The relief of warm air is palpable. I can touch, maybe even palpate, this relief. This morning is 7f ( -13C) as I awake. Above Fahrenheit’s less that scientific Zero. But measurement is all an invention to some degree or other. After we run out of fingers that is.
It occurred to me yesterday that the weather was even more dangerous yesterday due to my expectation of a warm up. I was letting my guard down a bit. I was actually colder yesterday than the previous day. By body was colder. I think the number of days one is exposed to the weather counts. You get worn down. Then the promise of warm weather decreases ones vigilance.
My little white chickens who are the older of the flock now are dying from this cold. I have found three frozen bodies so far. Two died in the laying boxes, they cuddled into the corner and went to sleep and died. 
I guess they were a good age but also they are small and skinnier and, unlike our wild birds, chickens will go still. The ducks are still all ok though. Marooned here in the cold – unable to migrate like their wild cousins.
Do you see in that image above that the strong winds of the last few days slammed shut the boot of the cow-car. Then froze it shut. It has been open for years!
Below is Mr Flowers taking fright-flight. The only player I lost in the winter of 2014 when the Polar Vortex sent out one of its emissaries (for a much longer period too I might add) we lost The Duke – Mr Flowers’ predecessor so I am making sure to have heaps of good feed in the barn for the free birds.
Jude is thrilled about this of course. 
It snowed yesterday evening and into the night. Not heavily but insistently. It will be interesting to see what I have to deal with when the sun comes up.
I think by tomorrow the farm will go above freezing. Then maybe some of this water trough ice will melt. And I might be able to get the hoses out. I am sure the cows will have a good long drink when they are not fighting ice floes.
But it is winter!
Love celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
34 responses to “COMING UP FOR AIR”
That makes me so sad that your chickens died. Poor little things. But your Instagram video of the pigs awakening made me laugh.
Today it got into the single digits above zero so I ventured out to do a little better job of cleaning out the drive and found a mourning dove on the snow bank frozen, she looked to be asleep. While the bright sun that came with the cold here was good the cold itself kind of grinds away, wearing you down.
Glad it is warming up for you, at least a bit. Still d***n cold here in SW Ontario. Supposed to warm up a bit Sunday, perhaps a little over the freeze mark.
I left a note for you in yesterday’s comments if you have a chance to read it in the morning? About hydration and beverage temperature.
Sorry about the chooks, I hope there are no more losses.
Chris S in Canada
You’re in SW Ontario, Chris? Are you getting whacked by those storms blowing in off the Great Lakes?
Our temperatures are ‘fluctuating’ between 52 and 54 degrees. Okay, I know I often tell you what the temperature is here, but notice the ‘fluctuation’. It is like it is broken or something, like an old clock that says it is always 6:30.
Hmm – that is kind of weird – how long has it been doing that? How long between rises and falls – that sounds unsettling indeed
It really does look weirs when looking at it on the weather forecast, but it is probably not all that uncommon. It did it yesterday, and is doing it today. This is a remarkably mild climate.
I just looked again, and found that the temperature will drop to 48 degrees today, and 47 degrees tomorrow. It can get as cool as 41 degrees on Monday. Oh, now I am thinking that I should not have looked. It is like ‘Groundhog Day’ or an episode of ‘the Twilight Zone’.
Oh no! It is like you have a kind of glass ceiling and base and the temps are bouncing about in there
Like the thick smog that hovered over San Jose in the 1980s?
I would not know – but I get your drift.
The drift from that smog probably did not get much past Fresno, but I know what you mean.
LOL, Tony – speaking of “Groundhog Day” – you do know what day it is, right?; )
OH MY! That was like SO coincidental! Out of 365 days of the year, that is so weird!
A shame about your Chickies. I remember in Spain we sometimes used to lose the older ones in the extremes of winter or summer.
When folks complain to me about this cold weather, I say “it’s Michigan and it’s winter”. Get a life. Of course I say that from the warmth of my kitchen or the checkout counter at WalMart. Still..it is Michigan..and it is winter. (Always dress warm when you go to the barn.)
Wishing you positive degree temperatures soon!
Keep that guard up C; )