even I personally think those that went out and were on the roads where as Red from that’s 70’s show loves to say.. Dumb-%ss

Very sadly the news is coming out that there have been deaths both here in our own country and also in the states in regards to both loss of vehicle controls and due to extreme weather. While I do not understand why they were out on the roads, I am truly sad that life’s where lost. 

Where you in the path of any of the recent storms? How did you do? Any damage on the farm?  I hope you had a safe holiday in whatever form it took.