It's Clucking Cold!

It’s Clucking Cold. Not just sort of cold, or a little chilly, but Clucking Cold. I’m incredibly thankful that my house has such a large unfinished basement because as of late, I have two victims of the cold bedded down in respective kennels to recover and hopefully recoup until this insane cold snap passes over. Sassy the cat and Henrietta the chicken have taken up temporary residence and I have a feeling that these won’t be the only ones admitted to this “inside barn” before it’s all said and done. The temperatures this morning were registering in the negative (-5 degrees to be precise) and I couldn’t bring myself to go down to the coop to open the big door. My thoughts being that the closed door will help hold some of the heat into the coop and protect the birds. I’ve already found one bird deceased in the coop a few days ago and now trying to prevent a second or god forbid, third or more.  

Water freezes quickly in these temperatures if not under a heat source and refilling waterers and cleaning has been next to impossible. The outside hose is frozen and the barn doesn’t have running water yet. At least if there was snow, I could always fill a waterer with snow and let the heater underneath it do the work of turning the white fluff into water, but in this cold—that’s not possible. The nearest water source from the barn is up at the house which is roughly a 150 foot walk uphill (no joke) and then into the bathtub to fill because the waterer is too large for the kitchen sink (not to mention the yuck factor). I have gotten wiser in this frigid environment and learned to get 5 gallon buckets with lids to fill with water so that I don’t have to have the chicken waterer in the bathtub, but that still involves trying not to spill water as I carry the waterer out of the house down to the barn. Spilled water outside quickly turns to ice and, if not paying attention, results in slipping and spillage down one’s coveralls creating instant chill.  

We’re only in the beginning of January and I’m already over the cold – I can’t imagine what my state of mind is going to be at the end of February when the snow really gets going and the wind picks up, creating a sort of liquid nitrogen feel across one’s face as daily chores are completed. I also can’t imagine how Sassy and Henrietta are going to feel if a warmer streak comes and those “patients” are ousted back to the barn. I may end up with a chicken and cat at my back door begging to come back in. This winter is a true test of farming and if I and the other animals can make it through to April 1^st, I think we can call it a success.  

In the meantime, if you need me, just look for something resembling a Stay Puft purple and brown marshmallow, shuffling through the farm buildings and trying to keep animals as comfortable as possible. You most likely will see a parade of animals following this figure back to the house to try and come in with the others. I’m convinced that’s their goal this winter.