The beginning of March saw high winds (50 mph+) and dropping temperatures. Although we did not experienced temperatures as low as the cold snap of early December 2017, the freeze at the beginning of Spring coupled with high winds meant below sub zero temperatures for over a week. No running water for six days was not as detrimental to our smallholding with only two cattle and 19 hens as our neighbours with hundreds/thousands of sheep but filling up 5 litre bottles from the trickle of water still flowing in a mostly frozen hillside stream on the edge of our holding in biting Siberian winds is not for the faint hearted. I wouldn’t say that either the Beast from the East or Storm Emma broke us but we were more than relieved when temperatures reached a few degrees positive on Sunday 4th March and water begun flowing from taps again. We hadn’t been snowed in for 9 days like our courageous off grid neighbours Russell and Kelly but we were physically tired from the extra work keeping animals in, clean, fed and watered in what should have been early Spring.
