June

oatmeal with strawberries, flax seeds, almonds and maple syrup

At last, the warmth and sun return. Looking out my window now, it’s a bright, sunny day that is getting warmer as the sun rises. Yesterday was a different story.

Yesterday was a blustery, cold day that never made it over 50 degrees. Last night, around 6pm, our power went out. This wasn’t alarming, as every time the wind blows even remotely hard around here, the power goes out. We assumed that power would be back in an hour or so, and went about our business cooking dinner on our propane stove and putting the kids to bed by candle light.

When 10pm rolled around and the power was still out, we became a little worried. It was getting very cold (it ended up getting into the lower 30’s last night) and the house was getting below the comfort level. Since we had our chimney fire this spring, things haven’t been re-connected and we had no source of heat. We weren’t worried about ourselves (we have lots of blankets) but we were worried about our chicks. They hadn’t had their heat lamp for hours, and they were huddled together in the way that indicates that they are working to maintain their body heat. They are still very young and cold can be deadly for young chicks.

We got the idea to use two of our tall water glasses, that are about the same height as their brooder box, as hurricane lamps. We put tea light candles inside the glasses and put them in a corner of the brooder box. With the cover on, the glasses came right up to the chicken wire that covers the top of the box, so there was no way for them to tip over. It quickly got warm and as we watched, the chicks seemed to relax and weren’t so huddled.

Luckily, the power came back on around 4am, and our chicks were completely fine. Our garden is fine as well, despite the light frost we received. Life goes on today for all of us at our little homestead. It’s a good day.