Deep Winter
Dec. 24th, 2021 08:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormThe real cold is coming. -30C was forecast this week, and -20ish for the last couple nights, but two nights ago I woke up to -26 and now boxing day night is supposed to be -40. There's a significant difference between -20 and -40 from my perspective, though I think for most people inside it's mostly just all cold.
I'm thinking of rigging some heat lamps for the other chickens and the geese. It's challenging with waterfowl (the other chickens also have the breeding anconas in with them) because chickens are reasonably polite with indoor water but waterfowl are not: they will stand in it and splash it all out, or they will get in, get out, and promptly freeze their feet to the ice that was water they splashed out a second ago. If the water is above freezing it's much, much warmer than the outside air so it's a good place to stand and warm toes from their POV. It just isn't sustainable. So I need to make the heat lamps high enough they won't get splashed or hit by wings, low enough they actually heat something up, and the water needs to be covered enough that no one can get into it. If I have heat lamps over the water, it needs to be covered with something non-flammable and that the birds won't freeze to when it's covered in ice and they try to stand on it. I rig something up every year; I have no idea what this year will look like.
Additionally, moisture from the warm water & the animals' breaths is very dangerous. Because the ambient air is so cold, the moisture condenses on skin and can cause frostbite in temperatures that would otherwise be fine. Chicken combs tend to get this kind of frostbite which is why I keep chanteclers and americaunas: chickens with combs flat to their heads that aren't as vulnerable.
Everyone will get more deep straw as insulation - I am so glad I managed to get two large bales of straw last week, and Josh and I rigged up a rope to a tree so I could drive them off. I'm not worried about running out of straw at all so I can bring everyone fresh everyday if they need.
I'm hoping with all the geese pooping all the time I can get some heating from deep bedding going in the woodshed: it's got a deep mixed layer of straw and manure right now, but not enough manure to really heat it up. It's harder to get good bacterial action going in winter when it's already cold, but their bodies on top of it warm it up some. We'll see: it worked the first year I got muscovies.
This is really hard on equipment too: when water freezes in a bucket it freezes fast and often expands enough to pop the bucket. I've lost several of what I thought were indestructible rubber buckets to these temperatures because the bottom blew out. Plastic gets very brittle and tends to snap. Machines aren't thrilled, though I just got some of the recommended 0W-30 oil for the snowblower when it's below -20C, it came with I think 10W and that's what I've been using. It should help. I think the truck might have the wrong oil on it too, it's showing noticeably higher oil pressure when it's cold, but if I use the plug-in heater it seems ok. Plus, equipment-wise, my tap has been hard-frozen since Josh was here despite the temp warming to where it shouldn't have frozen. I'll try a hairdryer on it but I'm worried I may need to open up that wall. Ugh. I'm not sure how much it would cost to run a frost-free standpipe to the pigpen but that couple thousand dollars might be worth it, or at least it feels like it on days like this.
I met a person at a salve-making workshop the other day who remembers this house when her friend lived here long ago. Apparently, in addition to the wire and water to the back barn, there were also garden standpipes for water. Barn, wire, water everywhere: that infrastructure would have been so precious to me. I wish it hadn't been taken out, and I kind of wonder why it was.
Anyhow, I have some chicken stock to can, and some bones on the deck to turn into pork stock to can, and I'll run that through on the coldest day to boost the house a little.
I'm also giving thought to an air purifier/heater item for the bedroom since I know wood heat tends to be hard on the lungs, cats aren't great for me (though they aren't supposed to be in the bedroom; Whiskey lies there with his paws both just outside the threshold) and my lungs are already pretty trashed from years of housecleaning work and forest fires. Any room without the woodstove in it needs a bit of a boost at -40. Anyhow, it's a thought. I did a sweep of the rooms with baseboard heaters (one kleenex on one in the guest room, one bottlecap on one in the pantry) and I think we're as good as it gets.
Below -25 or so I get pretty tired when I spend a bunch of time outside so I'm revising my accomplishments down a little for this next week. If we're all fed and watered and no one gets frostbite I'll consider it a win.
I'm thinking of rigging some heat lamps for the other chickens and the geese. It's challenging with waterfowl (the other chickens also have the breeding anconas in with them) because chickens are reasonably polite with indoor water but waterfowl are not: they will stand in it and splash it all out, or they will get in, get out, and promptly freeze their feet to the ice that was water they splashed out a second ago. If the water is above freezing it's much, much warmer than the outside air so it's a good place to stand and warm toes from their POV. It just isn't sustainable. So I need to make the heat lamps high enough they won't get splashed or hit by wings, low enough they actually heat something up, and the water needs to be covered enough that no one can get into it. If I have heat lamps over the water, it needs to be covered with something non-flammable and that the birds won't freeze to when it's covered in ice and they try to stand on it. I rig something up every year; I have no idea what this year will look like.
Additionally, moisture from the warm water & the animals' breaths is very dangerous. Because the ambient air is so cold, the moisture condenses on skin and can cause frostbite in temperatures that would otherwise be fine. Chicken combs tend to get this kind of frostbite which is why I keep chanteclers and americaunas: chickens with combs flat to their heads that aren't as vulnerable.
Everyone will get more deep straw as insulation - I am so glad I managed to get two large bales of straw last week, and Josh and I rigged up a rope to a tree so I could drive them off. I'm not worried about running out of straw at all so I can bring everyone fresh everyday if they need.
I'm hoping with all the geese pooping all the time I can get some heating from deep bedding going in the woodshed: it's got a deep mixed layer of straw and manure right now, but not enough manure to really heat it up. It's harder to get good bacterial action going in winter when it's already cold, but their bodies on top of it warm it up some. We'll see: it worked the first year I got muscovies.
This is really hard on equipment too: when water freezes in a bucket it freezes fast and often expands enough to pop the bucket. I've lost several of what I thought were indestructible rubber buckets to these temperatures because the bottom blew out. Plastic gets very brittle and tends to snap. Machines aren't thrilled, though I just got some of the recommended 0W-30 oil for the snowblower when it's below -20C, it came with I think 10W and that's what I've been using. It should help. I think the truck might have the wrong oil on it too, it's showing noticeably higher oil pressure when it's cold, but if I use the plug-in heater it seems ok. Plus, equipment-wise, my tap has been hard-frozen since Josh was here despite the temp warming to where it shouldn't have frozen. I'll try a hairdryer on it but I'm worried I may need to open up that wall. Ugh. I'm not sure how much it would cost to run a frost-free standpipe to the pigpen but that couple thousand dollars might be worth it, or at least it feels like it on days like this.
I met a person at a salve-making workshop the other day who remembers this house when her friend lived here long ago. Apparently, in addition to the wire and water to the back barn, there were also garden standpipes for water. Barn, wire, water everywhere: that infrastructure would have been so precious to me. I wish it hadn't been taken out, and I kind of wonder why it was.
Anyhow, I have some chicken stock to can, and some bones on the deck to turn into pork stock to can, and I'll run that through on the coldest day to boost the house a little.
I'm also giving thought to an air purifier/heater item for the bedroom since I know wood heat tends to be hard on the lungs, cats aren't great for me (though they aren't supposed to be in the bedroom; Whiskey lies there with his paws both just outside the threshold) and my lungs are already pretty trashed from years of housecleaning work and forest fires. Any room without the woodstove in it needs a bit of a boost at -40. Anyhow, it's a thought. I did a sweep of the rooms with baseboard heaters (one kleenex on one in the guest room, one bottlecap on one in the pantry) and I think we're as good as it gets.
Below -25 or so I get pretty tired when I spend a bunch of time outside so I'm revising my accomplishments down a little for this next week. If we're all fed and watered and no one gets frostbite I'll consider it a win.
