It Ain't The Cold .... It's The Wind

       Some days, over the past week or so, were not too terribly cold, but when you add the wind chill, it was. The horses are fine outside on really cold days, but if the wind is blowing, they need to have shelter form it.  This wind chill kind of holds true for in our house as well. When it is windy out it feels much colder inside because of the drafts.
   
We had a snow day today with 4 to 5 inches that had fallen by morning. It was the blowing and drifting that shut things down, along with it being forecasted to snow all day.  Here is a picture of Chuck taken when I went out to feed in the morning.  He is on the East side of the farrowing shed to
stay out of the wind, but where he can keep an eye out for his feed pan to appear.
       Grades were due by noon so I got those done before going back out to take pictures and play in the snow.  I went to the barn and cleaned up and re-organized our hay area and dropped 8 more bales down from the hay loft.  We are sure going through hay fast these days. Good thing we have plenty.

      
       Adding fill water to the 100 gallon stock tank, which is iced over and covered with snow except where you see the blue water heater.


One of the roosters picking his way through the snow towards the barn.

Barn kitty debating whether to venture any farther from the barn.

He decides to take the plunge,
leaps and bounds across the snow and up the hitching post.


Where one goes, the other will follow.




But then Chuck decides to get in on the picture.

And, at about the same time, the first kitten who was carefully walking across the top on the PVC pipe, slipped and fell off, landing on his back.  He made a B-line to the barn before I could get a picture.

Just before noon the winds shifted (actually completely reversed directions) and picked up more.

It changed from ESE to WNW.  So, the drifts all started re-drifting in the other direction. 

The driveway started accumulating snow as it blew and drifted across it.

We continued to get a light snow fall but with the blowing it was very white out everywhere.

        Now back to last week which was a pretty uneventful and unexciting week.  I actually didn't go to school last Tuesday either. I decided to take a sick day because I had a major head ache, ear ache, post nasal drip, sore throat, and felt a bit achy and feverish as well.  Joe followed suit....once I told him I was staying home.  He had had a bad cough and cold since last Friday afternoon.  His coughing had been waking me up at night which didn’t help me out any either.  I made hot home-made chicken soup for lunch, drank plenty of fluids and got plenty of rest.  We did not get the snow they had called for on Monday night....however it was very gray out and also quite windy Tuesday…good napping weather.
       Being sick made the week kind of drag.  I had to cancel our riding lesson Wednesday afternoon because we did not get the right electrical hook up for our old trailer and I was feeling too raunchy.  It was only 26 degrees that evening and with the wind would have been a very cold lesson.  Wouldn’t have helped my cold any either.

      Our egg production has gone up, 4 to 6 eggs per day.  Here you can see 7 eggs we got in one day a few days ago.  Having a light in the chicken coop has definitely helped this out.  The light comes on at 4am and turns off at 7am….once the sun is up.


It helps warm the coop on these cold mornings, and gets the chickens up early.  Before I get out to do my morning chores I can hear the rooster's muffled crowing from the coop.  To the right you can see the light on, all the chickens are up for breakfast, and the light of day is just starting to appear through the open door.

       We had a freezing rain while I was driving to school Friday.  Every now and then there was a snow flake, but it was mostly sleet with some rain. I was not looking forward to scrapping ice off my window in the school parking lot before heading home.  Actually, it wasn’t that bad, nor was driving home because it was only snowing. It snowed all day and night. 

We had some major wind out of the N/NE which is not ordinary.  The tarp covering the barn door opening was really flapping more than usual and had the horses very nervous.Some snow did blow in past the tarp to the west section where we keep the tractor.
Snow also blew in between the slats of the barn roof and dusted the alley between the two horse stalls.








We had more drifting, only in a different direction, so drifts made pretty patterns on the ground.  

I added our golden retriever Kaysha to one photo so you can see how tall the drifts are.

 







The horses and Chuck were covered head to toe with snow when I went out to feed them Friday evening.  I don't know why they don’t go into the corn crib.  I did keep the horses in the barn over night Friday so they could dry off and stay warm.  And I convinced Chuck to go into the corn crib by putting a half bail of the good hay out there for him.

      
      Saturday morning the sun tried to break through the clouds while I tried to break through new snow drifts with my wheel barrel form the barn to the manure pile.  I also shoveled paths through some drifts so I would be better able to get from one building to another.  I packed a lunch and headed for school to try to stay focused on all that I needed to get done, and to stay out of the way at home. Joe had 7 guys over for some Texas Hold'em.  Not having any distractions really helped me to accomplish a lot of school work.