Rocking the Barn

Not as in rock ‘n roll either. Just a’rockin’.

The frozen winds were so strong yesterday that the barn was heaving in and out, like a giant loudly asthmatic bellows. Often I anchor the camera by leaning it on the barn wall or a post but that was hopeless yesterday as the whole barn was shuddering from the howling wind. And when I got inside (and I hope this is not too personal a comment) the water in the toilet was sloshing gently about! Sloshing, in the wind.. inside!! Horrors. 

“I am going home, back to New Zealand.” I wailed, peering out the door and  pulling on my gloves.  “It is summer there. I am going back to the beach.” I sniffed. “There is ice on the inside of the doors, the cold is getting worse, the toilet is sloshing, even the snow drifts are frozen solid.  They are talking Minus TWENTY on Monday. MINUS TWENTY!   Do you know what that is in Celsius?  Minus THIRTY!  I looked it up!  And that does not include windchill .. windchill is probably Minus Death.  But no-one is allowed to die around here because the ground is frozen solid so you won’t even  be able to dig my grave!”

Poor John looked momentarily though genuinely concerned then turned his attention back to the news on his  tablet. “Well, you can’t take Daisy and Sheila on a plane.” he said.  “Did you know that they have discovered the plans for Noah’s ark? It was round.”

“An ark?” I said, my hysteria rising. Slamming my feet into my boots and pulling my two hoods up over my head. “I’ll build a bloody ark then!” Door Slam. Slammed Door.

I was up in the loft, taking photos of the hay. When it is very cold I must feed my animals more. Especially the ruminants. They heat themselves from inside. But I also have to keep in mind that they are pregnant and I do not want fat babies. Certainly not fat calves.  Helping a cow calve is a very different kettle of fish  to helping a ewe lamb or a pig farrow(they just shoot out like bullets, running!) But pulling a calf is something I have not encountered yet.

And the cold is not letting up. So I feed them extra but not fattening grain. I give the cows some oats and barley once a day now as they are both in their last trimester.  But their extra bulk feed is hay.  So not only are my firewood stocks going down fast due to this unusually cold weather but my enormous hay pile is shrinking as well.

A pregnant cow on a normal day needs about 25 pounds of hay a day. That is just over half a bale of good hay each. Good hay.  The sheep eat about half a bale altogether.

So that is just shy of two bales a day. More in the deep cold. I have three more piles like this (above) left. It must take me through to the end of March. And in the spring  the longer I keep the cows eating hay and off the grass the better. It takes time for grass to grow too. It is like a jig saw puzzle and someone is Sawing at the Jig.

Unlike someone who sawed the ceiling out of the barn about 60 years ago to fit his ugly combine harvester in there.

But it is slowly being reclaimed, as long as it does not blow away in the wind.

But it is a tough old barn, and when I feed out, I select bales from all four corners in order – I have a deep fear, based on no scientific evidence what-so-ever, of the barn becoming too heavy on one side and just falling over in one of these winds.

Look what I found yesterday though. Eight beautiful fresh eggs. And they were not frozen solid. A kind hen sat on them all day to keep them from freezing.

I did not get to see Sheila yesterday, the weather was just too bad to take out the cooking oil car. Maybe today?   Today is going to be windy too – though it is 34F as I write, just before dawn, our high for today but a nice surprise for the animals to wake up to. We are not even going to discuss Monday.

I hope you all have a lovely day.

your friend on the farm,

celi

ps. I seem to have lost a number of blogs off my follow list. Very few are coming into my email at all. I shall try and get around and refollow you all. So sorry. This happens in wordpress every now and then. But I will find you and be seeing you soon.