Cold Snap

Winter brings challenges to the farm. The thermometer is stubbornly staying below zero this morning so we will have to work a lot harder to keep the animals comfortable. I just went down to check on Rosie one of our livestock guardian dogs who lately is happier outside than in. I checked twice over night to see if she had had enough of the great outdoors and was ready to go in the barn. It is -2 at 4:00 AM and dead calm. For my concern, she barked at me while I was crunching my way down to see how she was doing. She was fine and when I opened the door to the barn she was not the least bit interested in going inside where the temperature is always much warmer. Fine, stay outside. I guess as long as there is no wind, and she has a bit of hay to curl up on, I am going to stop checking. I probably stand more chance of being a farmersicle than she does of being a dogsicle anyway.

As it turns out, a farm animal's comfort is inversely proportional to yours. If you spend a lot of cold hours keeping their bedding clean, dry and fluffy, hay in the mangers, and knocking ice out of buckets and replacing it with warm water, they will be fine. You will be brutalized by the elements, but they will be pictures of contentment. The phrase "Poor dumb brute" must have originally referred to the farmer taking care of the animals.

Seeing their contentment and comfort should be rewarding enough for any farmer. I have never quite achieved this bucolic nirvana. There are times when I lug warm water down to the goat barn, pull all the water buckets, (there are seven in just this barn), clean them and refill them with life sustaining warm water, and watch every goat ignore my efforts and turn up their noses. A few hours later, I can see that they didn't bother with even a small sip. Seems kind of ungrateful. It irritates this "poor dumb brute".

Our goat herd is largely does who are now bred and growing little goats inside (hopefully) and should be drinking several gallons of water a day according to everything I read. Every few hours, we repeat this exercise with about the same results. Sometimes however you will return and every bucket will be empty. There's the rub. You have to give them a lot of water each time because that may be when they need it. Mostly, you are creating round blocks of ice for your efforts. I suppose, gratitude is just not in goats. Neither is the concept of "get it while the gettin' is good," or "drink the water while it is hot" because the "dumb brute" taking care of you is having thoughts involving an act of mayhem, a freezer and a seal-a-meal.

I do have two young bucks that stop munching hay when their warm water arrives and drink gratefully every time I deliver water. I love these two and hope they pass on this trait to their progeny. It would make doing winter chores around here a lot nicer.

Our chickens get water when the goats do and most times are ecstatic to get it and have moved way up on my list of farm animals as a result.

Rationally, I know it shouldn't matter, but, it does, and there are times when I sit by the fire and warm my toes instead of rushing right out to bring water to animals that don't seem to care much. This rather un-farmer like attitude doesn't show up at all in the summer when you can just dump the water from the buckets and refill them with a hose, but... after you heat the water on the wood stove, put it in a five gallon insulated thermos jug, lug it down to the goat barn in a wheelbarrow, beat the ice blocks out of the buckets from water they ignored last time you did this, fill the buckets and rush them inside so they are still warm, well...

It's 5:00 AM and time to turn on the solar and plug in the chicken light- we sit in the dark a lot during the short days of winter when solar gain is pretty low, but the chickens always have their twelve hours of light--keeps them laying eggs. Some of the things we do make you wonder, still, there is a wonderful natural rhythm to farming- even the regularity of the goats obstinate behavior seems to fit. Putting the animal's needs ahead of yours is good for the soul and I can't explain why. It is more satisfying than a hot meal or warming your toes by the fire, so... time to put on the head lamp and go start the chores. Boy its cold out there this morning.