Sheila. Showing you her performing cows. She literally has them running rings around her. They obey her every bark.
Not a lot of news from yesterday unless you want to call weather news. Which I would rather not but that is all I have.
Frozen rain was falling from the sky over-night. As we prepare for the plummet in temperatures.
I have given in and tested a heat lamp above the entrance to the piglets igloo. It is as safe as a hot light bulb suspended above tinder dry straw can be. I am not sure how much of a difference it will make temperature wise but it does cheer the area up. Right now we are at 27F/-2C which is OK. But today the wind has shifted to the North and temperatures will not rise again instead they begin a steady slide down to -8F on Sunday night. No highs for a few days which is weird, only lows and lowers. The temperature itself is manageable but with high winds and blowing snow thrown in, it will be a chilly few days for the animals. But the bad cold is only for about 48 hours then we rise again.
I know it sounds like I am fretting but I am. I was hoping that the bad cold would not come until January when these little pigs were a month older and thirty pounds heavier.
I wear a lot of clothes, the right clothes for the conditions so I am always warm – I worry about a little pig getting chilled and being unable to warm itself back up again so I will be keeping a close watch.
It is black dark and I can hear a calf calling out, he sounds like he is right under the window, either the snow is heavy in low dark clouds and the sound is carrying or they really are right under the window.
Time to get up and see what is going on. Usually they do not get out of bed until they hear us coming. And Sheila the ring master is always the last to get out of bed she does not like to be woken early!
Have a great day.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
66 responses to “The Ring-Master”
If I were one of the cows I would obey Shelia’s every bark too! Good luck with the heat lamp. I am very afraid of them as well.
we could knit some thick woolly coats for the piglets..like dog coats only wider
The cold has come here as well. -30celsius last night. I don’t have outside animals but I was fretting over the little parakeet in the living room as the house got quite cold during the night. I debated taking him to bed to keep him warm! The dog was curled up snug inside his blankets nose and all. Stay warm!
She’s definitely been reading Animal Farm – you’ll have to see if you can find her copy and remove the latter pages…
Have you tried measuring the temperature of the pigloo (house not bathroom) to see if it gets cold at night?
Good idea, I will put a temp gauge in there right now – see what it is up to..c
I also noticed some tubular greenhouse or kennel heaters that are cheap and wondered if they would be safer. It’s hard to know how much heat would radiate from them…
http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/kennel-heater
We have a reprieve here with the temperature around 56 today! It feels like springtime, which, of course, is super exciting!!! But tonight it plummets to 12 degrees, and stays really cold for the next couple of days. Yep, I think the cold weather is here whether or not we want to face that fact! 😦
Fifty-SIX! That is So warm! I bet you are hurrying through some extra chores while it is nice.. c
It’s just really foggy here today, not very cold though. Your cold is something else. I hope all is well with the calves.
They were hoping for an early breakfast.. c
That Sheila is part royalty and part drill Sargent. Do let us know if cows were serenading you under your window.
No, just heavy clouds and a heifer (Txiki) who can throw her voice! c
There is no way not to worry when it comes to what you care about. I’ll worry with you. I’ve had practice. 🙂
I am a fretter – it is a very annoying habit.. c
It’s a hard thing to unlearn. As a Virgo, it’s installed in my DNA.
Worrying “with,” that ‘s a great idea. Far better than worrying about. The one is compassionate, the other–well, useless ( however natural and real). I’m with you. And with C., naturally.
I mostly worry about nothing. I can only control my response to things that come into my life but to support another person in their concern for something and someone they love is all I can do. Thank you for your kind words.
Maybe you will need to move the piggies into the house😃
Hope not.. c
And now I have a mental image of the divine Miss S, wearing a rakish little red top hat, a striped waistcoat and red tailcoat, urging us all to Roll Up, Roll Up and watch the Performing Calves Jumping Through Flaming Hoops…. May the early morning calfsong be simple hunger, may the piggies stay warm and cosy, and may Miss Sheila’s shadow never decrease. Stay safe and warm today.
He was just stood in his barn door calling for more food – naughty calf.. c
those temperatures make me want to curl up into a little ball next to a fire … then I just go outside 🙂 Enjoy your weekend. Laura
Bet you are hot out there now!.. c
What about switching the light to one of those warming pads they sell for baby pigs? We use them for baby lambs and feel a bit safer than lamps.
They would be a lot safer and I have thought of those but The thing is they are not baby pigs anymore and CHEW everything, and then eat it, they put everything in their mouths just like toddlers, they would simply eat them up. Two are small the rest are big and fat and rambunctious, the straw is deep under them and on the roof above them. I can only really heat their entrance. I just have to take the risk. This was a late litter – it will never happen again, but I had to let poppy breed late or she would not have bred at all and maybe never again so – well you see my problem – every day they get fatter and better able to manage so I am feeding them like crazy. c
-23* F in western Wyoming this morning….hoping for -5 to 0 in a couple hours to commence milking – NOT looking forward to that or chopping the creek ice for the beef cows. A long time ago I had bitty weaner pigs – 20 or so pounds – in the winter (-20F or so at times). They just had a shed with lots of straw and would bury themselves deep. I’d have to wake them to feed them warm milk with grain and when they had their fill they’d burrow back into the straw till the sun came up. I hated to get them up in the cold but was working two jobs (single mom) at the time and had to be to work early.
Very cold for us this morning, too. -18. (Hi Marcia!) But the wind has died, thank goodness. And when I checked the animals for the last time last night, all was well. I will make myself wait for daylight before venturing outside. Pecan pancakes with maple syrup is on the menu. The kids will be happy and it will be a good distract until I can get outside.
Mornin’ Elizabeth — pecan pancakes sound divine! I do like to read what you’re having for dinner also!
They were wonderful! Thank you for the compliment! I would write about food more often but one of my sisters reads the blog and she thinks recipes are “boring”. HA!
Thank you Marcia this is what I hope too. -23F is very cold. Good luck with the milking. I chose 3pm as my once a day milking time as it is usually the warmest hours of the day. I hate milking in the winter this is why I am not breeding Aunty for a few months. c
I really dislike milking in the winter also but this year it just turned out something I had to do. I plan on retiring my old Molly — going on 10 and has issues with milk fever and I think she deserves it — has been the BEST since I got her as a 2 yr. old….but I’m still milking her right now — she’s still giving about 3 gal. a day going on 17 months now and my replacement cow – Tulip – calved in March, one day after I brought her home — so her calf is weaned now and she’s still giving over 2 1/2 gallons. I could dry them both, but I have a couple milk customers (it is legal to sell raw milk in Wyoming!!) and it brings in a little extra income and the one family (5 little kids) depend on it for health reasons which makes me happy. Now up to -15* — soon to head out.
Sounds about the same as my two. Both are sitting around two. At how many gallons would you dry them up? I usually wait until i get down to 11/2 a day.
I had read somewhere that if they are giving under 3 gal. a day you can just stop milking, however I’ve found it hard to do unless they are under 2 — they just look SO uncomfortable and even then I taper off milking every other day and NO extras at all — just pasture or hay.
yes – same – I like to get as low as I can – under Two would be the upper limit for me. Good info – thank you
I try not to think too much about the discomfort of winter. We have to be tough-skinned because there is a job to do, and animals (or people) relying on us. Part of me embraces the challenge and knows that I have done my best. But the greater part of me worries about what I cannot control or manage against nature. I always pray that what I have done is enough.
That goes for most of life doesn’t it!! c
Indeed!! 🙂
I believe Sheila has found her calling. Mad Dog might be right. I will think warm thoughts for the piglets. More straw!
Yes – all but one are happy today – the light has helped a lot! c