We live in the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range. We are also above 1000′ elevation. Our weather patterns differ from what happens in the valley. We average about 6° colder than our closest city and get more wind & rain.

Rain. That’s what I want to know. How much rain do we get. It seems like a lot. Some days it totally bums me out, but I love how lush and green the forest we call home is, so I’ll tolerate it.

Portland receives an average of 35″ – 40″ of rain annually. Temperate rain forests receive 55″ or more of rain. I’m going to take a wild guess and say we typically reach those 55″. A few hours north of us is the Olympic National Park in Washington. They get 140″+ of rain annually. I’m also going to take a guess and say we don’t get quite that much. My guesstimate is we will get somewhere between 60″ and 80″ of rain in 2017.

Farmer John put up a new weather station the evening of December 31st, so we were ready to start the new year collecting data. Woop, woop!

Here is what we have so far:

2017 Rainfall

2017 Rain Total: 154.63″

January: 12.12″ ( +22.5″ snow)
February: 30.18″ (+12.75″ snow)
March: 28.49″ (+7.5″ snow)
April: 15.45″
May: 7.16″
June: 3.28″
July: 0.01″
August: 0.34″
September: 5.02″
October: 15.06″
November: 25.54″
December: 11.98″ (+2.5″ snow)

January 2018 update: Apparently I was off on my guesstimate – by nearly half. We ended up with 154″ of rain in 2017. I knew we got a lot, but I didn’t know it would be that much. Maybe it was a really wet year? I will be keeping track in 2018 to compare.

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• So many wild birds. Not sure if they’re passing through or if they’re here to stay throughout winter.
• Vern
• Smoked tilapia on the treager. So good!
• Farm Kid2 added tires in the field for the goats to play on.
• Last week our dog got in a scuffle with a porcupine. On Sunday, the kids saw the porcupine in our yard. Such a cute little fella, but he didn’t do our dog any favors.
• Farmer John used a net to catch a couple tilapia. In the net were fish eggs! This is a first for us. Now that he disturbed them, I’m not sure they’ll make it. But, now we now it’s possible and to keep an eye out for them.
• I’ve been collecting the goat’s milk and leaving it in the fridge. I made something with it for the first time – Cheddar Broccoli Soup. It didn’t turn out perfect, but it tastes fine.
• We were supposed to get a crazy storm this last weekend. Thankfully, it didn’t end up being as crazy as predicted. We had a bunch of things blown around and a lot of rain. Not too bad.
• There is drama in the barnyard. Sven, who has always thought he was top goat ’round here, has been put in his place by Willow. Sven, Willow, and Vern are all scared of the ornery rooster that lives with them. When its feeding time, he pecks them all on the nose. Apparently he is not good at sharing. I haven’t decided the best plan of action to remedy the situation, but we should fix it soon before a goat gets hurt.

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This week was a lot less eventful than last week. And, I’m so very glad. We just had to tend to all the everyday feedings and such.

•  It’s warming up, but the first half of the week involved walking oh so carefully in the icy conditions to feed all the critters.

• The rain has returned. A tad more than I would like.

• The ducks are still content playing in the puddles on the patio. And so, the patio continues to be covered in poop.

• A few of the chickens, including a white leghorn, are not looking their best in the muddy conditions.

• Not many, but, we are getting a few eggs during these winter months.

• Pictured top right is our Old English Game Bantam. I think he’s quite handsome. He’s meant to be a 4H show chicken, but since none of our kids are participating in 4H this year he just gets to be our pet without the stress of showing off.

• Oliver, the pot bellied pig, and his goat friend, Lois, are still with us. Every morning I feed them in their shelter, but Lois always comes back out to get an extra hand out from me.

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The weather forecast is getting predictable. Rain. Followed by rain. And more rain.

This December is officially the wettest month in 75 years. That’s sayin’ a lot since we live in Oregon. And, the month isn’t even over yet. We still have over a week left in December.

After such a dry summer, a little rain is nice. But, we’ve had enough now. I’d like at least a day or two of feeding the critters without coming back in looking and feeling like a drowned rat.

I took a screen shot of the forecast pinpointed at our house about a week into the rainy days. Some days the rain has been accentuated with wind. Lots of wind. Thankfully, our power has only gone out once during this crazy weather.

We’ve had numerous flood watches and warnings, as well. It’s been rough for many people due to flooding. Our friend’s driveway had water knee deep. Since we are near the top of a ridge, flooding at our home isn’t a problem. Our only issue is getting to town sometimes when there is flooding across the road in the lower areas coming off our hill.

For three weeks now this has been the view out our kitchen window.

The little birds search for food even in the downpours.
Left: Dark-eyed Junco
Right: Song Sparrow

The rain hasn’t seemed to bother the ducks much. But, I wonder if they’ve had to spend more time preening to stay dry. Ducks have a gland that produces oil. They rub the oil over their feathers for a waterproof effect.

Our ducks have spent a lot of time lately preening, bathing and drinking the water collecting on our new patio.

Tonight’s forecast includes a Winter Storm Warning. We’re in an iffy zone weather wise. We could get 1 – 2 feet of snow, or we could get nothin’. It would be awesome, though, if it actually did snow on Christmas. We don’t get many white Christmas’s around here.

I’m not really complaining about all the exciting weather we’ve been having. Thankfully, we’ve had very few problems. I’m simply getting tired of the wet gloominess day after day.

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Weather

October’s weather started out nice enough, but has now turned to crap. Rain. Fog. Wind. Typical for this time of year.

Spider Webs

The spiders have been busy lately. Lots of web making going on. And, in the right light they look super cool.
  

Power Outage

This weekend was stormy.

I had to take the long way home due to a tree being across the road. Then we came home to the power being out. Our phone was out for awhile, as well. When it was working, though, I frequently called the power company to report our outage and the line was busy every single time I called. I wonder if there phone wasn’t working either? I never did get through, but thankfully around 4:00 the next day the crew came to fix the line.

I can handle not having tv, or computer, or microwave. But, I hate being without light. And, at this time of year it’s getting dark fairly early. Darn it! However, it did give us a nice excuse to go to bed early. I snuggled with my 2 kids that were home, read them Halloween stories & they were asleep easily by 8:00, maybe earlier. I stayed up a little later and read Wildwood. It is a middle-grade fantasy based in the urban forest area outside of Portland.

I think I have mentioned it before, but it’s worth mentioning again.
Most of the year, I am not a fan of our propane stove. It is very hard to adjust the temperature. There are even special burners that are supposed to help with this problem. One is meant to boil water quickly, which is a larger burner. There is also a small burner & 2 medium sized burners. There is virtually no difference between any of them. We’ve had the stove since we moved in 6 years ago. The stove & I still fight.

On days the power is out, though, I love, love, love that we have a stove that runs on propane. It means on the cold evenings we still get warm food.

Ducks

The ducks, of course, don’t seem to mind the crummy weather. It can be pouring outside and they’ll be splashing away in the pond.

Chicken Keeping

In the Spring we hatched lots of chicks. We sold some at the Spring Swap and later sold nearly laying pullets at the Fall Swap. We didn’t purchase birds for meat purposes this year. Instead, from the chicks we hatched, the majority of the cockerels will fill our freezer next month.

Jack-o-Lantern and Chick

Our chickens are happy to eat the pumpkin guts.

I was a little nervous bringing home hatching eggs from the swap. But, we put them in the incubator and all 4 of them started developing. I was pleased! However, they did not survive the power outage.

Goats

Our oldest son wanted to build the goats a play place. So, Farmer John helped him build this. Unfortunately, the goats don’t like it. They won’t climb it. When I set them up on the top, they just jump off. I think with a few changes, though, the goats will enjoy it.

Pigs

Pig raising seems to be going well. Thankfully, Farm Kid1 is pretty good about taking care of them and they are growing. I don’t know if I can call them super cute, but I do love their personalities.

Aquaponics & Greenhouse

In the aquaponics system set up in the greenhouse, the tomatoes, tomatillos & tilapia are all doing fine.

Wildlife

Neighborhood Deer

Happy Halloween

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Most of August was warm, dry & uneventful. However, one night there was a fantastic lightning show that I really could have enjoyed had I not been so nervous about the trees around our house catching on fire. Here in the PNW we get thunder & lightning. But no real great show. It lasts a few minutes and moves on. This time it went on strike after strike for a couple hours straight. I spent those couple hours in awe of nature’s wonders, but also running through my mind the course of events that needed to happen when/if I notice something catch fire. Thankfully, there wasn’t a fire.

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I didn’t name this winter weather event. The media has dubbed these last few days as Snowpocalypse 2014. Geesh.

Why? Because throughout the Willamette Valley down to Salem, and even parts of the coast got 6+ inches of snow & freezing rain. That’s rare. We will get that much at our house usually a couple times a year. But, we are at a higher elevation. All the schools were closed on Friday. An alert was sent out to people’s phones this morning about not driving because of the icy conditions. And, most schools are staying closed tomorrow. I have heard the roads have been treacherous. Personally, I haven’t gone anywhere to find out for myself. All our weekend activities were canceled, so we’ve been chillin’ at home. And, I’m loving it!

Thursday morning started like this:

Saturday afternoon looked like this.
Although this is plenty of snow, it’s not as much as I would have expected for it snowing most of the last 3 days. We ended up with a little over a foot. We were getting itty-bitty snowflakes. This made for fabulously powdery snow that didn’t accumulate too fast. Our high on Thursday was 16°. I’m guessing the colder weather caused smaller snowflakes.

Left: Our chocolate lab didn’t seem to mind the snow.
Right: Looking out a downstairs window. I dumped bird seed on our front porch railing. There have been 20-30 birds hanging out here most of the weekend.

Feeding ducks & chickens needs done in snow, too.

Top Left: The coops all nestled in their blanket of snow.
Top Right: The chickens staying as far away from the white stuff as they can.
Middle Left: Friday’s eggs. I’m happy the cold hasn’t turned off their egg production.
Bottom Right: The ducks didn’t seem to mind the snow.

Chicken coops at the break of dawn this morning.

It got above freezing this afternoon & the snow started to melt. It slid off the coop roof in such a cool way. Somehow it stayed in this curved position all by itself.

Left: Of course we played in the snow.
Right: Only on good snow days do we sled down this hill. We went both yesterday & today. The sledding was great!

Left: I asked my daughter if she wanted to dress up, wear makeup & I’d take her picture. She said yes, both today & yesterday. This girl likes dressing up, looks for any excuse to wear makeup & is a ham for the camera. This group of photos was her as a fairy under the alder arches Farmer John made a couple years ago.
Right: Another group of pics was her in my wedding dress out in the snow.

Warmer weather is here to stay, so the snow should melt fairly quickly & we will have to resume our never ending duties of work, school & kid activities.

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