The creek (that is really a ditch) has been covered in ice thick enough to walk on for months now. In the last few days it has begun to break up, clink and clank its way into life, yesterday great shards of windowpane ice could be seen floating past. Ice floes break up in between, snow drifts drifting, picking up speed and wagging their tails through, making that singing crackle-crick, jingle, tick-tock of melting ice, like cooling metal, the hiss of cooling iron. A tinging and crickling. A crackle with a song in it. Then the jostle and click of ice shouldering ice shoving and pushing in a crowd trying to get head way.
Of course Sheila lifted her head at the sound of it, headed off and had to be persuaded not to shoot straight over the cliff and down the bank to the ice water.
I made a wee pen for Marcel the Happy in the corner of the sheep’s field, he has a mini culvert for shelter and some company. Only for the day though, at night it is back into the barn for him.
We had not bargained on Daisy who was allowed out for a wander yesterday as the ice has melted. I am terrified of this big gangly cow slipping on ice she is the clumsiest cow I have ever seen so she has not been allowed into the fields for a while. She was out having a mooch when I brought Marcel over to his new pen. She trotted across as fast as she could, her stomach heaving low and loose from side to side and immediately the cow tried to lick the lamb through the fence, she wanted to inhale him, again. With her tiny mewling noises and coy looks.
Marcel obliged with some loving. But I am not a zoo, he said. You can all go about your business!
Bad news on the bee front though. It reached 56F here yesterday, warm enough for bees to come out on toilet breaks, but when I went down to check them it was grimly silent. With a sinking heart I took the hive apart. The bees were all dead. Scattered across three plentiful trays of honey. They had piles of food. They had broken formation to eat and must have been caught by a sharp drop in temperatures, unable to huddle back together for warmth, they had frozen. And only recently. So, so sad. Evidently the Italian bees often come out when it is not warm enough and often hives are lost because of this. Though it was a brutal winter. None of this is much consolation. But this year I cannot think of one thing I did not do. The extreme cold beat us. I am going to give it one last try with my Russian Queen and her hive who arrive in May. Hopefully the progeny will be tougher in these Illinois winters. I need to have bees that are bred for this tough environment. Russians surely must know about the cold.
But the sun was shining yesterday and it was warm enough to work without a jacket or gloves. Everyone took a minute just to stand in the sun, even Sheila. We all stood a little straighter and even though it was all slosh and deep water sitting on frozen ground in the fields, there was warm sun.
I hope you all have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farmy
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
98 responses to “Ice Cold Water”
Marcel is still smiling! What a lovely little home he has outdoors–and all that attention. Daisy is going to be so happy to have a little calf of her own to love on. Our 70-degree days are coming to an end, too, will be below freezing Thursday night. Hopefully we won’t get snow this time around. You worked so hard to save your bees, all that’s humanly possible.
Can anyone tell me how to change the spider icon to a photo please?
good question.. do you have photo of yourself on any other social media? c
Lovely to see the animals soaking up the vitamin D for the skies. We are all overdue an good long course of it!
that vitamin D is very good stuff.. we have missed it! c
So sorry about your bees…sigh…this weather has been so confusing for everyone. Marcel looks happy in his new home!
Do you worry about the animals and the melting ditches? Here when they run toward the Red the water moves very fast and it is deep. Always a worry here…
Can’t wait til the piggies are born! So looking forward to this! I think they are sooo cute when they are little. 🙂
I would like to change my icon too! Would like to know too!
Been out all day practically! Perfect weather! Been practicing heeling with Summer. Warm and sunny til just a little bit ago.
Hope it is nice tomorrow too! Take care! See ya tomorrow!
There are no piglets being born Mere. Sheila did not come into heat. But there is a calf due.. c
a few yrs ago, my beekeeper neighbor put a few hives in a old cut stone cellar, like you have in one of your fields, they survived, but he had to feed them all winter because they were too active,because of the warm inside. he made a bee door opening in the wooden entrance door so they could go out on warm days
wonder if your bees were moved in there about january, with door open enough to keep temps about freezing, but not 0, would it help?
my dad used have bee houses, open front shed on stilts type things, about 3 foot deep, by 10 foot long. high enough inside to put several supers on top of hives,and several hives side by side.with big doors in back to have access to change supers ect
the bee houses would keep wind off hives,shade in the summer, and have a partial wall to put on the front in the fall till spring, it was at the right hight to easily change supers, and do whatever nessary with bees
my neighbor keeps buckfast bees, i think the name is , they seem to work well here in north central wv
goodness ron, you may be onto something there, I shall think upon this solution, there is no door on our root cellar but that maybe be even better.. hmm, now you have me thinking.. thank you.. c
That icy flow up top sure looks more than a creek than a ditch . . . and cold! Love the Dr Doolittle photo at the very end – probably all your four-legged brood having a conference as how to tell you they too are sorry about the bees . . . Hope you survived the latest cold onslaught without further dramas . . .
we are under another storm watch, sleet and then snow.. lots of it.. with wind and more cold.. we are NOT amused.c
And I think all of us are madly sending hot breaths and ‘fair’ vibes towards Illinois! Bet you are ‘not amused’!!!
Still had the Illinois weather radar amongst my ‘favourites’ from the November tornado. Well, 12 hours of snow followed by a fair amount of nasty wind, tho’ the speed not so bad. But oh that ‘chill factor’!!!!! Hope all the love will ‘keep you warm’! Methinks Marcel and the pups will have to head indoors again, but Sheila – please hold on!! Unless giving birth in the middle of the living room is on the cards . . . .
yes .. and marcel even has his night light back on in the sunroom, very cosy he is. mostly praying the calf will stay where he is for another couple of days.. so far so good.. I will check her again before bedtime,and have the calf coat on stand by c
fFngers crosse!! Shall say a prayer to ‘up above’ when my bedtime due! Ni-ni!! Hope you can sleep . . .
Marcel the adorable . The first pic seems to say ‘who me?’
Glad you are warming up
I love Marcel’s smile!
Oh so sorry about the bees. You did everything you could. Russian bees certainly must be able to stand brutal cold. I love Marcel and his whimsical faces. They always make me smile. 🙂
Oh no C! So sorry about the bees. Here’s to the Russians – if anybody knows about the cold its the Russians. Apart from the sad bee news, the rest of this post is filled with so much lovely!
Have a super day C and hope their is more warm happy sunshine for you today.
🙂 Mandy xo
I am sorry about your bees, Celi. I hope you have better luck with the Russians. Even though we weren’t as cold here, I too lost many bees. Two weeks ago, I thought they were all gone, no signs of life whatever. II am not brave enough to open the hive when it is cold.) Then the warm weather came and the few, less that a quarter of what I originally had, came out to eat. They are multiplying very rapidly now!
What a bummer, I was hoping that as your bees had made it through the harsh winter so far they might just have made it. You did everything you could. Ron’s idea of the bee house is a good one, I know some European beekeepers use these.