I asked this of the busy kitchen after dinner last night. No-one had an answer of course. It is not cold like real cold is but I am sitting writing to you in August on the prairies with a sweatshirt on, thinking about socks. It is 52F /11C . Not warm. And the middle of August which is the hottest month here. The sleeping is good though and with a breeze things will dry out without festering.
I am finally getting tired though. I thought since the rescue piglets are getting bigger (14 days old now I think) I might take them to four hourly feeds through the night but it was so cold last night that it was obvious that they would need that warm milk in their bellies so I stayed with the every three hours.
The piglets hear me open the door, come out of their house barking, have a pee then a big drink then back to bed where it is warm then I scoop up the ones with walking difficulties, they do the race track a few times, have a pee, a drink then they too are sent back into bed. The whole episode takes about thirty minutes each time.
Molly’s piglets spend all their time in their garden so sometimes Milly can sneak up to the barn and have a few minutes almost alone. Look at the size of her babies. They will be fine to wean early.
With all the franticness and the gathering tiredness I took my eye off the ball and last night Lady Astor presented with mastitis. After an extra long milking session I was able to hand milk it all out but we will see how that is this morning. Well, you know the drill, I will milk her three or four times a day for a few days . Then go to the antibiotics inserted into the quarter if that has not sorted it. Poor old girl. I have been testing Aunty the last few days and I missed this developing. This is not like me – I am fastidious about mastitis.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Love celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
54 responses to “Why am I cold?”
Well, Celi Gunther, it hardly takes a rocket scientist to know why you feel cold. Anyone as tired as you must be DOES feel cold. And 11 C IS cold . . . we are at tail end of winter and the news told us we had had the coldest day in three months at 16 C, if you please – I have two heaters on and a winter nightie: sookie, I know! Never mind us having a ‘lovely day’ – you have a couple of people helping, so what about you having one with perhaps a long nap some time in the afternoon, pretty please!!
Our mornings are still chilly at 9deg C but our days are getting up to 23C … roll on summer. We of course now have gale force winds to deal with but hopefully some rain later on in the summer this year. Molly sure has done a fine job with her babies, sorry about Lady A. Hope it all clears up quickly. Laura
I know, imagine being cold in August! I dug out my flannel nightgown instead of cotton T-shirt to read your post and drink my coffee this morning! So sad to hear about the mastitis. Hopefully it will be cleared up quickly. We’ve been super lucky with milking our goats that none of them has developed it. I love the picture of the barn with the metal monster and all the hay stacked up! We are having difficulty finding square bales to buy to feed the goats. It seems that most folks around here use the large round bales for their cattle and horses.
Your animals are so lucky to have you!!! Hope you feel warmer soon after some more nights of good sleep! Cheers from Ohio, Johanna
Wishing you stamina, continued success with the piggies, and quick recovery of Lady A’s mastitis. If I was an animal I would want to live on your Farmy. ❤
Every three hours through the night is draining, but I am so glad that the littles are doing so well. It gets tougher and tougher to pull those nighttime duties as we age! We are finally having a good rain here in coastal, drought-ridden Maine.
You really are the mother pig – those piglets love you! Poor Lady Astor 🙂
Is there anyone else who might be able to take even one of your night watches. Your health is at risk and you may have to consider the wee piggies or a farmer, hence the farmy out of commission. I am sounding like a mother hen, but C you know continued lack of sleep is a killer.
The waning days of August sometimes bring a taste of fall into the air as a brief reminder of what is to come. But never fear, the heat of the sun has not been banished, just tamed for a bit.
It is COLD here too at night…… Where we are usually in the upper 70’s and low 80’s at night in August – we have got down in the 60’s – which feels cold and WET…
So glad Pat is there. You are exhausted so please just move forward and don’t beat yourself up. Lady A will recover as now you are on top of it. Maybe Pat or your woofer can help with one of the night feeds? Or each take 1 – that would free you up a couple of time for SLEEP! You need sleep.
I only had to read half way through your post and I knew why you were cold…because you are run down..you are doing too much and we all know that with you everything must be absolutely right…except yourself! You seem to be the last one on your 'care' list…. I know that these things must be done and you have worked so hard with the rescue piglets, up all hours of the day and night…even though it may take only 30 minutes..your brain is always awake , either as an alarm or working schedule…You are well and truly in need of a holiday and the sooner the better….I will pray for you and I send my love
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2016 at 2:16 PM
Oh goodness, take some of our heat! We escaped to the beach for the weekend because of a run of record-breaking heat–three days over 100. (It usually gets hot like that here in July.) And, as the others have said, I think you’re cold because you’re tired! You’re amazing.
Nick comes from New York and he said the temps there were horrendous.. c
We had a 21 degree temperature change in one day.. One day you are too hot then next day cold. And when exhausted, as you are, cold will hit harder. Heat takes the energy away, cold curls you up. We will have 75 today, Wed, Thurs, Fri. mid 90’s again. Then cooler. It’s no wonder we are all having a hard time keeping our balance with life. I’m grateful for the cool but the garden is sluggish from the constant change. I hope things level out for you soon and the rescue piglets get their footing.
The piglets are not the only ones who need something warm in their bellies. I know a Celi who needs some hot food inside her too, and a full night’s sleep or seven… It’s hard on Lady A that you missed the mastitis, but not at all surprising; even you cannot be everywhere and focusing on everything at once, and the most adept juggler will occasionally drop a ball. I know it’s easy for the rest of us to chorus “you’re going to make yourself ill if you keep this up”, but these comments come from a place of deep concern. From outside of the Farmy, we can see that you are slowly driving yourself into the ground. Can you ask Pat or Nick to take a turn with the night feeds once or twice, just so it’s not you every day, every night, every time?
I would never ask anyone else to get up in the night like that – I need them bright eyed for the day chores. On fact I am used to it now and don’t feel too tired at all. c
pffffffffffftttttttttttttt…… That is an electronic raspberry to you Miss C! you are tired…… We read it between the lines. Love and hugs.
Well, everything is relative. Going through the winters we have up in the northern half of the northern hemisphere, 52 f. degrees is chilly, especially in mid-August. However I would concur with others here who have suggested that you’re cold (instead of chilly) because you are bone-tired and you really do need to remedy that before you get ill too. Trying to operate at that level of exhaustion is tricky because your immune system gets compromised and goodness only knows what you could end up fighting, this time for your own health. Two weeks steady of round the clock care should be enough for those wee guys and if it’s not — well?
I hope you take siesta time today to have a snooze yourself. Sounds like you need it. ~ Mame 🙂