43 days...no end in sight...

We have been "snowed out" for 43 days.  In truth, the snow isn't as bad as it was, but the roads are still bad enough that we can't take our trucks on the road to get the work done that we need to get done!

Woody took the quad up the other day...

It doesn't look too bad at first.

Then it gets a bit worse...

And a bit worse...

Oh, that looks really icky...

And then it just gets bad.


So... short story long, we are still not able to get our chores done so we can move back in.  But we can start on some of them!  Since he can get the quad in, he can do some of the lightweight chores done.  Once the truck can get up there, we can get some the heavy chores done, then we'll be able to go home!  Baby steps!

The Latest

Woody and the Jeep folk made it up to the cabin yesterday!!!  It wasn't too hard for the jeeps, but Woody doesn't think we'll be able to get our heavy rigs up there any time soon...  Here is the latest and greatest pic!!  There is still quite a bit of snow, even though the jeeps are sitting on top.  There's about 18 inches or so!

This just got serious...

Geez.  It's only been 10 days since my last post about challenges.  They just keep coming at us like waves.  Yesterday was our greatest challenge so far.  Walking away from the cabin.  Here's the view as I said goodbye to The Broken Badger.

So what happened?  Well, here is the account of the epic journey:

We have abandoned ship. We really weren't as well prepared as we needed to be, then a bunch of different circumstances came together into the perfect storm, and we couldn't overcome. We decided on Monday (21st) that we had to come out. It was Woody's 5 day weekend, and we had actually made a trip out to the Tri-Cities on Saturday with the GMC (and the dogs, of course). It was dicey, but still doable. Then a big storm came. With the new snow we had about 2 feet at the cabin, plus the drifting, and weren't sure what the road would look like up top. We were fairly sure that Woody could barrel out in the old ford (since it's mainly downhill), but also fairly sure that he wouldn't be back for 3 weeks.

And that would be fine, right? After all, that is what I had planned for and I've probably got 4 months worth of food up there. I could stretch it to 6 months if I worked at it. We're still waiting on the pump, so without Woody hauling water, I would have to use my emergency water and melt snow, but that's fine, too. But ya know what? I didn't have enough firewood.

Because of the burn bans and the complete forest shutdown because of the fire risk, we didn't get in a boatload of firewood like we should have. Shoot, I think the shutdown actually ran through September. So we have been piecemealing our firewood supply together as we could. We would drop a tree and get it into rounds, and up to the house and I would split it while Woody was at work. Unfortunately, once the roads started to get worse, he couldn't haul those bigger loads - just smaller ones. And once the concept of him not being able to get back in at all came up... well, that was it. Our 'redundancy' was sorely lacking. Due to living IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FOREST, I never planned on being OUT of firewood, so my propane backup was a little more than a weeks worth of emergency stock. And 3 out of 4 of our generators have gone tits up this year (including our new one!!!) so any thoughts of using a space heater for emergency were gone as well (even if I wasn't depending on Woody for hauling the gasoline in for them...).

And our quad broke. And the snowmobile has an 'issue'. It runs, but is less dependable than it should be. And Woody's number one chainsaw broke. And and and....

So anyway, we decided to come out on Tuesday. We were lucky enough that one of our friends from town (with a Jeep) had the day off and was happy to come out and break trail for us. So we loaded up the GMC with a few weeks worth of stuff, bedding, clothes and dogs, and started off once they got there. We made it about 15 feet. He hooked on and tried to pull us out, but we had already dug it in pretty good and no amount of tugging was going to help at that point. So we unloaded the truck to the jeep, made about 3 trips with our stuff up the hill, and loaded it into the old ford. We walked up the hill... who's bloody idea was that??? Then sent back the jeep one more time for some booze. (BECAUSE.)

So off we go. Even with the trail being broken - it was epic. Epic, epic, epic. We were just trying to keep up momentum so we didn't get stuck, the old ford was bouncing like a monkey on crack, we were BLASTING through drifts 3 - 4 feet high, throwing snow rooster tails over the cab of the truck, I was clutching the dogs for dear life (sleeping dogs, really???), when Woody wasn't pooping his pants he was trying to deny he was kind of having fun.... Epic.

The Jeep had to tug us out once, but over all the downhill/momentum plan worked out. Shoot, did I mention we had 2 teenagers in the bed of the truck for the ride out? Fricking country kids, tough as nails.

Crashed at our friends house for a couple days, where poor little Buddy got attacked by their heeler (not bad enough for vet, thank goodness), and there was a ham incident. Now we are holed up in a single wide in a neighboring community.

So anyway, that is our sad, sad story. By the way - this community is amazing. I don't think there is anywhere else in the world like it. It's a fricking gem.

Walking to the post office in downtown Bickleton!

The Aftermath

Yesterday and last night an epic windstorm blew through. There were deaths in Spokane and over a quarter million people in Washington lost power. Our weather station from CostCo did not work out, so I'm unsure of the gusts, but they were well over 50 MPH.  It was the first time since I'd lived in tornado alley that the weather caused everyone to move away from the windows for safety!

So I did our first review of the property to see the damage from the windstorm. Overall not bad. We'd done quite a bit of prep in anticipation and it paid off. The truck was parked behind the greenhouse so it wouldn't take flight again, and most everything had been tied down to something else. We'd missed a few things that I had to fix during the storm, or Woody did when he got home, but fared much better than the last storm. 

The house on the other hand needs some work. While built very sturdily, it just wasn't ready for the force of the rain pummeling it straight on for hours with 40+mph winds. Part of that is our fault...did not take time for proper maintenance this summer. We had some major leakage frown emoticon Woody's fixing that right now. Also damaged the storm door. Also need to resolve downdraft issues with the woodstove - had to fall back a redundancy level for heat!!! All was good tho. We were prepared for that and rode out the storm watching a movie. 

Now it's a gorgeous morning, everything is getting cleaned up and we'll take a ride later to clear the road if necessary. Just another day out yonder!

Water!!!!! Almost....

One of the most important things on a farm or homestead is water.  Especially in a dry area.  While we don't have a water source on the property, there are many springs in the area, and we found that encouraging when we purchased the land.  In the last few years, one of our closest neighbors drilled a well, and that got us even more excited!  

So once Woody got his job up here we set to liquidating assets in order to be able to afford water.  In our area, 300 feet is fairly standard.  I budgeted for 400 feet, just in case, and we got on the schedule for the well guy.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Well guys are in high demand.  Amazingly high demand.  After waiting 5 months, I got the call.  "We'll be up tomorrow."  Geez, thanks for the warning guys!

So the next day I went to town to pick me up some well guys.  This is what followed me home:

I was so excited!  The day after that they started drilling.  We decided to go down to 

340 feet max - for a handful of different reasons.  And we hit water!!!!!!  We won't have to rely on the kindness of strangers, or public facilities with hose bibs, or snow melt!  We may not die after all!

Despite all the waiting (followed by short notice), I really liked our well guy, both personally and professionally.  I would definitely use Schroder's Well Drilling out of Goldendale, WA if I ever need a well again.  (Please, if I ever need a well again, just take me out back....my wallet can't handle it!)

Our next challenge is finding the right pump and getting it installed...

A quick update

The chickens are still locked up - they hate it and won't lay any eggs.  The egg business (which basically just makes the chickens support themselves) is in the toilet.


We went out of town!  Up to the cabin, aka The Broken Badger!  Husband did quite a bit of work, including one more window and caulking it up so the wind isn't so intense inside.  I verified the hammock still works.

New window and cedar shakes done

We had a coyote siting!!  It was checking out the trap but did not take the bait.  I would have shot it, but we had just gotten back from being out of town and the guns were all locked up.  D'oh!


The chicks are getting feathers and are out of the cute poofy phase.  If they could only stay small forever!  This one's pretty cute though:

Cammie exhausted on ride home

I'm working on a new guest post for Suzanne over at Farm Bell Recipes... I don't want to give it away, but it includes:

Okay - off to go hunting in my back pasture!

Weather at the farm

7-Day Forecast for Latitude 45.99°N and Longitude 120.44°W (Elev. 3838 ft)

So why "The Broken Badger?"

When we first bought our property in Bickleton, we went exploring.  We had fallen in love so instantly with the property when we first saw it, that we bought it before we explored it much (shoot, 3 years later there are still areas I've never seen....)  We travelled all the roads and walked some of the property lines.  Traversed the fields and crossed the draws.  Wait... what is that?  We found 3 large holes.  Two in the forested draws and one ontop of a mound in the field.  They were burrow like and about 8-10 inches across.  I have no idea how deep they were, as there was no way I was getting close enough to find out!!  Who knows what could be down there.  Well, after some research and talking to the locals, we have come to the conclusion that it must be badgers.  Badgers are mean.  I mean, they are just trying to get along, just like the rest of us, but they happen to do it in a rather fiesty way.  Which is exactly why we will try to give them a wide berth.  Luckily, they tend to have a very wide range and will go from burrow to burrow as they range.  Unless this guy spend winter in one of the burrows on our property, s/he will probably only be with us a few times a year.  Our biggest badger concern revolves around the dog.  As fate would have it, we have a dachshund.  They were originally bred to go after badgers.  Great.  Of course, our little baby is a mini-dachshund, so she is much smaller than the standard 20 plus pound dog that is the true badger dog.  But don't tell her that!  She thinks she is a 300 pound guard dog - and a hunter.  She will stick her nose into any little hole in the yard trying to get ahold of whatever rodent may have been in there.  It's her job, it's in her blood, it's what she does.  On to the name "Broken Badger."  Since badgers are always on our minds when we are at the property, it should come as no surprise that I would start naming things after them.  We have been periodically working on a cabin up there for the last couple years.  One of the times that Woody was diligently banging away on the cabin, I went a'wandering.  When I looked back at the cabin, it just struck me - its name is The Broken Badger.  (Yes - I often have these random "this is how it is" thoughts.)  I began to have images of our friends from town saying, "Hey, let's go see Shae and Woody up at the Broken Badger!"  Okay, that might be pushing it, but still, the cabin has a name! The Broken Badger