COMING UP FOR AIR
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
34 Comments on “COMING UP FOR AIR”
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thekitchensgarden 
SO glad to hear that you are safe and sound today and a slight improvement in your weather.
Hope John will be able to get back now.
Poor chooks, to sit still and quietly slip from sleep to the Long Sleep isn’t good survival behaviour. I hope your ducks will fare better, with their high quality duck down undergarments and their sensible huddling. What all your creatures need, I feel, is a nice cosy Tima in every bed and nest, belting out the joules and hopefully not hogging the bedclothes too much. I’m so glad you’re safer today, and that a few extra degrees of warmth is giving you a respite.
I agree, the longer you have to deal with the cold, it wears you down. I feel fortunate since we only got down to zero. I can’t imagine how cold it was there. My old goat looks so miserable with her head down laying next to a hay bale. My chickens are young except for one that is 12 yrs old, but they all made it but might not have at your temps. Sorry to hear about your chickens. 😦 Today is such a relief, knowing the animals will get a break as the temps rise.
Poor chooks. Loved your IG videos of the pigs firstly snoring and then erupting from under feet of straw. Hang in there miss c . Laura
The duration of extreme weather – hot or cold – slowly seeps out body reserves. Brrr. Take care and don’t get fooled – it’s still terribly brrr
The car’s weather makes it almost look like a designed sculpture.
Hugs and warm thoughts sent to all at the Farmy.
Poor chicken – I imagine the ducks are the best adapted to cold, in their duvet down. In the wild, if they can’t get in the ponds and lakes due to ice they sit on top of it!
I’m sorry you lost the chickens. I think you are right about the warmer but still cold being more dangerous. One of the drivers at work got a good scolding for treating yesterday like it was a balmy 70 instead of just above 0F. It’s cumbersome and awkward for driver’s to get properly dressed for the weather because mostly they are in the car, but often they have stand outside the car wailing for the passenger. It’s not good to go from being overly cold back into a warm car. It makes you sleepy and dopey feeling. Which is NOT good for driving.
We are currently a balmy 11F at the moment but Mother Nature pulled a fast one on us overnight and dumped a bunch of snow on us that wasn’t quite predicted; many streets including main ones haven’t been plowed yet. But Sunday may be up to 50! Oh joy! Morning miss c… t
Everything here is covered in icy snow including my car and deck but school was only delayed so the roads must be okay. Our forecast for Monday is 65!!!
Courage under fire
oh my poor chickes….sad indeed. Stay warm and cozy….7F isn’t exactly balmy.
Hi, Miss C! Glad to see you poke your little head out of a hay pile, too! Cold is so wearing on the body, but what it does psychologically after prolonged periods – that, and dull, grey skies – sure raises havoc with everything! Wai-Wai doing OK?
WHAT or WHO is that hanging over the fence in the first shot? The photo with the boot frozen shut and the cows milling around cracks me up! I can just hear them chanting “Open, Open,, Open” like they do in an ad in front of a department store – folks are waiting for the doors to open so they can get to the ‘Big Sales’. The three chickens probably suffered from hypothermia – like folks climbing snow-covered mountains or those who are lost without proper gear. So glad you are safe!!
Same feelings here about the photographs. Well put! Warm feelings and encouragement for you, C.
Good thing no-one had their head in the boot when it slammed shut! And the cows, calling to Boo…..hey dog, we’re talking to you. Poor chickens, poor you finding them, at least they might not have suffered too much, just going quietly to sleep.
Sorry about your poor little white chicks. I’m sure that less fortunate wild birds did not fare well as the majority of your own fowl. There was sun today and the weather got warm enough that the salt that I put down on Tues may actually help with melting. (It’s rated for -15F as I recall.)
You are a tough cookie Milady: roared with laughter at your sweetest voice on IG yesterday waking up your snoring piggies 🙂 ! Talk about grouchy faces emerging from the straw! All the same trust John back soon , , , , and do hope you remember to eat yourself as well as feed and water the four=legged . . . . . .
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; )