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Well, I may not be doing well generally, but I do feel more like myself whenever I spend some time outside.
The difficulty being, today was between -24 and -20, plus wind chill in the afternoon which takes it to "frostbite in minutes" according to the weather report. So I kept hopping out for anywhere between fifteen minutes and an hour, hopping back in, warming up, and hopping back out. Everyone got water twice, food twice or three times, and fresh straw.
I also hammered and sledged ice away from the tap so I could fit the buckets under it again. Each time a drop splashes outside the bucket it builds up another layer of ice, like a candle, until the ice on the side of the house is so thick the bucket doesn't fit anymore. It's a problem.
The muscovies got a heat lamp, which because the cord that runs out there got its plug frozen into the ice, meant running a chain of three extension cords out there. Then when I was fiddling with the heat lamp I had out there, the cold caused the casing on the heat lamp cord to snap in two places, so I needed to get a new heat lamp too.
I'm concerned about the pigs. They seem to be ok-- they aren't shivering in the mornings, and there are so many of them in those pig houses it stays pretty warm in there. But every time I give them straw they just pack it down under them instead of burrowing under it and using it as insulation. I guess they don't need the insulation yet. I keep giving them straw and they keep packing it down, though, it feels like a waste? Maybe after the butcher there'll be fewer and they'll go under. I don't seal up all the holes in the houses because the moisture needs to vent, to avoid frostbite -- but normally there's a lot more snow up against the sides of the A-frame as external insulation at this point, and then I go around with a shovel and heap some up against the walls of the square ones. I'll inspect in the morning and see, as usual. This really would be a whole different experience if I could just rest and be sure that everyone out there was doing well, but each winter there's a different set of situations during the cold spike.
This cold means super dry, which means my fingers don't freeze to things. That's good. It also means I touch metal things, which is bad: metal really does feel like it's burning at these temperatures.
It would be nice to have someone around who is familiar with these experiences. It really is very different from anywhere else. Yet another set of experiences that, when I describe them to people, they just look at me funny. I guess that's kind of my whole life.
The difficulty being, today was between -24 and -20, plus wind chill in the afternoon which takes it to "frostbite in minutes" according to the weather report. So I kept hopping out for anywhere between fifteen minutes and an hour, hopping back in, warming up, and hopping back out. Everyone got water twice, food twice or three times, and fresh straw.
I also hammered and sledged ice away from the tap so I could fit the buckets under it again. Each time a drop splashes outside the bucket it builds up another layer of ice, like a candle, until the ice on the side of the house is so thick the bucket doesn't fit anymore. It's a problem.
The muscovies got a heat lamp, which because the cord that runs out there got its plug frozen into the ice, meant running a chain of three extension cords out there. Then when I was fiddling with the heat lamp I had out there, the cold caused the casing on the heat lamp cord to snap in two places, so I needed to get a new heat lamp too.
I'm concerned about the pigs. They seem to be ok-- they aren't shivering in the mornings, and there are so many of them in those pig houses it stays pretty warm in there. But every time I give them straw they just pack it down under them instead of burrowing under it and using it as insulation. I guess they don't need the insulation yet. I keep giving them straw and they keep packing it down, though, it feels like a waste? Maybe after the butcher there'll be fewer and they'll go under. I don't seal up all the holes in the houses because the moisture needs to vent, to avoid frostbite -- but normally there's a lot more snow up against the sides of the A-frame as external insulation at this point, and then I go around with a shovel and heap some up against the walls of the square ones. I'll inspect in the morning and see, as usual. This really would be a whole different experience if I could just rest and be sure that everyone out there was doing well, but each winter there's a different set of situations during the cold spike.
This cold means super dry, which means my fingers don't freeze to things. That's good. It also means I touch metal things, which is bad: metal really does feel like it's burning at these temperatures.
It would be nice to have someone around who is familiar with these experiences. It really is very different from anywhere else. Yet another set of experiences that, when I describe them to people, they just look at me funny. I guess that's kind of my whole life.
