The New Year of 2008 has come in like a lion here at Pure Water Hollow! January 1st saw a snow advisory for our area with 3-5 inches of snow expected overnight as well as a wind advisory with drifting snow and temperatures in the low teens. We had flurries all day, but nothing stuck until about 8:00 P.M. when a friend called to let us know about school being called off for the next day because of the snow. We turned the flood light on and were amazed at the sight of everything being white and snow blowing so hard that it looked like a blizzard!
The weather service issued another snow advisory for today with an additional 1-3 inches of snow expected. Around 1:00 our thermometer had risen to 20 degrees and we decided it was probably about as warm as it was going to get and our animals needed attention. The computer said that the wind chill would make it feel like 4 degrees so it was bundle up time: gloves, two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, two shirts, a hooded sweatshirt, and coat. Christina and Simon thought it was funny when I expanded the size on my John Deere cap and placed it over top of my hood!
The first thing was to see if the truck would start and turn the heat on to melt the snow and ice off the windshield. The old truck started fine and then I went in to get the boiling water I had on the stove. I needed to boil some water to pour down our hand pump in order to unfreeze it. There were several inches of snow stacked up on the spout and the pump handle was not going to move at all. It did not take much water to get the pump thawed out and primed and I began pumping water into the buckets. The wind was biting cold and snow was blowing down off the trees above, but the pumping action filled the buckets quickly. We use 5-gallon plastic buckets, which have plastic lids that snap down on them to close them up. If we didn’t use the lids we would loose much of the water going up the bumpy hill in the truck. Except for the cold, wind, and snow, everything was going just like it does most days.
Matthew, Christina and Simon had bundled up too, and they did some sled-riding with Erica while I was working with the pump. This was the second time today that they had some adventures on the sled-riding hill. I stopped to feed the chickens, which did not want to come out of the coop, and I watched the children go down the hill a few times. Soon we all (minus Erica) headed up to the barn to see how the pigs and goats were doing.
I carried one of the buckets of water over to the goat lot along with a bucket of feed. Their water pans were frozen. One was frozen so solid that it could not be broken up, but the other one was able to be broken up with water still beneath. After chiseling away the ice and dumping it, I was able to put some water in it to rinse it out. I usually rub all over the bottom of the pan with my fingers to get every bit of dirt cleaned out, but that tends to get my fingers wet. I decided that would not be wise in 4 degree wind chill, but my fingertips did get a bit wet anyway. (I am thankful for the new gloves Lisa got me for Christmas.) The goats did not go for the new water as quickly as I thought they would, but they did drink some. I tried telling them to drink now because it would freeze again pretty soon, but I don’t think they understood. They did eat some grain but they were preferring to stay under their roof and in their house. I noticed later from across the ravine that they were greedily drinking the water, thankfully.
When I got back to the barn, Matthew was finished feeding the 4 shoats we are housing there. Some of the milk we have in storage was frozen, but most of the jugs in the inner stall were not. These four pigs have plenty of straw, as we gave them two bales yesterday in preparation for this cold spell. Simon and Christina worked on chiseling out the ice and scraping it out with a hoe in the pigs water trough in the barn and then we filled it with another 5-gallon bucket of water. The pigs were thirsty a bit, but by this time they were nuzzling down beneath the straw for a nice winters nap after filling their bellies with the pig chow milk shakes and corn in their feeding trough. Again I told them all to come over and get some water, because it will freeze later, but alas, they either did not understand me or else they basically ignored me.
Matthew had mixed up a couple of buckets of corn meal milk shakes for the other 5 hogs in the big lots and loaded them on the truck. I had stood around for some time watching the girl pigs and waiting on Christina and Simon to finish with the water trough and I started having trouble feeling my toes at this point. We had already been out for over an hour and I thought we had better get a move on.
In the large lots we have our boar, two sows, and the two big barrows from July’s litter. I am amazed how huge Rufus is now. He was laying down in the straw in one of the pig sties when we came up but Nellie and Sally and the barrows were greeting us rudely at the gate. Soon the sleepy gentle giant Rufus came out for his food. The lot had been very muddy but now was all frozen so it was much easier walking around. We feed these pigs in two troughs, a large one and a small one, as well as place several piles of corn around on the ground in different places. This way there is plenty of room and less fighting. It is fun to watch the pigs each go around and around visiting each feeding station. Usually when one goes, a couple of the others race to the same spot just to fight a bit.
The snow began falling rather heavily as we were watching the pigs here and the wind had died down. It was incredibly beautiful at this moment, looking across the ravine at the forested hill all covered in white, with heavy snow coming down all around us. Christina and Simon were playing in the snow beside the lot and Matthew seemed to be enjoying watching the pigs and snow as well. My toes were no longer bothering me now and I decided to linger and enjoy the moment.
Matthew mentioned that the only thing that felt very cold were his cheeks. Due to my full beard, I don’t have that problem much. It was during this time, however, that I realized there was actually ice in my moustache and beard!
Another reason to linger was because I wanted them to clean out all the slop in their troughs so I could fill them up with water. They can usually drink from their nipple waterer in this lot. I have it attached to a storage tank (a converted pick-up truck toolbox) that holds about 60 gallons of water. It works good most of the time but the pipe freezes up good in weather like we are having now. It will thaw in a few days, but in the meantime I thought we could just use the feeding troughs to hold water after they are finished feeding. I was amazed at how long it took them to clean up their troughs good enough. For some reason they were enjoying the corn on the ground better than the corn-meal milk shakes. In the meantime, Matthew went to get more straw for the pig sty they stay in the most.
Eventually I decided to put some corn in their troughs and sure enough, they cleaned up the food trying to get all the corn. Now I could fill up the troughs with clean water. Or could I? It had now been a couple of hours since I filled the water buckets and this particular bucket had been setting here for quite some time with the lid snapped on. I got my fingers out of my gloves and tried to take the lid off like we always do. It was frozen tight and would not come off! The trough was finally ready for water but the winter cold wanted to deny it! I did finally get one small part of the lid cracked open so a trickle of water could come out. I’m not sure, but I think there was some ice inside the bucket as well. I held the bucket over the trough for what seemed like a very long time, allowing the water to slowly fill the up the trough. Eventually the trough was full with whitish looking clean water. I didn’t think they would mind much for the milky/corny tint to the water. (I guess you could call this flavored water for pigs!) I told them all to come up and get some water now because it would freeze later, but they did not seem too concerned about it. Some of them did drink before we left.
All the animals now had fresh food and water and we weren’t any worse for the wear. I decided it would be good if I could talk to the animals like Dr. Dolittle and make sure they understood that they would only have a small window of time to drink water, and then it would not be until tomorrow sometime before they would have water again. The weather man says our temperatures will not be above freezing until Saturday. If he is correct it will be a total of about 96 hours of below freezing, going from Tuesday noon to Saturday noon. We still have about 60 hours of freezing left in that scenario!
It was actually pretty much fun feeding the animals in the freezing, blowing snow. It made it feel like more of an adventure and it was a satisfying feeling to be able to take care of the stock and know that they would be fine. The weather channel is not predicting any more snow for tomorrow, so tomorrow we will just be feeding the animals on a freezing day with snow on the ground, but not the wind or snow blowing in our face.
Feeding and watering the animals in real winter weather is not a problem for just a few days, but I can see how it could get tiring and tough if we ever have a real bad winter for an extended time. So far it doesn’t look like that will be the case, as the weather channel folks say that next week we will be in the 60s every day again with lows in the 40s. We will thank the Lord for whatever weather He sees fit to put our way, and we will rely on His help no matter what we face!
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2 comments
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faithfarm on January 2, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Sounds like you have it under control! I thought I would share a tip I learned from a fellow goat farmer and it worked well for me. Take hot-as hot as you can get from your tap and put it out fot the goats-they drink it like the first morning cup of coffee! I've had to use this tip for the last few weeks off and on and it has helped the goats water intake alot. Goats normal body temperature is alot higher than ours and they seem to really appreciate the hot water in the mornings. Hope this helps.
Blessings
Faith Farm
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Rachel on January 2, 2008 at 9:25 pm
You might laugh at this, but it all sounds soooooo nice to me right now! We are trying to stay cool at the moment in our part of New Zealand, on a hot hot day with a hot wind blowing a gale across our plains. I did harvest my first vegetables today though.
The snow sounds wonderful! I love reading your blog – I learn a lot from it and it's enjoyable reading.
Rachel
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