# brrrrrrrrr....



## ThornyRidge (Jan 3, 2010)

it sure seems that the New Year is starting off in the deep freeze here!  Man it got cold and fast.. we have about 4 -5 inches of snow and the temperature has been down right frigid.. last night it got down to 4 degrees... yuck...  and that is not counting the wind chill which puts it around negative 10!!!!  This morning it was a whopping 18 inside my barn.. my poor little goats.. they are all fluffed out and some were shivering.. Needless to say I spent about 1.5 hours getting more bedding and heating warm water and finally getting all my heated buckets set up and finally when I couldnt feel my fingers or legs I called it quits..  I think the sorriest looking of anyone is the little japanese bantam rooster that has taken up residence in my barn..  he was definately cold and was all fluffed out roosting on my pen fence!  Poor little guy. I had to haul 3 buckets of solid water from the barn up to the house to thaw out.  I hate winter!!!!!  and yet I feel this is only the beginning.  My barn cat (who has taken up residence in the house hmmm?) decided to go back down to barn and I think he may be regretting that choice right about now!  I am just sooooooo thankful I don't do winter birthings... I CAN'T even imagine that right about now


----------



## Heavenly Springs Farm (Jan 3, 2010)

I know what you mean about the cold. I just had this problem this morning. It was about 4 F here. Two of my four goats were very cold. So, I had to put them into a stall. They have a shed outside but they were still cold. I really hate this cold weather. I can't wait until it is over.


----------



## Roll farms (Jan 3, 2010)

2 degrees here this morning, and I have a doe due any day....so we have the monitor going 24-7 so we don't end up w/ kidcycles.


----------



## currycomb (Jan 3, 2010)

well, we had twins when we got home from neighbors new years eve. didn't think the little buckling would make it, mom was stompping all over him. goofy goat didn't really bag up, but she didn't last year either and lost both kids then, so put her in barn to keep tabs on her. well, brought them in the house in a tote with towels warmed in dryer, heated some colostrum i had frozen, and got them eating. good thing too. went out to milk the doe, going to save her colostrum to replace what i used. guess what, no colostrum, and very little milk. and this doe is out of some top quality show lines. a very poor mamma, so i now have a buckling and a doe bottle kids in the house till they get stronger and the weather gets warmer. any one need a bottle baby or a pretty doe?


----------



## Heavenly Springs Farm (Jan 3, 2010)

I think the problem is that it has been so cold here for several weeks and it doesn't look like it is going to go away for another week or so. My little buckling from last year was colder when I went out earlier. So, he is in the garage warming up. He was fine yesterday. He was slower this morning, but was worse this afternoon. I hope he warms up and is ok. All the other goats are fine. They don't act cold at all. This is the first time I have had one do this. I wish I could move somewhere warmer.


----------



## ksalvagno (Jan 3, 2010)

Its darn cold here too. Current temp at 3:45pm is 16 degrees. So far my goats aren't shivering or anything. I close the barn doors at night and open them during the day. So at least there is no drafts at night. The boys seem to be doing fine too. I have lots of straw/hay for them to bed down in and their hay is never empty.


----------



## FarmerChick (Jan 3, 2010)

BBBrrr super cold here also
and I am in the South---what the South---doesn't feel like it..LOL

BBBrrrr


----------



## Roll farms (Jan 3, 2010)

Currycomb wrote:


> and this doe is out of some top quality show lines.


Wouldn't be a boer doe, would it?

Some of the best fullblood boer does I've owned...have been the worst kidders / moms.  That's why I started crossing them to Kikos and dairies.


----------



## Goatzilla (Jan 3, 2010)

I'm absolutley positive that the global warming theory is a bunch of crap. If the polar bears are running out of habitat, they can move into my backyard. I'm sure they'll do fine here.


----------



## mdoerge (Jan 3, 2010)

ThornyRidge said:
			
		

> it sure seems that the New Year is starting off in the deep freeze here!  Man it got cold and fast.. we have about 4 -5 inches of snow and the temperature has been down right frigid.. last night it got down to 4 degrees... yuck...  and that is not counting the wind chill which puts it around negative 10!!!!  This morning it was a whopping 18 inside my barn.. my poor little goats.. they are all fluffed out and some were shivering... I hate winter!!!!!  and yet I feel this is only the beginning.


Unfortunately, it really has just begun for us in NE Ohio... I was spoiled by our mild fall.  Two of mine were shivering a little this morning too.  I felt so sorry for them.


----------



## Goat of Many Colors (Jan 3, 2010)

I wish Al Gore were here in my stalls tonight.  We are waiting on a doe to kid who has been faking me out all week (her due date is tomorrow)  I am in Northwest Florida and the temps are already freezing.  We are supposed to be 20 degrees tonight and 19 tomorrow night and 20's the rest of the week at night.  Our highs during the day are in the high 40's to low 50's.


----------



## ThornyRidge (Jan 3, 2010)

yeah so much for global warming/ el nino/etc... heck if it actually got to 32 here it would feel like a heat wave for sure!!!!  I actually keep my barn closed and all critters inside when it is this cold.. today the sun was out but it only got up to 16.. you know it is bad when there is ice now forming on inside of barn (windows and walls)..  I just am thankful I am not a hand model.. my skin takes a real beating during the winter (dry/cracked and rough).. I am one of those people who can't work well with gloves on.. so needless to say I have to lather up daily and nightly with industrial strength lotions.. how many days till spring?


----------



## Roll farms (Jan 3, 2010)

I put some variety of lotion on my hands every night, then coat them w/ either petroleum jelly or Burts Bees salve, then put my jersey gloves on to 'seal' it in.
My husband always quotes Rhett Butler when he sees my cracked /split /bleeding paws in winter....
"Those are NOT the hands of a lady"...


----------



## samplekasi (Jan 4, 2010)

Roll farms said:
			
		

> I put some variety of lotion on my hands every night, then coat them w/ either petroleum jelly or Burts Bees salve, then put my jersey gloves on to 'seal' it in.
> My husband always quotes Rhett Butler when he sees my cracked /split /bleeding paws in winter....
> "Those are NOT the hands of a lady"...


Corn Huskers Lotion  Greasy as all get out but very nice hands if you do it everyday.


----------



## Marta (Jan 4, 2010)

+15 deg here for the last 2 weeks so you can imagine my shock when I opened the curtains and low and behold it was white with snow drifts of about 1 foot, poor Marta I didnt close the door last night, she seemed ok and she was lying next to the door opening YEP the cold came with a sudden rush, poor trees as well cos they where thinking it was warm enough to flower..eeeeekkkk not another year of NO peaches or Almonds


----------



## hoosiergal (Jan 5, 2010)

that is right here too. cold as can be and my goats are shivering some too. 


			
				Goatzilla said:
			
		

> I'm absolutley positive that the global warming theory is a bunch of crap. If the polar bears are running out of habitat, they can move into my backyard. I'm sure they'll do fine here.


----------



## stano40 (Jan 5, 2010)

Didn't Al Gore get the Nobel Peace Prize for telling everybody about Global Warming?


----------



## ksalvagno (Jan 5, 2010)

Well, I just got done snow blowing PASTURE! I had to make a path to where we dump poop and then snow blow an area so I could dump the poop.  Then I had to snow blow a path from one pasture to the other pasture so our ATV with the plow could get through the next time. I'm actually not minding the cold as much as all this snow! I can bundle up in layers and stay warm. But I'm tired of several hours in my day being taken for snow removal! 

We are WAY south of the Lake and we are getting LAKE EFFECT SNOW!


----------



## helmstead (Jan 5, 2010)

My hydrant for the goats has been frozen since Sunday, hydrants for the horses froze Mon night, exterior spiggots on the HOUSE froze last night...so I'm hauling water (from inside the house) in my VAN because DH is in Indiana with my TRUCK (and also, therefor, is not here to HELP ME).  ATV won't start, despite plugging it up to a battery charger for a boost, so I'm hauling wood in for the wood stove (to prevent interior house pipes in the basement from freezing) 1/4 mile UPHILL in a WHEELBARROW...becase aforementioned DH neglected to bring any up with the aforementioned TRUCK before he left....

Not that I'm complaining...oh, wait...yes!  I AM complaining!

Calgon, take me away!

It's supposed to get up to 38* tomorrow, maybe SOMETHING will thaw...


----------



## ksalvagno (Jan 5, 2010)

Ok, you win Kate. 

We have a heater wrapped around our hydrant in the barn so we have water outside. Our house is only heated with wood when we want to put a fire in the fireplace and we do have a cord of wood on our porch.

We won't be seeing anything above about 25 this week. This weekend it is supposed to go back down into the teens for highs. Woohoo!


----------



## Goat of Many Colors (Jan 5, 2010)

stano40 said:
			
		

> Didn't Al Gore get the Nobel Peace Prize for telling everybody about Global Warming?


Yep


----------



## stano40 (Jan 5, 2010)

You think that everybody knowing he is a politician, should also know a politician will do anything for money and power regardless of the truth.

bob


----------



## helmstead (Jan 5, 2010)

ksalvagno said:
			
		

> Ok, you win Kate.
> 
> We have a heater wrapped around our hydrant in the barn so we have water outside. Our house is only heated with wood when we want to put a fire in the fireplace and we do have a cord of wood on our porch.
> 
> We won't be seeing anything above about 25 this week. This weekend it is supposed to go back down into the teens for highs. Woohoo!


Yeah, but you're in Ohio...I'm in Georgia...it doesn't GET this cold for this long in GA, so ill prepared.  I cannot ever remember the hydrants freezing...nevermind the house spiggots.  Our wood stove is just supposed to be supplemental to the heat pump, but right now of course I need it and don't have any wood near the house.  I think I'll order a chord delivered tomorrow (I can't believe I'm going to PAY for wood!)


----------



## cmjust0 (Jan 6, 2010)

helmstead said:
			
		

> My hydrant for the goats has been frozen since Sunday, hydrants for the horses froze Mon night, exterior spiggots on the HOUSE froze last night...so I'm hauling water (from inside the house) in my VAN because DH is in Indiana with my TRUCK (and also, therefor, is not here to HELP ME).


We don't have a hydrant in the barn, so we're also hauling water from inside the house....by hand...about 7-8gal at a time, in old cat-litter jugs.  Usually at least twice a day.



			
				hs said:
			
		

> ATV won't start, despite plugging it up to a battery charger for a boost, so I'm hauling wood in for the wood stove (to prevent interior house pipes in the basement from freezing) 1/4 mile UPHILL in a WHEELBARROW...becase aforementioned DH neglected to bring any up with the aforementioned TRUCK before he left....


We don't have an ATV.  

We ran out of firewood two nights ago.  

So we got out at 7pm last night and I cut some old, dry, downed timber while my wife held a lantern.  And then I had to split it all (with an axe) and stack it on the porch..  It was like 15 degrees...and I was sweating.

We don't even have a basement.  



			
				hs said:
			
		

> Not that I'm complaining...oh, wait...yes!  I AM complaining!
> 
> Calgon, take me away!
> 
> It's supposed to get up to 38* tomorrow, maybe SOMETHING will thaw...


Oh, 38* huh?  How nice.  

It's supposed to get COLDER here.  Low one night this weekend is forecast at -1*.

Anyway....I'm sorry for interrupting.  You were saying?

   

(while all the above is actually true, I'm just messin with ya.  when it's this cold, I think we all feel one another's pain.  at least we had a truck into which we could load last night's firewood, for instance.    )


----------



## cmjust0 (Jan 6, 2010)

stano40 said:
			
		

> You think that everybody knowing he is a politician, should also know a politician will do anything for money and power regardless of the truth.
> 
> bob


A) He's no longer a politician.
B) There's a difference between climate and weather.
C) If a major part of the proposed solution is to become less dependent on oil from nations that hate us and expanding the development new "clean energy" technologies (and jobs) right here in the good ol' US of A, I don't really care if the problem is real or not -- _let's solve it anyway!!!_ 

Enough from me on _climate_....shall we get back to _weather_?


----------



## Goatzilla (Jan 6, 2010)

CM, an ATV on the farm is a life changing experience. I can't even imagine how anyone with a significant farm type operation functions without one. Farm chores are hard, and using my Honda 4 wheeler saves me enough time and energy to be able to focus on other things that I wouldn't ordinarily get around to. Oh, and another thing, I haven't used my back to drag a dead deer an inch, in the last 10 years or so, lol.


----------



## Goatzilla (Jan 6, 2010)

Or maybe it's "D", since this great nation no longer has a labor base of manufacturing and producing for the world, and our new labor base consists of 'passing paper', in the form of banking, insurance, medical, etc. Maybe, since we have nothing left to sell, the "powers that be" have decided to sell the greatest commodity in the world, FEAR, in the form of "climate change". OK, now back to the weather, lol.





			
				cmjust0 said:
			
		

> stano40 said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## stano40 (Jan 6, 2010)

cmjust0 said:
			
		

> stano40 said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Sorry to upset you on Global Warming.

But I don't believe an agenda of a politician who was only interested in himself.

Yes we need to get off oil dependency and stop exporting our oil.

Enough said and I won't bother this thread anymore.  Don't want to upset anyone.

By the way weather here is in the mid 30's

I hope everyone gets through the winter safe and sound.

bob


----------



## cmjust0 (Jan 6, 2010)

Goatzilla said:
			
		

> Or maybe it's "D", since this great nation no longer has a labor base of manufacturing and producing for the world, and our new labor base consists of 'passing paper', in the form of banking, insurance, medical, etc. Maybe, since we have nothing left to sell, the "powers that be" have decided to sell the greatest commodity in the world, FEAR, in the form of "climate change". OK, now back to the weather, lol


If "selling fear" to the western world causes hateful oil-producing nations to live hard while boosting US exports of clean-energy technology and manufactured products....yeah, I'm pretty OK with that.  Seems like a pretty slick strategy, actually.


----------



## cmjust0 (Jan 6, 2010)

stano40 said:
			
		

> cmjust0 said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


See, "A)"



			
				stano said:
			
		

> Yes we need to get off oil dependency and stop exporting our oil.


I agree, but first we actually have to make it "our" oil.  

Currently, "our" oil is signed over to private -- often foreign -- oil companies who pay us "in kind" with a few barrels to the many they pull out of the ground.  What they keep is _their_ oil, contractually, to do with whatever they want.  Generally, that means selling it on the open market.

Therefore, stopping the exportation of US-produced oil would mean stopping private drilling and nationalizing all the oil in the US..  

Frankly, I think that's a great idea...though I'm a little surprised when I hear certain people with certain political beliefs express an interest in nationalizing anything.

I take what I can get, though.   

(seriously...I'm done...back to weather!   )


----------



## ThornyRidge (Jan 6, 2010)

not sure what some of you have.. but I do have one of those 'frost free' water pumps in my barn.. not even how deep it goes- but then again i have city water piped down underground to my barn.. anywho my hydrant has never frozen (there not supposed too) and even last winter when it was well below zero here for a string over a week..  all I know is my goats are happy with their heated water buckets- but not as much as me!!!  however I still heat up warm water in smaller buckets for them morning and night as they are very spoiled and wait for this treat!  We too are several large counties south of the Lake Erie Snow belt yet we have more snow than the county directly north of us!!  and I see we are getting hit with a midwest clipper beginning tomorrow afternoon which is to bring several more inches on the already 6-7ish i already have down... oh and my last complaint with the crap weather is here in Ohio and I presume most places since budgets are such crap and there is no extra money they have been foresaking the roads ... I am looking forward to one day when I don't have horrible driving conditions going to and coming home from work.. my typical 35 minute commute is taking anywhere from 50-75 minutes!!!!!!


----------



## cmjust0 (Jan 7, 2010)

So, I went out the side door last night to put a little trash in the can and what do I hear but a faint trickling noise coming from the direction of the 100gal stocktank w/ deicer.  I went over for a closer look and, sure enough, it was trickling out around the drain hole, where the de-icer's installed.  Tank had maybe 8" of water left in it.

Super.

Went inside, got my tools, came out and found that the plastic nut that secures the de-icer was pretty loose.  It was tight when I installed it...I'm thinking the cold must have shrunk a few things.  Tightened the nut, leak stopped.  Now all I gotta do's fill it, right?

I keep a drained hose at the ready for just such things, so I hook it up to the spigot outside and...nothing.  Frozen.  

   

Ended up having to do a little demolition to the inside wall (vertical board and batten..no biggie) and break out the hair dryer.  Took maybe 10-15 minutes, but I got it going again..  Thankfully.

For a while there, I was looking at the stocktank...and then the water jugs...and I wanted to shoot myself.  

Oh..btw..it's snowing like crazy outside right now.  Sooo ready for Spring.  :/


----------



## aggieterpkatie (Jan 7, 2010)

When I start thinking about how I don't have any lambs or kids due until around March (I think, one ewe I bought is preggo, but they didnt' write down any dates) and I start getting really impatient, I just walk outside and get a reminder on why that's a GOOD thing.


----------

