Different

With the near arctic cold, there is no room for error, not an inch of wiggle room. Every chore that involves the animals, the wood stove, or the water must be attended to first time, every time or the consequences could be deadly or at the very least, costly.

The vacuum trap is frozen on the milking system. Nothing to be done about it until the weather changes. Thus only the boss starts the vacuum pump, which runs the milkers. As a manly man he has an ear for machinery...so do I really, but I am absolutely delighted to allow him the responsibility. He opens the caps on the line so air can flow freely and waits, listening carefully, for everything to thaw out and warm up enough so that they can be closed and milking can begin.

Water hoses have to be coiled and stored in the milk house between fillings of tubs for pens. Usually they are hung on the wall, out of the way, from spigots not in use for other jobs. Now I can't even lay them on the floor away from the cold walls, because they freeze from end to end.Thus we run the water  from the milk house now, a messy, bunglesome job, but it must be done.

The stove must be kept full constantly. Normally two or three times a day is plenty, but now the fills it five or six and checks it every time he walks from house to barn or back again. He must feel like he's chasing his own tail the way he runs around these days.

Ready for anything

The girls' horses get extra bedding and hay. Their buckets were being thawed in the kitchen sink until someone complained about hay clogging the drain.....now they are hauled to the milk house, thawed and filled with warm water, twice a day. 

Thirty degrees seemed wintry and cold a couple of weeks ago and I didn't think highly of the ice that formed each night. However, I am ready for their return....any day now....

And just think, any day now, it is almost February after all, the maple season will begin. I hope this cold spell will cause the trees to really crank out some sap for the maple producers this year. Good stuff!