The dreaded polar vortex arrived this week. Oh how I dislike that term! Early yesterday morning the winds picked up and the temperature dropped. Brrrrr... Cold weather has it's benefits, but I'm such a fair weather fan that I have a hard time seeing them. Instead, I think of the headaches that come in the barn.
The box pens in the barn are full of young heifers, so we have a couple of them still at the hutches. They have shelter, but no running water over winter. Thus, we have to carry water for them several times a day. Our trusty green wagon gets a lot of use these days...
Drink fast girls, before it freezes again...
My negligence in gathering eggs last evening resulted in this...
Jim had ordered a truckload of sawdust, but postponed the delivery yesterday because of the strong winds. The barn doors are quite heavy, and if the winds catch them, there could be some pretty serious damage...both to the doors and to whoever might be in the vicinity. The barn hill catches the brunt of the brutal north and west winds...
The winds died down over night, so the sawdust was delivered this morning...
All the animals keep the inside of the barn much warmer...although we often drain the water lines on the west side of the barn when it's really cold and windy. Yesterday (and again this morning) we used a hose to fill a big water tub for the outside pen heifers.
In the calf pens, this young heifer and Jolyn enjoyed some playful moments this morning while I was feeding a newborn...
...and when I turned my back, Phoebe crawled into the pen and curled up in a feed tub. It's not a good place for a dog to be, but I must say that once again, she was being resourceful! She found a warm place and made the best of it...near her people...
And of course there's always the dilemma of the glasses steaming up, going from warm to cold and back again. I wish I could just take them off, but...
Hopefully you're keeping warm where you are!
