What A Difference!

This afternoon on February 5, 2025, the temperatures topped 80 degrees Fahrenheit!  It warmed up!  The bees were flying.  The birds were chirping.  It feels like mid-May.  It is hard to imagine that just two weeks ago, the temperature was a whopping 74 degrees cooler.  That's difficult for us to reconcile.  It must be hard for the cows to comprehend it, too. Amazingly, the animals didn't seem fazed by it all.

We ventured out into the snow, but quickly came inside.  Our heat pump proved to be next to worthless as it kept freezing up and struggled to keep the house 63 degrees.  We burned a whole lot of firewood and kept warm in front of the fireplace, shelling pecans and reading.

Tricia had made some butter and had a quart jar of buttermilk, so she made some buttermilk biscuits.  We poured our cane syrup on top.  I went back for seconds and thirds.

To go along with our biscuits and syrup, the wife also made some homemade Mexican hot chocolate like her mother and grandmother made for her when she was a little girl.  So chocolatey and smooth with a nice cinnamon taste to it.

We continued to sit in front of the fireplace sipping hot chocolate and staying warm!

What a difference that was compared to today.  I was in the pasture working on fixing a PVC ball valve that goes to the cows' water trough in the pasture that had frozen.  Sweat was running down my back and dripping off my nose.  It's only February 5th so I know winter isn't over.  It is very tempting to start planting the spring garden and getting a head start, but I would be unwise to do so.  We are sure to get another freeze that would render that work all for naught.