Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

We’re seeing what I call an Everything Storm.

I pity the weather people; I know it isn’t their fault, but the forecasts are all over the place, as is this new storm a few days from April. There will be snow, ice, rain, and wind, and then more snow, ice, rain, and wind, this time for two full days.

But we are well into Spring, just a little more patience is required. The skiers are happy.

We took out the generator but didn’t use it; we prepared for an outage but didn’t have one. As always, Zip was waiting for us first thing in the morning; he seemed drawn to snow. I’m guessing he spent the night in his barn retreat, but I don’t know. He has more castles than the British Royals.

He loves to walk on the snow and listen for mice and moles below, hunting for food.  He does the same thing. I’m going to the food pantry later to take some photos, weather permitting. Otherwise, I’m not goin’ nowhere.

We have the wood stoves going, and it’s kind of nice in here on a snowy day. I didn’t get much sleep last night, so I’ll try for a nap this afternoon.

Waiting for our morning meeting.

St. Joseph is liking the view. He is our weather spirit.

The sheep came out to eat and then returned to the Pole Barn, along with the donkeys.

We’re bracing ourselves for a severe winter storm tonight – with strong winds, heavy rain, snow, and ice, all expected to persist through the night and into tomorrow. The situation is so serious that even Maria has decided to skip her belly dancing class. This storm is not to be taken lightly.

We fed the animals early and moved things into the barn that could blow around. The temperature drops, the wind rises, and the sky darkens. We just got the generator out, which we rarely do in advance. If the power is on, I’ll blog. We’re out of control if you are still waiting to hear from me. My heart goes out to thousands of people already suffering from this storm. Stay safe.

Filled up, the generator is good for 12 hours. We filled it up. It’s ready to go. We didn’t want to root around in the dark when the storm hit the hardest. We only need to pull a switch or two to turn it on. Seeing the generator power up the whole farmhouse in a dark storm is lovely.

The sky began to darken even as we watched. When the color goes out of the sky, I switch to the monochrome camera. This is a storm sky, for sure.

The Weather Map above looks like one of my abstract flower photos. It is beautiful, if a little unnerving. The storm starts soon and goes on all night.

Early on, the wind had already blown down Ed Gulley’s beautiful goose. It doesn’t stand up long. We tried to stand it up today, but Ed wasn’t into details—he was great at vision. I miss you, Ed; we’ll leave it down until the ground dries.  I can hear you laughing at me.

Fate has suffered from wicked diarrhea the past few days (believe me, we suffered along with her). However, she was back to herself today, running rings around the sheep for pure joy. She’s tired and covered with mud. We turned the feeders upside down, we’ll feed the animals inside of the Pole Barn, if necessary.

I took this flower photo this morning; I thought the storm needed some brightening, and so did the storm post.