# State of-Great Urgency!!



## Carla D (Feb 25, 2019)

This morning when we went to the farm it was a complete cluster____.

We were greeted by our intermediate size pigs in a pasture two away which is up against the barn. Spot was in his old area, which he really likes. Then our four big sows were everywhere in between. The snow is so deep where our teenager pigs are. They could easily walk over the fence if they were interested in anything on the other side of the fence. The big door at the back of the barn had been busted down. The top half of that has been covered with boards to keep some of the weather out of the barn and we had long strips of leather belt attached to the bottom to keep more weather out yet allpigs to come and go as they please. The roof of the barn has at least 8-10” of snow on it. Then we have so much snow here that we really don’t have a place to put it even if the tractor was big enough to move it.

We believe the culprit to all of our our bigger pigs not being in their appropriate pasture is Spot, our big boar. One of his girls, Halfy is in heat. She was in the pasture with the three intermediate pigs we have. She had been put into a different pasture that her typical mates, her sisters and her boar because she was being beaten on by her sisters and not allowed to seek shelter in the barn with the rest of her clan. Spot wanted his Halfy. He’s been known to JUMP the fence to gain access to our younger girls when they are in heat. There isn’t typically any snow on the ground in the fall when he was “jumping hurdles”. We think the door covering was bustdown because the big pigs were unable to get in thrithe bottom part because the snow had gotten too high for them to gain access. I think we have had between 2-3’ of snowfall in the last 3-4 days. Today we are supposed to not be getting anymore snow. But Tuesday through the weekend we are supposed be getting a good amount of snow each day. We are really in trouble if the snow doesn’t stop falling soon. We will not only have pigs where we don’t want them, we’ll be hunting them doin all of the snow in the yard, the nearby field, or the neighbors place. All 8 of these pigs are getting too big to be tryto get them back into their pastures.

 These intermediates should not be coming and going into the barn. They have their own shelter.
 This is the gate that Spot somehow managed to break open to get at his girl, Halfy.
This gate has been open for a few weeks so four of our pigs would have a little more space than they would have, had we not opened the gate.
This is our amorous big boar, Spot. Look at how deep that snow is. He could walk over that fence if he wanted to. He has jumped this fence a couple of times when there wasn’t snow on the ground.
    This door had been covered all winter, until today. The barn was every bit as cold as it was outside. It’s typically 20-30 degrees warmer in the barn when everything is buttoned up in this cold. Not this morning. 
 Look at the icicles forming on the roof. They have only been there a couple of days. There are more pictures coming in the comments.


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## Carla D (Feb 25, 2019)

Here’s some more pictures of our disaster waiting to happen.
 This door has been covered all winter to keep the cold out as much as possible.
 There is a pile of hay under the snow next to the fence where the snow appears to be deeper. But there is no hay where only the top two rows of hog panel is exposed.  
 There is typically a path plowed big enough so I can drive either my Durango or the Red Rocket back to the teenagers water bowls and feed trough. It’s so deep now, that I doubt we wilL be able to clear it for several weeks. It’s even way too deep for my DH to haul buckets back there on foot.  Our teenage pigs could very easily walk over the fence in this area of their pasture if they wanted to.
 There is even more snow on this side of the roof than there is on the other side. The Dodge Dakota is sitting on a slab of concrete that is about 4 inches higher than the surrounding ground next to it. So the snow is even deeper there than it looks.   Here’s the old Alice to compare the depth of the snow to. This is about the shallowest the snow is on the entire farm. We are definitely in a state of great urgency. Three days ago we were able to drive back to the teenagers feed and water area. That’s impossible now. Almost 90-95% of this snow has fallen since early February. Everything we’ve gotten this winter to that point had only been less than an inch or two. And most of that had disappeared just before our super, super cold weather that was around -40F, without the windchill figured into that.


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## Baymule (Feb 25, 2019)

I couldn’t like your posts. Can you get them all back in the barn and close them up? Wow..... that’s a lot of freakin snow!


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## Carla D (Feb 25, 2019)

Baymule said:


> I couldn’t like your posts. Can you get them all back in the barn and close them up? Wow..... that’s a lot of freakin snow!


I’m pretty sure that is what will happen this evening.


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## Baymule (Feb 25, 2019)

I bet you plan for this next year. Snow so deep that livestock can walk over the fence?  They will just have to stay in the barn during snow storms!


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## Mini Horses (Feb 25, 2019)

That's way more snow than I want!!  Even to look at 

So sorry for that mess.  Move South!


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## Carla D (Feb 25, 2019)

I’m really really hoping we will be on a different farm next winter. Our own farm. We drove by it yesterday and discovered there is two huge pole sheds, not the one we thought we were seeing both ends of. Plus there are 2 or 3 small sheds as well. We haven’t seen a snowstorm similar to this since Halloween 1991. That was only a foot in one evening. I remember that because it was the year I graduated and the night of my aunts wedding. Prior to that our last monstrous snow storm was 1980. The snow was as tall as the top of house doors, but the drifts were taller than the granary on the place. It’s been 38 years since we’ve seen snow THIS deep. Who could have predicted this snowfall?


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## Baymule (Feb 25, 2019)

I hope that you are on your own farm SOON!


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## Carla D (Feb 25, 2019)

Baymule said:


> I hope that you are on your own farm SOON!


Me too. What we are doing right now is doable, but it’s a stinky PITA.

I’m more worried about the load of snow on the barn roof. That barn is at least 50 years old, and holes all over it.


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