Driveway, road condition

More pics

Snow tracks

I tried to go to work this afternoon. On the way down the driveway I stopped and looked at some deer and rabbit tracks. I parked the car and walked down to see what Clifty Creek road was like. The road was covered in ice. Nope, not going anywhere today. I saw a set of deer tracks that crossed the road at the bottom of our driveway, the deer apparently hit the ice and skidded. I tried to drive my car back up the driveway to the barn, however I could not make it all the way up. I tried to go up in reverse but that did not work either. I parked the car on the side of the driveway about half way up and hiked back to the house.

Snow III

A few more pictures.

Stray dog

Yesterday I was out hiking in the snow with Pup-pup. At the stream near the camping field in the woods we came up on this guy. He was hard to see because he is mostly white. It looks like someone perhaps shot him with a paint ball gun, he has a couple of purple splotches on him. I noticed some blood in the snow, he was bleeding from at least one paw. I could not get rid of the dog, he followed Puppy and me back to the house. He's very friendly and acts like he owns the place. I think perhaps someone dropped the dog off nearby.

Snow II

photo 749: snow in back field
photo 750: in woods, below pond
photo 752: in woods, hemlocks
photo 755: small waterfall in woods
photo 756: creek in woods

Snow, pics

G. Collins came up and put out a couple of large round bales for the cows Thursday evening, forecast was for 6 - 12" of snow. It started snowing Friday afternoon, we had about 4 or 5" of snow by evening, then overnight it warmed and changed to a mix of sleet, freezing rain, and snow. Saturday afternoon it snowed hard again for a few hours, then clear sky and cold. Bright moon, especially with all the snow. Temp was down to 17 Sunday morning, roads are ice covered.

photo 736: well house
photo 737: field
photo 741: cows
photo 744 and 745: horses, perky, high stepping, Morgan sure is a handsome boy

Snow, getting home from work

It started snowing Friday afternoon, I just made it home from work in time
photo 730: clifty creek road
photo 731: road at bottom of driveway
photo 732: view of snow coming down at home

Water, water, everywhere

We recently had some heavy rain here, and the ground was already saturated. This was the most water I've seen yet here.
photo 703: water overflow from lower pond
photo 704: horse drinking area
photo 709: white water through forest from upper pond
photo 719: water flowing down road from old homesite
photo 721: water flowing through culvert under driveway
photo 723: so much water flowed into/through culvert that it backed up and came back out onto both sides of lower driveway
photo 724: bottom of driveway
photo 728: waterfall at bottom of driveway

Gotta love craigslist

I like craigslist. I have bought and sold things on craigslist. They have a farm and garden section which is usually appropriate for our interests.

This morning I checked the Knoxville farm and garden craigslist, there are always some interesting ads, and you can learn things as well.

For instance, today there is a post by an attorney who wants to trade legal work for angus cows and heifers. Or the post from a guy in West Knoxville whose cattle farm is surrounded by subdivisions and he needs a guard dog because of coyote problems. Or the real pretty beginner's horse for $600. ...

Warmth

A couple of nights ago we were outside doing horse chores, the temperature was 32 F, and ... it felt so warm! Knoxville remained below freezing for about 10 straight days, something that has not occurred since 1895.

Today is even warmer, it is supposed to go up to 48 degrees and is sunny.

Cozy chicks

The chickens are doing OK with the weather, still laying eggs. We put a heat lamp in their chicken house. Picture shows the glow of the heat lamp and some chickens ready for bed.

Snow and cold

It snowed a little again last night. Kids had a friend over for the weekend.

Snow tracks

Warming up

I split some wood, with help from Mary, and we had a nice fire going most of the weekend. Ahh, that feels good!

Crisp morning

We've had a real cold snap here, I think the temperature has been below freezing for more than a week. We've had a little snow, but it has been dry and cold. I took a picture of ice crystals that formed on a pigeon landing board, actually caught a few pigeons in flight in the background.

Christmas tree insects

Eagle eye John noticed some small bugs in our Christmas tree stand. We looked at the bugs, went online to identify, and think that these are white pine aphids. Oh well, time for the tree to go.

Iceberg Warning!

This morning as Debby was driving the kids to home school co-op she called me at work to let me know that there was an iceberg warning for the Emory river near our farm. Ha Ha! They got me, it's a family joke, let me explain.

We have an emergency weather radio in the house, you can program it to alert on various types of emergencies and for what county they are issued. There are probably 100 different alerts, they range from high wind, fire, smoke, thunderstorm, tornado, amber alert, etc.

When I first got the radio I set it up for our county and a couple of adjacent counties and with all alerts enabled. That was a mistake as the radio was constantly going off (sometimes in the middle of the night) on all types of low priority "nuisance" alerts.

I re-programmed the unit, disabling all emergency alerts except for tornado warnings and severe thunderstorms. But there was one other alert that I enabled, you guessed it, iceberg warning. I just really wanted to know if there was an iceberg warning! That was our family joke, living in East TN, that I needed to know about iceberg warnings.

The last two days were very cold and this morning there was ice on the Emory river. So Debby and the kids thought it would be fun to call me and tell me that we had an Iceberg Warning. Ha, yes it was fun!

2009 was a wet year

Knoxville recorded 60.7" of precipitation in 2009. That's a lot of rain! Much needed however as the previous two years were dry.

Horse water check

This morning it was 11 degrees F so I walked down to take a look at the horses water, which comes from a spring. The water was ice free and flowing, good to go.

Layers

It was 11 degrees F here this morning, quite chilly. Let's talk about layers. To keep warm you need to wear layers. Several thin layers will keep you very warm. I took a picture of some other layers, our hens. They are still laying eggs in this weather.

Energy

Yesterday Morning we woke up and the temperature was 20 degrees F. The temperature remained in the 20's all day, this morning it was 11 degrees F. I decided to see how much energy our home would use under these conditions. Our home is about 2100 square feet, all electric (heat pump, water heater, oven, etc.). We had three meals at home, washed dishes, clothes, computers, TV, all the normal things. The electrical meter reading was 18423 at 8:47 am on Saturday January 2, and it read 18550 at 9:00 am on Sunday January 3. Difference is 127 kW hours. Our electricity costs 8 cents per KW Hr, or $10.16 for the 127 kW-Hrs to run our home for the last 24 hours.

Happy New Year!

The TN Pillers wish all of you a happy and healthy new year!
John and Mary had friends over for a new year's eve party. Even though it was cold the kids were outside bouncing on the trampoline quite a bit.
On New Years Day we celebrated with a fondue! Two parts emmenthaler, one part gruyere, a little havarti, a roux, budweiser, and garlic. Debby found some excellent bread at the Kroger in Oak Ridge.

Hiking in Hollywood

Over the Christmas break I've done quite a bit of hiking on the farm. I'll suit up and head out and hike for a couple of hours. I love it! I don't go fast, I mosey along, exploring and thinking. It's been cold, which is not a problem as long as it is not too windy. If it's windy there are protected areas with little or no wind. I've got a nice pair of insulated camoflage overalls which are very comfy, and they protect me if I get into any thorns. I typically hike with Pup-pup.

We have a lot of Holly trees scatted throughout the forest on the farm. Some holly's are just little baby trees, some are at least 20 feet tall. They are especially beautiful now since they stand out so much in the winter forest. So I told Debby that we are living in Hollywood.

Cows

I mentioned recently that we leased our upper pasture to Greg and Marty who have stocked it with 21 head of beef cattle. The cows are doing great. Greg or Marty generally show up about once a week and bring a 50 lb bag of minerals for the cows.

Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas at home on the farm in TN this year. Our celebration began on Christmas Eve Eve, and continues still. Our Christmas tree is beautiful, hopefully we'll keep it for a while.

John and Mary had friends come visit or spend the night on a couple of occasions. There was a home school group party on Christmas Eve coupled with a visit to a nursing home where the children passed out cards they had made and sang Christmas carols.

Following that we attended the Children's mass on Christmas Eve. The children's mass is always nice, Father Michael always has the children come up front and sit around him. Then he asks questions and the children provide the answers. Father spins everything together about Christmas and the church and our faith in a very simple Sunday School type of way.

Debby had picked out a few nice DVD's for the family to watch over the Christmas holidays, so in the evenings we all snuggled in together on the sofa with blankets and Pup-pup of course, usually with a nice snack or even some home made hot cocoa and whipped cream or marshmallows.

Christmas morning was hectic as usual, the Children just cannot seem to wait until the sun rises. I took a few pictures but it was dark and the kids were so excited that they appear like a blur. It was a wonderful Christmas.

John received the Dell netbook that he has been wanting so much and some Legos. Mary received American Girl presents and clothes. Nanny gave the kids a trampoline! Mary also got her ears pierced and a set of ear rings on December 26.

Christmas dinner included lamb, mashed potatoes and Debby's fantastic baked spinach, mmmmmmmmm.