Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

Ha, understatement of the century there EH 😂😂 I went to work on Wednesday morning, and only got home this afternoon 😂 What an utter palaver!! 

I was VERY grateful for my friend and her sofa bed as one night turned into three - plus a full day of working at home when the university closed on Friday 🙄😂

Originally planned to go home Thursday afternoon, but it was pretty bad then, and then by Friday afternoon the high winds had blown drifting snow all over the roads, and lots of trees were down, and loads of main roads were closed and others just completely inaccessible.

The opened a couple of the roads I needed about 8 last night, and the farmer brought the snow blower down our drive this morning, so Mr Cheery was able to report on the state of the roads this end - all ploughed and gritted, although in some places just down to one lane with deep drifts either side.

Took me an hour to walk across town to where I'd left the car, and another 1.5 hours to dig the bloody thing out of a snow drift armed only with a surprisingly sturdy 99p ice scraper 😂 Once I'd done that, two nice guys turned up and helped shove me slightly uphill to get a run up on the icy bit (I reckon they'd hidden round the corner til I finished the digging 😂😂)

That was the most eventful bit of the journey, thankfully! 

This was the state of the drive and the little road when I got back after the snow blower had been through - you can see how high the drifts were, quite ridiculous. It's weird, some of the fields are quite green - all the snow blew off and collected in big drifts over the roads.



It's snowed a bit more this evening, but it's raining now, and meant to reach a heady 5 degrees by the morning so they reckon the new snow won't stick around long. 

What a palaver!

Fortune_Smiles

Glad to hear you got home safely Cheery 🙂

Fortune x

themadvix

That’s rather a lot of snow Cheery! Another one glad to hear you’re home safe.

EssexHebridean

Hurrah for lovely pals with comfy sofa beds - and for making it home safely in the end! 

teapot2

Glad you got home safely eventually and hope you can have a more peaceful day tomorrow

beanielou

Blimey, that looks dire.
Glad that you got home ok in the end!

Suffolk_lass

Gosh, we haven't had anything like that since the Beast from the East Spring. There were people praising the farmers then for clearing the B road into the nearest town - then it was mentioned that if they had not removed the hedging because they did not want the cost of maintaining it, the drifts would have been much reduced. To this day, the field on the corner just along from us floods really badly and onto the road too, and it is because there are no hedge roots, and the prevailing wind has blown the soil across the road, causing a dip and he is on his way to a pond 

Glad you got home safely. Stay safe

Cheery_Daff

Thanks all 😊 SuffolkLass, yes, these things often have consequences (and sometimes that people could have seen in advance...) 🙄

It rained quite a bit overnight, and it's considerably warmer today with the sun out, so things are thawing rapidly here. Pretty much all the main roads are open now, and the remaining shut ones are because of trees across the road, I believe. We're going to venture out on a little excursion shortly I think.

Then later, I really must have a little think about life admin. I'm all over the place, don't feel like I've done anything useful for weeks!

Elisheba

My goodness, that was a lot of snow! We didn't get any settling where I am! And it's great you have a friend you can prevail upon for 3 days in an emergency 😊

Cheery_Daff

I was indeed very grateful to my friend! 

Bit of a lazy one today. Watched a film this morning after letting the chickens out early, quite an indulgence 😂 Then we popped to a nearby town for some errands, and had dinner in a supermarket cafe - £11.35 for two veggie sausage butties, two drinks and two shortbread biscuits, so not too bad.

Chickens have been cleaned out, some inspiring YouTube videos watched. Our egg stash is getting a little out of hand with the new chickens so I've boiled about 9 think for easy lunches this week. Mushroom stash was also getting out of hand - one box was starting to turn, and Mr Cheery bought a new box yesterday. I've turned the old ones into mushroom soup (currently in the hay box, to be eaten tomorrow) and I've out two thirds of the new ones into the dehydrator. I love having dried mushrooms as an ingredient - they seem so much more flavourful than fresh, and they go slightly chewy which I really like in a risotto. 

Winding down now though. My weeks have been all muddled and I barely know if I'm coming or going. More strikes coming up, so this week I'm just working Monday and Tuesday, and the next week just Thursday and Friday 😮 Cant wait to get back into normal routine but that might be a while off yet! 

I'm going to create a bit of a plan for strike days - there are plenty of things that have been just stagnating for a while, and I'd like to get some of them off the ground. 

Not tonight though!