Glenn had to go back to work today : ( He was nice enough to go out pre-dawn and feed the horses and sheep so I could sleep a bit longer. I guess we were both worried. I didn't lock Oakley in the barn last night because he really stresses out when he's locked in, and it wasn't a south wind so I knew he'd be sheltered. I locked the sheep in though.
I was happy to see the pheasants out early this morning. We worry about the wildlife on these tough days. Yesterday G boiled up some nasty beef suet and added dried mealworms and sunflower seeds. I hate the way it makes the house wreak but I'm glad I had extra suet to put out for the birds today.
I didn't really have time for breakfast today so I grabbed a handful of cashews and peanuts. Three hours later I started to get hungry, and came in for lunch. I've got to build up my stamina for staying out in the cold. At my photography workshop in Grand Marais next month we will be spending full days outside....gulp.
I had to catch both of the roosters, and most of the hens in the palace since I noticed wattles coated in ice. Shadow's wattles were frozen solid on the leading edge, so I had to take him inside and thaw them with a warm cloth. I took the opportunity to check everyone's feet for bumblefoot, treat the roosters with ivomec, and slather combs, wattles and feet with udder balm. I was so frustrated that most of them were going to get painful wattle damage just from drinking water. I raised the waterer up another four inches, but I wasn't quite convinced that would be enough. I was thinking that a nipple waterer would be the solution (photo below-pretty self explanatory), but that's extra $ we weren't planning on putting out right now, and there's no guarantee we could keep it from freezing. I wanted an immediate solution. I hate standing by and watching our animals getting hurt!!!
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| This was my solution...hopefully they will quickly learn to drink through the little ports, and their wattles won't come into contact with the water. Hope it works!!! |
This is what I was watching while I was tracing waterers and cutting the bubble wrap:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snow_Walker
Turned out to be a fantastic movie!! I had no idea it was based on a Farley Mowat story. Based in 1953 in the Yukon. By the end of it I realized why the Inuit eat blubber...and I'm really not much of a carnivore by nature. I realized that everything I'd eaten today was high fat! I had two huge scoops of full fat coconut milk (completely saturated fat), handfuls of cashews and peanuts, and I kept eating slabs of cheddar....not slices, SLABS. That's really all I wanted to keep me fueled to work out in the cold today!
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| Shoo Shoo safe up high on a straw bale....Teenage roosters are so annoying!! Can't control shutter speed on my PAS but it's sort of a fun effect with the blurry chooks... |
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| Just a shot of the radiator that G mounted up on the wall, and the double decker nest boxes, and one of the perches. I'm liking the 25W amber light...When we turned off the heat lamp the hens didn't know where to go and roost once the palace went dark, so I put in the amber light. It was -28C outside this morning, and -8C in this insulated part of the palace. |
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| Yesterday at frigid golden hour I started putting up this greenhouse poly around the duck enclosure. I didn't get the entire thing covered, but it really helped today with the WNW winds. |
Glenn making beer:
Our kitchen smelled pretty great!
On New Year's Eve he made French onion soup from scratch:
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| Three types of cheeses bubbling away... |
Apparently I'm in full on winter mode. Why am I writing about beer and cheese???
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