Bring it on!
Posting has been spotty the past couple of days because R. has been... challenging. Sleep deprivation does not equal good or frequent blogging. The other thing taking up a lot of brain space the past few days has been the weather. Or more precisely, the impending weather.
Even if you don't live in the central upper midwest, you have surely heard about the temperatures which are very nearly upon us. The hype has been significant. I hope like so often happens, reality does not live up to it. I guess we'll know soon. This whole week has been odd. J. has been off work all week, and isn't due to go back until Thursday. Nearly everything in the area that can close will be closed for the next 36 hours or so. J. got back from errands and M. returned home from work, so we are now all in for the duration.
Well, "in" is somewhat misleading. When I say in, I mean no one will be leaving the house to go somewhere in a car. Some of us will be leaving the house fairly often throughout the day to care for animals, either taking out dogs, checking on Emmy, or checking on chickens and ducks. I have a sneaking suspicion that they will be far more comfortable than the people checking on them.
Because this has been a topic of much interest to those around me this past week, I figure it is probably of interest to you, dear reader, as well. (If you live in the area and are doing your own animal preparations, this is probably not going to be of much interest to you. Continue on with your own preparations.) "Are the animals going to be OK?" is the question I have been asked more than a few times. Yes, I think they are. Here's why.
Emmy: Horses can tolerate cold temperatures and actually don't mind them if they have a place to go out of the wind. This is particularly true if they have been outside a lot and also have been allowed to grow their natural winter coat. This is true for Emmy on both accounts. Emmy will be out of the wind in the barn which has all the panels on now. She has a good amount of bedding and plenty of water in her heated water bucket. I will go out as soon as I'm done writing this and add the fleece blanket under the ones she is currently wearing. Emmy will also be given plenty of hay to eat. The digestion of hay helps to heat the horse. I also have loose salt which she has access to to encourage her to drink plenty of water. The barn, while not heated, is fairly comfortable since it is out of the wind. I was out there this afternoon sitting on a hay bale for a half hour to give her time to be out of her stall and move about the barn. Granted I was pretty bundled, but I was comfortable. Emmy will be fine.
Chickens and ducks: First, don't worry about the ducks. They don't mind cold weather. When I was out earlier checking on their water, all five of them were voluntarily outside (where it was about 2 degrees) happily sitting on the snow. The chickens do not feel the same way about the cold weather. They come out of their coop only to grab some water and some food, then scuttle right back in. At this moment, J. is outside moving the heated waterer inside the coop and then we'll also add their feeders as well. Usually we keep the door between the coop and pen open, but because of the temperatures and the wind, once they have food and water inside, the door is being closed. The ducks will be annoyed. I've added another full bag of shavings to what was already down, making a pretty thick layer on the floor. I've also thrown in quite a bit of scratch (dried corn) on top of the bedding to get the chickens to dig it up to eat it. This aerates the bedding which in turn acts like a compost pile (which essentially it is) and heats the coop. Digging for scratch also gives bored chickens something to do other than pull each other's feathers out. With 26 feathered bodies inside the coop, they should be fairly comfortable, if unhappy, with the lack of access to the outdoors.
Our job as humans is to check on all the animals every so often, make sure they look okay, and add to their food and water. Eating and drinking their way through the cold weather is what is going to help them all stay warm. Did I mention that all of our hydrants are frozen? This means that we'll be lugging that water from the house to the coop and barn.
Temperatures are supposed to start significantly dropping in a half an hour. I wonder if we should hang out signs welcoming the arctic weather visiting the area. I'm afraid it won't get to do much since everything will be closed...
Even if you don't live in the central upper midwest, you have surely heard about the temperatures which are very nearly upon us. The hype has been significant. I hope like so often happens, reality does not live up to it. I guess we'll know soon. This whole week has been odd. J. has been off work all week, and isn't due to go back until Thursday. Nearly everything in the area that can close will be closed for the next 36 hours or so. J. got back from errands and M. returned home from work, so we are now all in for the duration.
Well, "in" is somewhat misleading. When I say in, I mean no one will be leaving the house to go somewhere in a car. Some of us will be leaving the house fairly often throughout the day to care for animals, either taking out dogs, checking on Emmy, or checking on chickens and ducks. I have a sneaking suspicion that they will be far more comfortable than the people checking on them.
Because this has been a topic of much interest to those around me this past week, I figure it is probably of interest to you, dear reader, as well. (If you live in the area and are doing your own animal preparations, this is probably not going to be of much interest to you. Continue on with your own preparations.) "Are the animals going to be OK?" is the question I have been asked more than a few times. Yes, I think they are. Here's why.
Emmy: Horses can tolerate cold temperatures and actually don't mind them if they have a place to go out of the wind. This is particularly true if they have been outside a lot and also have been allowed to grow their natural winter coat. This is true for Emmy on both accounts. Emmy will be out of the wind in the barn which has all the panels on now. She has a good amount of bedding and plenty of water in her heated water bucket. I will go out as soon as I'm done writing this and add the fleece blanket under the ones she is currently wearing. Emmy will also be given plenty of hay to eat. The digestion of hay helps to heat the horse. I also have loose salt which she has access to to encourage her to drink plenty of water. The barn, while not heated, is fairly comfortable since it is out of the wind. I was out there this afternoon sitting on a hay bale for a half hour to give her time to be out of her stall and move about the barn. Granted I was pretty bundled, but I was comfortable. Emmy will be fine.
Chickens and ducks: First, don't worry about the ducks. They don't mind cold weather. When I was out earlier checking on their water, all five of them were voluntarily outside (where it was about 2 degrees) happily sitting on the snow. The chickens do not feel the same way about the cold weather. They come out of their coop only to grab some water and some food, then scuttle right back in. At this moment, J. is outside moving the heated waterer inside the coop and then we'll also add their feeders as well. Usually we keep the door between the coop and pen open, but because of the temperatures and the wind, once they have food and water inside, the door is being closed. The ducks will be annoyed. I've added another full bag of shavings to what was already down, making a pretty thick layer on the floor. I've also thrown in quite a bit of scratch (dried corn) on top of the bedding to get the chickens to dig it up to eat it. This aerates the bedding which in turn acts like a compost pile (which essentially it is) and heats the coop. Digging for scratch also gives bored chickens something to do other than pull each other's feathers out. With 26 feathered bodies inside the coop, they should be fairly comfortable, if unhappy, with the lack of access to the outdoors.
Our job as humans is to check on all the animals every so often, make sure they look okay, and add to their food and water. Eating and drinking their way through the cold weather is what is going to help them all stay warm. Did I mention that all of our hydrants are frozen? This means that we'll be lugging that water from the house to the coop and barn.
Temperatures are supposed to start significantly dropping in a half an hour. I wonder if we should hang out signs welcoming the arctic weather visiting the area. I'm afraid it won't get to do much since everything will be closed...
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