By Sarah Zubiate
Founder and Farmer, ZUBI’S
What’s with this crazy, torrential, all-over-the-place weather? Everyone in Dallas — and pretty much the whole state of Texas — faced almost a week of unprecedented snow and ice, followed by a week of warm 70s – 80s temps.
The stories from friends and family during the winter storm have ranged from the wreckage of broken pipes, stuck cars and terrible accidents, and no water or electricity for days, to the fortunate ones who didn’t face any issues or challenges.
If you read my last post, I joyfully discussed and highlighted the fantastic features of our beautiful farm and ranch — rolling hills, majestic trees, exotic animals, and our custom home. All these aspects combined create our family estate filled with love, memories, and experiences, fresh produce from our ZUBI Farms, and a world of adventure.
Incalculable Losses
Unfortunately, this magical place that we find comfort, peace, and solitude in faced such devastation during the polar vortex — the peril of so many exotic animals, the adverse effects of extreme temperatures on our soil and plants, and yes, the breakage of pipes in some of our ranch homes.
When I watch the video below, I feel encouraged and inspired by the beauty of our property and nature — a place in which we escape the hustle and bustle of the city. While farm and ranch life has its own challenges and stress, we typically share and focus on the whimsical aspects of this life.
Yet, snowpocalypse placed us in such a different perspective — hardships on our property and farmland, and the loss of so many animals.
Due to the extreme, prolonged, bone-chilling temperatures, many of our magical animals you see in this above video perished. I won’t burden your hearts with the devastating images, but we lost about three to four dozen of these gorgeous creatures. If you are familiar with Yellowstone, you can understand and appreciate the challenges our ranch manager, ranch hands, and our family faced to ensure that the maximum number of animals remained safe.
If that wasn’t difficult enough, our farming soil at ZUBI Farms was completely frozen over, ruining all of our planted jalapeno and mini sweet pepper seedlings that we planned to harvest this spring/summer for our ZUBI’s dips and salsa.
In addition, several of our smaller and older homes on the property suffered structural and water damage. Yet, thankfully our main home remained unscathed and acted as a refuge to several families who were not so fortunate.
While the winter weather placed us all in difficult situations, we will all bounce back and restore our properties and livelihoods as best as possible. Nothing can get in the way of East Texas’ beautiful landscape and wonderful creatures and the many incredible memories and experiences we share at our “great escape.”
