We've been busy here! Week before last the temps were so nice reaching the 70's and even setting a record one or two days. We spent all last weekend in the yard. Had two of Jeremiah's students over to help us chop wood and clear brush. There is so much and it's all a bit overwhelming when you look at it all. For so many years, as the trees broke and/or died, they were either left in the woods or if on the main paths/areas, pushed into piles in the woods to decompose. It's real hard to see the piles in the woods when it's spring, summer and part of fall because of the grass and the briers and bushes but come late fall and winter, it just looks, well, wild. Natural, but wild.
There's a lot of good wood in there to burn it just needs to be hauled out, cut and split. Things are different, as I am sure you know, when you work full time. Or, when Jeremiah works full time anyway. Weekends are super busy and it's still not really light enough yet to do anythings in the evenings and most of the time it's too cold anyway, so there ya go.
This morning was chilly and we had a lot of moisture last night so the trees are coated in a layer of ice which is actually really pretty to look at...from afar that is, as in, inside where it's warm. Photos wouldn't show the ice though so no point in taking one. Yesterday was frigid.
The children and I went, for the first time, to the Hutch. Library and wow, what a great place! I wish I had taken them sooner. Rachel got a library card. Unfortunately it's on the west side of town (we live on the east side) so going over there would mean a special trip unless I need to go to the Hutch. Post Office (which is also over there) but I think we'll be making another trip this week. It's just something we'll have to make a point to do, perhaps pick them up from school instead of them taking the bus and go.
Jeremiah's truck's registration in Ca. (no we haven't gotten the plates changed over yet!) is due this month and so I'll need to run over to the court house to pay the $12 to get plates and tags. I'm not totally sure how they figure out registration, but it has something to do with your property taxes. Go figure! But actually the truck will be considered "antique" so we get off paying a heck of a lot less. My car was substantially more but still less than Ca. so I can life with it. Our car insurance, by the way, is half here than what it was in Ca. There's no surprise.
The baby goats are doing just fine. They jump and play and sleep and eat. What else is there? One of them is quite friendly, he's the larger of the two (the darker one with brown spots). He's also got the most potential (as far as I'm concerned) as breeding quality. The whole, "I worked so hard to save them and they won't go on my dinner plate" thing has blown over. The fact the smaller one won't play pet goat would make it easier for me to send him to the auction but nothing will be decided until mid-summer. They were disbudded over a week ago, that's always a fun chore but they were back to jumping around shortly after everything was said and done.
We've got lots of plans in the works. I've put off the notion of putting up a panel green house this Spring. While it wouldn't take very long to do, I think putting together some cold frame boxes with either old windows or corrigated clear plastic for lids would be faster and I don't need a whole lot of room to start seedlings in for us.
Our biggest chore is coming at the end of March when we start putting in our new property fencing. Jeremiah is not looking forward to it but I really am. The task seems daunting to him I'm sure, but everything I've read tells me it's a pretty quick job, in comparison that is. If I haven't mentioned before what we're putting in, I'll explain now. We're installing High Tensile Wire. It's 12.5 gauge wire, which when pulled taught, is VERY springy. It will be 5-6 wires tall (approx. 48" tall) and "hot" (electrified). I've done months and months of research on this stuff. It's cheap, lasts longer than any other fencing and has the lowest maintenance and is the easiest to put up. What more could we ask for?
Why is it cheap to put up? Not only is it inexpensive to purchase (as low as .02 a foot for the wire), but it requires a lot less posts than traditional fencing- wire, wood, woven or welded wire. On flat terrain you can get away with posts spaced as far as 100'. It is recommended that "battens" be installed, which is nothing more than a plastic/pvc pipe with groves in it to accept the wires to keep them spaced apart between the posts driven into the ground. These pipes (battens) are not driven into the ground, the are usually only as long as the measurement from top to bottom wire. While most of our terrain is not flat- there are rolling hills-I am hoping we can get away with using wooden posts only on the most substantial hills and t posts for the rest. We will need "insulators" which are pieces that fit onto the post that hold the wires in place- though some people use large staples.
Unlike woven or welded wire, high tensile is not tightly secured directly to the posts (although I have heard that some do say not to tightly secure this type either so that the fence gives, but there isn't nearly as much give in these types of fencing as high tensile). The high tensile can be stapled but the staples are not to be driven tightly to the wire because the wires are supposed to "float". If stapled, the staples do nothing more than acting like the "batten" keeping the wires where you want them vertically, if that makes sense.
The beautiful thing about this fencing is that it is so springy. The fence line intersects a lot of trees. We get severe ice storms and if the piles of wood and broken limbs in the woods are any indication of how much actually brakes and falls, we'd be forever repairing any other type of fencing. As I've stated, high tensile is super springy with as little as 1300 lbs. of holding power for every wire! Meaning, if a limb (or tree) were to fall on the wire, once it's removed, the wire will spring back into place and not be damaged a bit. Posts may need to be replaced but where there are long stretches of flat land, providing the post is somewhat away from the fallen limb, it will have no ill affects which is the reason they recommend not putting in more posts than you need and why the wire "floats" within the staples or insulators- less is more in this type of fencing under most circumstances.
As far as fixing the fence in the event a post is broken or bent, the wires just need to be removed from the post (which is where insulators would come in handier than staples). Unlike, say, woven or welded wire, high tensile wires can be spliced (using a crimper). Well, no, take that bac. Woven and welded wire can be spliced but it's quite a bit more effort to do so and re-stretching the fence is more labor intensive. If the high tensile wires are not damaged, you just hook them back up to the post(s) and re tighten via the inline strainer.
The inline strainer is connected to two ends of the high tensile wire, tightened to a certain PSI and holds it, maybe you've seen them on barbed wire. Until I started researching high tensile I never knew what the round thing with teeth connected to the wire actually was. It does the same thing that the ratchet strap strainer does- tightens up the fence/strap ! So, you loosen the wire by the strainer, make your fix and re-tighten. In barbed wire applications, over time the wire will start to sag so you take your handy dandy strainer tool. give it a couple clicks and you fence is tight again. Woven or welded wire is a whole lotta hooplah more than that to fix.
Should I be a spokeswoman for high tensile? We'll see. As far as predator control, that's a big one for us! I've seen coyotes jump a 5 foot fence from a stand still. I know we have them, I know they are many. I know an adult goat is probably not on the menu of a coyote unless they are seriously hungry, even when hunting as a pack, which could happen, but baby goats are a fairly easy catch. We do plan to get an LGD (livestock guardian dog) but until then, and in addition to, an electrified fence is also going to be a huge deterrent. I still haven't made a final decision on wire spacing but it's going to be something like 6" off the ground, 8" from that, 10" from that and then 12" and 12" making a total of 48". As far as deer deterrent, that's not a huge concern for me. It is some as deer can carry parasites that will harm goats. I'd just assume keep them off the property and I know they have one major "highway" through the east portion of our property that they could just as easily walk along the fence line on the outside of the property line (and they do on some occasions). Believe me, we wouldn't be affecting a major portion of their grazing grounds by making ours off limits. I have read that a 48" high fence, normally, wouldn't deter deer at all, but a 48" electrified fence may be another story. However, that does bring up the garden issue, more on that later though in another post.
So, we're both sold on the high tensile. Our main pen that we can see from the house will all be re-fenced with cattle panels. Jeremiah calls it the viewing area :o). It will not be electrified and my plan is to have the goats come up to the main pan at night.
I've done a lot of reading up on electric fencing too and while high tensile and electric, to me, goes hand in hand, no everyone electrifies their high tensile. On a side note, some cattle around here are kept in with a single strand of electric wire! Can you believe that? You'll be driving along and see a herd of cattle out on an old corn field and you'd swear there isn't a thing in the world keeping them in. Upon further inspection you'll see 2 foot high rebar sticking up out of the ground every 50' to 100' and a nearly invisible wire connecting them. I almost cannot believe it. That won't work with goats and even high tensile wire fence, unless it's electrified (and I am certain of this from previous experience with un-electrified gates and fences, a goat can shimmy under), they won't stay in. So, we'll alternate hot and ground wires, have substantial -minimum 8' foot long- galvanized rods pounded deep into the ground along the fence line. The herd goat(s) will need to be trained to the fence and Jeremiah said that me being the one to throw them into it may break that trust relationship we have between each other, so I told him he could do it instead, ha ha ha ha ha! But in all seriousness, the fence is probably more of a psychological barrier than a psychical one.
All in all, while fencing approx. 11 acres seems like a large task, the hardest part will be deciding where to place posts and then setting them. I am hoping t posts can be used for much of it so we don't have to dig holes by hand (as I am not going out to buy a $500+ engine powered auger or the rental fee on a post pounder) to set as few as 10 posts when I know darn well, after fencing the majority of the property will probably the last fencing we do on much of it. As I said, the posts, unless in a hilly area, should be few and far between And, to a certain extent, pounding t posts is a pretty easy chore. After the posts are set, it's nothing more than rolling* out some wire, attaching it around the corners and poles and tightening it with the strainers.
While it's not a day job, the amount of work required will be nowhere near as labor intensive as other types and I expect to have the job done in just 2 days or so (not including any posts we may have to set in concrete). I have to call the supplier companies and see if t posts are recommended for slightly hilly terrain. If they'll be okay, we'll save a ton on those as there are already so many holding up the deteriorating twisted wire fence now. Our corner posts are still in great shape and that is the heart of any good fence. Once the wire is strung between the two posts, it's tightened a bit, line posts are then installed, the wires are attached by either insulators or staples (on wooden posts) and then the wires are tightened to about 200-250 lbs. of pressure.
*High tensile is rolled tightly on a a reel, and from what I understand, needs to be unrolled in a spinning jenny which Jeremiah can make at the shop.
At any rate, I'll continue this conversation at a later time. As for the high tensile, I believe I've talked about that enough to explain what we're doing for anyone who's interested. We'll take pictures as we go as I now there are some folks who could benefits from a real world how to. I know I'd be happy to see some blog posts of "real" people installing the stuff and not just hearing about how their uncle installed 15 miles of it in a day by himself.
Later I'll share later my research on good deer/rodent deterrent fencing that I plan to do in the garden and orchard.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Meet Sgt. Sexy...
...and his wife,
See what Sgt. Sexy does on his day off for the
Abominable! I mean, Admirable!
Photo post and commentary from yours truly
Good thing I didn't need to shut that!
Shiver me timber...um, literally.
Where the buffalo roamed.
Who wants to walk to the neighbor's for some sugar?
Think the goats would notice if I skipped feeding today?
Snow Much Fun
It's been a week since the dreaded white crap was here. Happy to report, it's nearly gone with the gorgeous temps. we've had! It's the perfect time to post about it!
Piddle & Puddle
As many of you may already know, we have new babies. Two buck kids born to Bonnie on one of the coldest nights to date, -4 and almost record setting. It was hell is pretty much how I can sum it up.
Despite all that though, they're thriving and happy. I've got photos of them at about 12 hours old. They're more mobile now, trying to jump and climb and do all the things that goat kids do. Very simply put, simply adorable they are!
Because of their milk genetics I'd try to find them breeding homes but there are only so many of those required...so, their fate may lie on someone's plate. Hard to tell. It won't be mine. .
They don't have names per say. Rachel and Drew both know they will not stay but for ease, instead of calling them "thing big" and "thing small" they're "Piddle" and "Puddle" I think since that's what they do and that's what they leave. Which is which I don't know, so I guess it's not much better than "this one" and "that one".
But, they are still cute. No denying that!
Anyway, without further ado..."the boys".
Despite all that though, they're thriving and happy. I've got photos of them at about 12 hours old. They're more mobile now, trying to jump and climb and do all the things that goat kids do. Very simply put, simply adorable they are!
Because of their milk genetics I'd try to find them breeding homes but there are only so many of those required...so, their fate may lie on someone's plate. Hard to tell. It won't be mine. .
They don't have names per say. Rachel and Drew both know they will not stay but for ease, instead of calling them "thing big" and "thing small" they're "Piddle" and "Puddle" I think since that's what they do and that's what they leave. Which is which I don't know, so I guess it's not much better than "this one" and "that one".
But, they are still cute. No denying that!
Anyway, without further ado..."the boys".
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
The post in which I curse...A LOT...about the weather!
Actually, I'm exhausted from all the cursing. I'll spare you.
I'll just have you know the white crap graced us with its presence...again! Hooray! We welcomed it withopen shut arms, or at least I did. And please add an extra dollop of sarcasm for me would you mind?
I took the snow shovel and plowed a path for Rachel to reach the bus yesterday in the driveway...bus driver missed it and she still walked in the snow.
I wore Jeremiah's military "jungle" boots out in the snow. Silly me, I forgot, this is Kansas and leaving your boots outside on the porch is asking for them to beflower snow pots.
Deeper and deeper.
Ankles
Above the boots
Below the knee.
I'll just have you know the white crap graced us with its presence...again! Hooray! We welcomed it with
I took the snow shovel and plowed a path for Rachel to reach the bus yesterday in the driveway...bus driver missed it and she still walked in the snow.
I wore Jeremiah's military "jungle" boots out in the snow. Silly me, I forgot, this is Kansas and leaving your boots outside on the porch is asking for them to be
Deeper and deeper.
Ankles
Above the boots
Below the knee.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Round 4 & A Week In Review
Round 4 of winter storms is upon us. I am SICK TO DEATH of winter. I am ready for a green blade of grass, no sign of snow, no salt on the sidewalks or salt solution on the road, sun shiny days for 6 hours straight even, ANYTHING!
The terrible wind is reeking havoc with our phone line and since we're on DSL, I may or may not get this published.
This week in review: Two Sunday's ago Drew was sick. Rachel said he was down with the sickness. While I don't think it was as bad as the plague, the poor little guy didn't feel real well at all. Monday he was perky again, Tuesday and Wednesdays were snow days and I was about to kill myself with everyone home! Thursday he wasn't acting right. I asked him if he was feeling okay and he said yes so I sent him off to school only to get a call a bit later on to say he was puking. GREAT! Thursday evening he spent laying around, Friday morning he was puking again but by Friday around noon he was just fine. He still didn't go to school so all in all, I got, well, NO work done! And then, even more fun, Rachel started puking on Friday night and so not only did I have a weekend full of regular work, I also had 2 huge blankets and a load of puke covered clothing I needed to wash. Great!
Jeremiah wasn't feeling so hot Saturday but as I write this on Tuesday, I think everyone is over "the sickness". I hope!
Our weekend was spent getting the barn ready for kidding. I have one kidding stall up and Jeremiah is going to weld up a panel for me to place at the back of the barn creating two more pens. The middle of the barn will be the forth pen and that should do it. I don't need the panels just yet though. Will tell you AFTER goat babies are here that they are here. Quite frankly, with this crappy weather, they could wait until July for all I care.
Monday (yesterday) was just a crappy crappy day for everyone. Drew has been making a habit of coming into our room in the middle of the night, waking me up to crawl into my side of the bed. I haven't slept well in ages and it's showing. Jeremiah had some overly irritating students yesterday and for him to come home complaining of irritating students, they must have been heathens.
Time to get the kids up and then it's out to battle the forces of nature. I have some more recipes to share so stay tuned.
The terrible wind is reeking havoc with our phone line and since we're on DSL, I may or may not get this published.
This week in review: Two Sunday's ago Drew was sick. Rachel said he was down with the sickness. While I don't think it was as bad as the plague, the poor little guy didn't feel real well at all. Monday he was perky again, Tuesday and Wednesdays were snow days and I was about to kill myself with everyone home! Thursday he wasn't acting right. I asked him if he was feeling okay and he said yes so I sent him off to school only to get a call a bit later on to say he was puking. GREAT! Thursday evening he spent laying around, Friday morning he was puking again but by Friday around noon he was just fine. He still didn't go to school so all in all, I got, well, NO work done! And then, even more fun, Rachel started puking on Friday night and so not only did I have a weekend full of regular work, I also had 2 huge blankets and a load of puke covered clothing I needed to wash. Great!
Jeremiah wasn't feeling so hot Saturday but as I write this on Tuesday, I think everyone is over "the sickness". I hope!
Our weekend was spent getting the barn ready for kidding. I have one kidding stall up and Jeremiah is going to weld up a panel for me to place at the back of the barn creating two more pens. The middle of the barn will be the forth pen and that should do it. I don't need the panels just yet though. Will tell you AFTER goat babies are here that they are here. Quite frankly, with this crappy weather, they could wait until July for all I care.
Monday (yesterday) was just a crappy crappy day for everyone. Drew has been making a habit of coming into our room in the middle of the night, waking me up to crawl into my side of the bed. I haven't slept well in ages and it's showing. Jeremiah had some overly irritating students yesterday and for him to come home complaining of irritating students, they must have been heathens.
Time to get the kids up and then it's out to battle the forces of nature. I have some more recipes to share so stay tuned.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
The worst is over
Well that was a wallop of a storm! The coldest it got was -24 windchill and Jeremiah and I were out in it. It's odd to think that it's colder at first light than dead of night...kinda like the darkest before the dawn thing. But I've been out enough mornings to be sure that as I am out there it does get colder. I am not sure why they is. At first I thought I was getting overheated and it felt colder but no, it's just always colder around 8-9 AM. Tuesday was no exception! It was COLD.
The goats are fine. Cold but fine. It was cold no doubt but they had good shelter. Goes to show that they are hearty and need no other special precautions other than a lot of clean dry bedding and more food to weather through (and some sort of shelter to block the wind too). We've seen horses without shelter who go about their day pretty much and cows, shoot! Cows in this neck of the woods would be considered spoiled if they had shelter other than tree groves. I was just reading an article about what people do do for the their cows when the windchill gets that bad. A lot will move them to pastures with trees. Others will put round bales out so the cows can get behind them and if nothing else, parked vehicles will create a wind break too. The biggets concern is that it's calving season and wet newborns cannot stay out. I'm sure a lot of farmers were on 2 hours watches night and day to move newborn calves in or they would have frozen to death.
Our bucks have a 3 sided shelter with an east open face. The girls barn is south opening. Live and learn though, we are looking into getting some large tarps to place on the front of their barn just to keep the snow out. The winds were so bad it drove snow into the front half of the south facing of the barn (the barn is about 24 feet deep) and left a drift outside up to my knees. The wind just whipped around which it normally doesn't do that badly. Getting some accumulation has happened but not like this. Storms like that are few and far between. Yes they happen and it wouldn't be uncommon to get several in a year but as for the wind whipping around leaving snow, it's not an everyday all winter long occurrence to where doors would be more beneficial. Quite frankly, doors would be impossible to get open no matter what kind they were with a huge drift sitting outside and they cannot slide with snow even a few inches deep on either side. So, there's a good reason as to why there there are no doors. I like that it's open anyway, allows more air flow, etc. and closed barn doors create condensation and condensation would be worse than snow blowing in (think ice ON EVERY surface) Anyway, a good heavy tarp that could be rolled up would be ideal.
There's a place in Minnesota that sells used billboard signs. They are white (or black) on one side and are double the gauge thickness of a canvas tarp, waterproof (canvas tarps are just water resistant) and have UV protectant built right in, are tear resistant, come with sleeves on all four sides and are cheap! Not only that, but I'd be recycling and they'd last longer than a canvas tarp. So, I think we're going to forgo getting a canvas tarp that would, color-wise, match the barn nicely, for something that is a lot better over something aesthetically pleasing though plain white wouldn't be horrible by any means. Plastic tarps would be ripped to shreds no time which is why that option is OUT.
I've been watching the weather like a hawk. Not that it does a lot of good as it can change in a minute but my first doe is due next week and so far, it seems to be holding with good looking temps. We have plans in place as to what to do if kids came in a storm like that. We would have moved the doe to the garage though that's stressful in and of itself and who could say that it wouldn't cause more problems. You just do what you have to do and hope for the best on the rest.
I've been trucking water out to the goats again from the house. Yesterday I made the mistake of not letting the water run on the water spigot long enough out at the barn to cool down some of the water I took out. I've mentioned before they are special spigots, common as cows here because of the weather. They self siphon water back down into the pipe below the freeze level in the ground but I didn't run it long enough to warm the pipe up (which isn't much more than a few gallons or so worth) and it was so cold it froze in the pipe before it could siphon back down which doesn't take a long time so that should tell you something. Live and learn! It'll probably be another day before it thaws since the temps today are supposed to be in the 20's but even that's an improvement of what it has been.
All in all we've got it pretty good. Our furnace was acting up and not coming on and staying on. Jeremiah would reset it and it would run until it came up to temp., shut off and not come back on again. Perfect timing right? Our wood stove just could not keep up with the windchill bashing the north of the house so we fired up the furnace only to learn it wouldn't stay on. We had a repair guy out yesterday. A sensor was dirty so it's working again just fine and only on the coldest night and day (Monday night and Tuesday) could we really have used it! But, again, we've got it good. The house never did fall below 55 and I know that may sound horribly cold. The LR was always warm and I guess we're somewhat used to it. The house being near 70 degrees makes us, well, the kids and I anyway, feel like we're dying. Sixty five degrees is about perfect for the day and 62 at night, as long as we have PJ's and socks on, is comfortable. I like to get it cooking in here at night so that we can wake up comfortably in the morning without having to stock the stove all night long. Jeremiah does sometimes throw wood in around midnight and I am up early, sometimes around 4:30 or 5 to get it going again so that's its warm when everyone wakes up but anyway...
We even went to town on Tuesday. The snow drifts were bad in places but we needed a furnace filter from Lowes. We thought a dirty filter was the problem. People were out and about going about life. There aren't as many people out and they drive slower and watching cars slip sliding around is kinda fun. Coming from a place where life isn't like this is somewhat entertaining though will become common place soon enough. In a way, it already is. It's cold. It's windy. It's hard work on occasion and there isn't anything to do about it but do it. Being snarky helps at times when complaining about the weather but all in all, it's really not as bad as it could be.
Back to the old grind again today. The kids and Jeremiah are back to school and work and there's lots of laundry to catch up on. I'll be looking forward to the 40 degrees they are predicting on Saturday. Sad isn't it?
The goats are fine. Cold but fine. It was cold no doubt but they had good shelter. Goes to show that they are hearty and need no other special precautions other than a lot of clean dry bedding and more food to weather through (and some sort of shelter to block the wind too). We've seen horses without shelter who go about their day pretty much and cows, shoot! Cows in this neck of the woods would be considered spoiled if they had shelter other than tree groves. I was just reading an article about what people do do for the their cows when the windchill gets that bad. A lot will move them to pastures with trees. Others will put round bales out so the cows can get behind them and if nothing else, parked vehicles will create a wind break too. The biggets concern is that it's calving season and wet newborns cannot stay out. I'm sure a lot of farmers were on 2 hours watches night and day to move newborn calves in or they would have frozen to death.
Our bucks have a 3 sided shelter with an east open face. The girls barn is south opening. Live and learn though, we are looking into getting some large tarps to place on the front of their barn just to keep the snow out. The winds were so bad it drove snow into the front half of the south facing of the barn (the barn is about 24 feet deep) and left a drift outside up to my knees. The wind just whipped around which it normally doesn't do that badly. Getting some accumulation has happened but not like this. Storms like that are few and far between. Yes they happen and it wouldn't be uncommon to get several in a year but as for the wind whipping around leaving snow, it's not an everyday all winter long occurrence to where doors would be more beneficial. Quite frankly, doors would be impossible to get open no matter what kind they were with a huge drift sitting outside and they cannot slide with snow even a few inches deep on either side. So, there's a good reason as to why there there are no doors. I like that it's open anyway, allows more air flow, etc. and closed barn doors create condensation and condensation would be worse than snow blowing in (think ice ON EVERY surface) Anyway, a good heavy tarp that could be rolled up would be ideal.
There's a place in Minnesota that sells used billboard signs. They are white (or black) on one side and are double the gauge thickness of a canvas tarp, waterproof (canvas tarps are just water resistant) and have UV protectant built right in, are tear resistant, come with sleeves on all four sides and are cheap! Not only that, but I'd be recycling and they'd last longer than a canvas tarp. So, I think we're going to forgo getting a canvas tarp that would, color-wise, match the barn nicely, for something that is a lot better over something aesthetically pleasing though plain white wouldn't be horrible by any means. Plastic tarps would be ripped to shreds no time which is why that option is OUT.
I've been watching the weather like a hawk. Not that it does a lot of good as it can change in a minute but my first doe is due next week and so far, it seems to be holding with good looking temps. We have plans in place as to what to do if kids came in a storm like that. We would have moved the doe to the garage though that's stressful in and of itself and who could say that it wouldn't cause more problems. You just do what you have to do and hope for the best on the rest.
I've been trucking water out to the goats again from the house. Yesterday I made the mistake of not letting the water run on the water spigot long enough out at the barn to cool down some of the water I took out. I've mentioned before they are special spigots, common as cows here because of the weather. They self siphon water back down into the pipe below the freeze level in the ground but I didn't run it long enough to warm the pipe up (which isn't much more than a few gallons or so worth) and it was so cold it froze in the pipe before it could siphon back down which doesn't take a long time so that should tell you something. Live and learn! It'll probably be another day before it thaws since the temps today are supposed to be in the 20's but even that's an improvement of what it has been.
All in all we've got it pretty good. Our furnace was acting up and not coming on and staying on. Jeremiah would reset it and it would run until it came up to temp., shut off and not come back on again. Perfect timing right? Our wood stove just could not keep up with the windchill bashing the north of the house so we fired up the furnace only to learn it wouldn't stay on. We had a repair guy out yesterday. A sensor was dirty so it's working again just fine and only on the coldest night and day (Monday night and Tuesday) could we really have used it! But, again, we've got it good. The house never did fall below 55 and I know that may sound horribly cold. The LR was always warm and I guess we're somewhat used to it. The house being near 70 degrees makes us, well, the kids and I anyway, feel like we're dying. Sixty five degrees is about perfect for the day and 62 at night, as long as we have PJ's and socks on, is comfortable. I like to get it cooking in here at night so that we can wake up comfortably in the morning without having to stock the stove all night long. Jeremiah does sometimes throw wood in around midnight and I am up early, sometimes around 4:30 or 5 to get it going again so that's its warm when everyone wakes up but anyway...
We even went to town on Tuesday. The snow drifts were bad in places but we needed a furnace filter from Lowes. We thought a dirty filter was the problem. People were out and about going about life. There aren't as many people out and they drive slower and watching cars slip sliding around is kinda fun. Coming from a place where life isn't like this is somewhat entertaining though will become common place soon enough. In a way, it already is. It's cold. It's windy. It's hard work on occasion and there isn't anything to do about it but do it. Being snarky helps at times when complaining about the weather but all in all, it's really not as bad as it could be.
Back to the old grind again today. The kids and Jeremiah are back to school and work and there's lots of laundry to catch up on. I'll be looking forward to the 40 degrees they are predicting on Saturday. Sad isn't it?
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Morning update
If you think this post is coming with photos you're crazy! Putting up photos of warm spring days would be a slap in the face and putting up photos of this blizzard is, well, something I am not going to stand outside to do.
The snow's not so bad depth wise, there's only about an inch on the ground. There are some pretty big drifts of 8"-1' but the wind and extreme cold is horrible. If I ever told you the story of the guy in Eastern Montana who kept calling his neighbor asking if it was cold out, this is about the time where he would say, "You're (choice phrase) betcha it is!"
School's been canceled all the way around. I went out to the goats at around 7:30 AM with 2 buckets of warm water in tow and oh my gosh, it's COLD and wind and the blowing snow and ice hurts! I checked the temp which, I think, is checked right down the road at the airport and it said 1 degree but the windchill is -24 and I believe it!! It's one thing to be cold and have occasional gusts that give you a fleeting feeling of really cold air, it's quite another to be constantly bombarded by -24! It's horrible. The next two days will be a challenge! For now, I'm retiring back to bed where it's warm.
The snow's not so bad depth wise, there's only about an inch on the ground. There are some pretty big drifts of 8"-1' but the wind and extreme cold is horrible. If I ever told you the story of the guy in Eastern Montana who kept calling his neighbor asking if it was cold out, this is about the time where he would say, "You're (choice phrase) betcha it is!"
School's been canceled all the way around. I went out to the goats at around 7:30 AM with 2 buckets of warm water in tow and oh my gosh, it's COLD and wind and the blowing snow and ice hurts! I checked the temp which, I think, is checked right down the road at the airport and it said 1 degree but the windchill is -24 and I believe it!! It's one thing to be cold and have occasional gusts that give you a fleeting feeling of really cold air, it's quite another to be constantly bombarded by -24! It's horrible. The next two days will be a challenge! For now, I'm retiring back to bed where it's warm.
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