When Our John goes off to work in the morning at 5 am, he brings me a small strong hot freshly ground cup of coffee. Being the romantic soul that I am the first thing I say to him before he leaves for work and won’t be seen again for a good 12 hours, is “What’s the weather like?”
“We’re in for a bit of wind” he said “Gusting up to 50 mph. Warm though.”
“Gale force winds” I said, grateful I was not at sea. “Don’t blow away” and fell straight back to sleep. I never go back to sleep!
I woke an hour later to a branch flying into the side of the house and the wind screaming past the window. TonTon was looking at me through the French doors, his doggy hair blowing backwards, saying “Are you going to Do something? What are you Like? Are you sleeping in! Sleeping IN! The barn is blowing away, all the buckets are in the North 40, the chickens are walking sideways, you have missed your blog deadline and you are sleeping IN!!”
“Bugger.” I said and rolled out of bed. When John’s grandfather’s tenant cut an enormous hole in the front of the barn to fit his new combine harvester many, many years ago, he roughly hung those two enormous doors. They were and still are only fastened at the top, not the bottom. They must be, (Oh I don’t know,) about 16 feet tall. You have seen them. Nothing holding them down. You can imagine what happens when it blows. Usually I have them jammed into place with cement bricks and big hooks and lengths of timber. An ingenious Celi system. As I swung out of bed, pulling on whatever pants were handy and ‘my cleanest dirty shirt over my nightie’ I remembered that I had unhooked the doors and pushed everything open to let the spring in. Nothing was holding the doors down, I had a 50 knot sou’west and I had slept in. I could hear the banging of them from the house.
Those 16 foot doors were making like a kite and blowing right up and crashing down. And not a man in sight. Our John has been called back to work! Ah well. 
And so I pulled and pushed and swore like a fisherman as I dragged those flying doors across and jimmied and heaved until I could lock them down and haul all my bricks and rocks and barriers and railway sleepers back into place. Without any brute to force with, I used the lulls in the wind. As each door fell I rushed in with the heavy stuff and jammed it back into place. The wind screaming as I slowly beat it, I could hear nothing but wind.
By then I was in a moody, so I decided to reorganise all the stock into pregnant and not pregnant. Like everyone I am running right to the day on feed and the pregnant girls need extra, so no wasting that extra feed on fat rams with nothing better to do but chase the girls off. Or a steer that I will fatten on green pasture later.
Moaning Mia was determined to stay with her mother and so they are now in the central pen. Daisy and Hairy MacLairy have set up housekeeping again in the Cow Side. Hairy has the best fleece so I do try to keep him away from the cows and their messes but needs must. He cannot bully Daisy. And the calves, including Queenie Wineti who is bullied by just about everyone, are in the Black Hole of Calcutta – which by the way opens onto the yards with the best trees, so why they all moan and carry on, when I put them in there, I do not know.
Later in the day we went to visit the Old Codger. We talked about this and that, he likes the unit he is in, which I am very pleased about, he is well into his rehab and asked where TonTon was. So I spoke to the staff and they said is he potty trained? I said, well yes! They said, fine, bring him in then. As easy as that.
I told the old codger and it appears that he had already talked to the staff about His Dog. He said that the staff had told him that there was an old lady who lived there, who sat in a corner with her chin on her chest and did not move except to breathe for weeks on end. Someone had brought in a dog a while back and she had opened her eyes into slits (he mimed this bit) put her two little fingers to her mouth ( he mimed that too) and whistled a fantastic sheep dog whistle loud enough to wake the whole place. Scared everyone half to death including the dog – then she smiled, patted the trembling dog and went back to sleep. The Old Codger and I looked at each other. Both coveting her ability to do The Real Whistle.
All things being equal TonTon and I will be going to the Old Folks home on Friday. Remind me to take your eyes in the camera. We will see what we will see and you will see on Saturday.
Today is dawning cloudy but thankfully calm. No smashing doors and flying branches this morning. I am off to the barn to feed out, drag the hoses across and fill water tanks then finish my relocation stockwork. Then clear another garden.
Good morning!
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
88 responses to “Missed the deadline”
Hi Celi,
Glad i found your site! Love to read about your animals and organic food, keep it up! Ben
Thank you ben and welcome! c
Sounds like you have your hands full Celi. I just never have had to deal with real “weather” here in sunny So. Cal and posts like these tell me that I should just stay where I am; all the time. I don’t believe I am made of the same strong thread you are and am always in awe of your obvious physical strength and mental fortitude to accomplish all that you do. I am in sales, at a desk, I do laundry and oversee teenagers. That’s about it. There is one Golden Retriever though.
I am small but have always been strong, and sometimes I have to use my head as well when I am without the physical weight of another person to help! c
Chickens walking sideways? ROFL t
They do it is hysterical to watch them fight the wind and not be blown away! c
It always goes pear-shaped when you sneak a lie-in, ‘things’ know! I’m so glad that TonTon is going to be allowed to visit, I would love to whistle full stop not just sheep dog style. Please take my eyes with you on your visit! 🙂
Like those before me, I was quite worried about you yesterday and kept checking back to see if you’d posted later on. Then today I couldn’t read until now, but was relieved at least to see you were still there after all those horrible storms came through. So glad it is calm again, that all is well, and that you got a little extra sleep…even if the animals weren’t happy about it! Hope you and TonTon have a great visit with the old codger tomorrow!
It was quite nasty weather yesterday but all is well today. i promise not to do it again! c
I was wondering too about where you were yesterday – first thing in the morning with my first cuppa…. love your writings about the animals. We have pet cows/calves, chookies and 2 dogs but they seem to lead a very quiet life by comparison. I used to take one of my goldens to an aged persons home and the responses were amazing. A farmer in another life hadn’t patted (hugged) a dog for years …. a stroke victim with tears in his eyes stroking her …. even the lady who “couldn’t stand dogs – but I like a cat” was moved to some emotion even if not so favourable. Fingers crossed Ton Ton enjoys it. Joy
Thank you Joy and I am looking forward to taking TonTon in tomorrow, we will go early and I hope we can get some shots for you .. c
It’s a wonder YOU didn’t blow away, Celi! My goodness! Those are big doors, and I’m glad you didn’t lose them in the storm. Your responsibilities with the animals are really significant, too, so storms with any strength must give you a huge adrenaline push…that and a lot of grit! You do exemplify the best of resourcefulness! Missed you yesterday. Debra
You certainly had your hands full with the wind.
I always wanted to whistle like that!
Enjoy your outing with TonTon!
Celi, I’m amazed you managed those doors! That must have taken a good strong curse word or two! I heard about that freak storm cutting across Illinois with no decent warning to anyone. Thank goodness all is well and everyone seems to have survived without trauma.
Thank goodness the old fella is in a place that is smart enough to allow the comforting company of pets!
Lol.. Just hearing TonTon speak through you was the highlight for me int his post lol. I can just see his eyes on you saying that if he could talk lol. I don’t know why but I could lol
Will Ton Ton take his frisbee for the older folks to throw!
that is a good idea, I will ask them if there is an outside area for another visit.. c
HiCeli!
Is good to sleeping in once in a while (actually I wish I could do it more often…)
I’m looking forward to watch the images of “our” trip to the Old Folks home 🙂
ah!! morning giovanna! c
Great job on the doors! Woman power!
I can’t wait to see the new lives, soon I hope (not soon enough for you all, I’m sure!)
Happy weekend, C!
yes indeed, not soon enough! c
Love love love this post. I too rarely laugh out loud but did I!
Oh how I know that wind, Cecilia! I’m sorry you had to deal with it! We called them Santa Ana’s in California and they used to pull down fences, trees, dump semis on the freeways and passes, and blow off roof shingles!!!
Yup, that was a very rude awakening, and I am glad that you and the critters are all OK!
~ Lynda
(PS: I think I am officially all caught up with your posts now 😉 )
(laughter) PS I am making chicken stock!! c