Grateful for Goats. And Tesla Batteries.

Goats crushing Hay.

This week felt like another wild winter week. Sunday started out as winter with snow. Fluffy white powder covered the fields, trees, and roadways. We took the dogs for a nice walk in the woods. The ground wasn’t completely frozen by Mallets Creek. There was a bit of mud, ice, and slush walking around close to the water. 

Wintery walk by Mallets Creek.

Between 5-7” of snow fell and everything felt appropriately winter.

Walking in the snow with our dogs, Kepler a husky mix, and Bula a little brown lab mix.

Fast forward to Tuesday evening/early Wednesday morning. It’s snowing again and really windy. Up to 60 mph winds woke me up a few times and at some point the snow changed over to rain as warmer weather rolled in with the storm. When I woke up around 2:30 AM I noticed the heat pump was off so the power went out. 

I walked to the living room to turn on the heat using Google Nest. We run our heat pumps in the winter to save on oil heat however the electric heat pumps aren’t tied to the Tesla Batteries. They’re too demanding. 

Snow covered the steps of the back deck at that time. Several inches of snow fell before the weather warmed and snow turned to rain. The wind was so loud. It was like mother nature and our house were having an argument. During the dispute willow branches, pine tree remnants, and barn roof shingles were being tossed about every which way.

The next morning, I noticed the goats enjoying pine branches that landed in their field. The branches must have had quite the trip as they traveled across the backyard, over the driveway, barn, and sheds to land at their hooves. 

The back steps were covered in rain; no snow. My heart sank to see the debris from the pine trees. A pine tree massacre with limbs all over the place including hanging from our maple trees. And it smelled like Spring. According to the weather app it was 20 degrees above average, and the temperature would climb to 43 degrees later in the afternoon. So much precipitation had fallen.

Ryan and I picked up pine and willow pieces from the driveway first, and later the backyard. The goats were pleased to have more pine pieces to dine on. I drug our naked Christmas Tree off the back deck, down the steps, across the yard, driveway, and into their goat lot Sunday afternoon. They enjoyed the snack.

Goats eating the Christmas Tree.

Mixed in with the pine branches were about 20 shingles from the barn roof. It looks like replacing it will be a priority this Spring. 

I’m grateful the goats were ok. The storm was so loud and angry I wondered what it must have felt like for the chickens and goats. Do chickens sleep through 60 mph winds?

Thankfully the sun came out on Wednesday to charge the Tesla Battery up to 100%. We used it for 14 hours until GMP restored power Wednesday afternoon.