Another hospital day. So I will be quick!
These two: Quacker and Mr Flowers got back together after becoming separated during the last freezing storm.
Their reunion was delightful. They raced towards each other then they both pretended not to care – but stuck together for the whole day. More snow came in last night so Quacker ran off in the evening to sleep on top of the chickens nesting boxes.
The cows love to eat their dinner then lie on the left overs.
Snow and wind for our drive to the little-big city today. Nice.
Good morning!
Just in from chores and the news is that everyone is VERY OVER this shitty weather. It is cold. More snow last night. Blowing. Windchill of 23f below (-30c for those who care) ( I don’t much believe in windchills – ‘feels like’ is so subjective), but it feels like it is bloody cold and the waters are freezing minutes after I fill them. I took one glove off to try and open a gate ( that I eventually had to climb over due to a frozen latch) but my hand – even when I put it back into the glove just got more and more painful – once the digits get cold it is so hard to warm them back up out there.
Suffice it to say everyone is miserable. There is sign of frostbite on the wild chickens combs. All I can do is feed them and water them and collect the frozen solid eggs.
Have a great day! Even so!
Celi
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The Kitchen's Garden 
45 responses to “Over it!! The Freezing weather – we are over it!”
Wow! Do the frozen eggs thaw out and become normal?
If you get to them before they crack they seem ok. They freeze and crack fast once the chook is off the nest. But usually I just boil them for pigs.
Of course – the liquid expands. I’m sure the pigs don’t mind 😉
Tima professes to be ok with it!
Ha ha – I bet she’d eat them frozen!
No question! Little pig.
I clicked on Like, but no one likes weather like that. Going way down here again tonight & the wind is already up & I must struggle out. I used to have a friend who always “struggled out” & another who “assled out”, either fits sometimes. I have birthday packages for my brother to mail & pills to pick up. Then back home to nestle in – somewhat like the pigs – for this next go-round of Winter’s blasts. You be careful, safe & warm.
I usually ‘struggle out’ but from now on I am going to ‘assle out’!!! Love that!
It is colorful language isn’t it? She always said she had to assle downtown or she had to assle out to the store. I didn’t assle out yet today because as soon as I got all bundled up & out on the porch the wind whipped up a great big snow flurry & now the ground is all covered – our first of the season here & I think that I & my old buggy had better not assle anywhere. Oh Law! It’s really snowing & blowing to beat the band right now!
Such a strange winter. Snow where it shouldn’t be … no snow where it should be. Better to hunker down if you can.
We’re done with it here, too, but it is not done with us. As of today, we’ve had a week of ice. A tiny bit of snow with a layer of ice over it. Yesterday it rained and started to thaw and then the temps dropped and the cold east wind started blowing and now we have glaze ice all over everything again. Gah! I am done, done, done. But at least we have power and it’s not as cold as it was last week.
You have described our conditions and you are on the other side of the country, right?
I’m on the west coast, in Portland.
That’s what I thought.
Charlotte, we here in WA waited and wondered who was going to get hit the hardest with that storm. I’m sorry you it has been so brutal. Images of people walking in the middle of ice covered roads, and the 84 totally shut down… I’m in the valley south of Seattle, we got frigid temps but nothing like what northern WA got. It seems the storm split and for the most part passed us by. I hope you thaw out soon.
Thank you for your kind thoughts! It has been so crazy here, with huge old trees falling and blocking streets and damaging houses and so much more. I’m really glad that it didn’t hit you–seems like often you guys get it when we don’t. We have that brutal east wind that whistles down the Gorge. Hope winter is nice to both of us from here on out!
Mr. Flowers and Quacker🦆 look so happy together, glad they’ve reunited! There are mitten warmers you can place into your gloves to keep your hands warm, you’ve probably already tried them, but we found ours at the big sporting goods stores and online. Great when skiing too. Hoping the bad weather is almost over! Enough is enough!🙂🌟
I buy a CARTON of those now before each winter. Haven’t had to use them much yet. But I certainly AM now. I find the ones I start in the morning last until my afternoon chores as well. When the ‘littles’ are here they are lifesavers. I like the little ones to be able to be outside as much as possible – and the hand (and foot) warmers wonderful for them. Some days I wish I could find a way to put them ON my poor geese! They are not all the smart about staying near a heating panel and are shivering the entire day. Although … they also spend all their time dunking their heads into their water bucket! I’d shiver too!
I love getting the kids outside too! I bet they love their little heat pads.
I try not to use anything I cannot compost or re-use. Luckily the barn is not too far from the house so I just run up and into the kitchen. Years ago one of my readers sent me little bags of wheat that I heated in my ancient microwave before going out- they lasted for years.
I need to make some more!
Such a great idea!
Wow! SUCH a great idea – yes! I’m going to try that. I DO feel guilty each winter as I pull out the disposable little sacs.
I am going to make a packet right now. Thank you for helping me remember that!
Some dried lavender in those packs would be wonderful and calming as you curse out the weather 🙂
Oh yes! That sounds lovely.
We all have wheat packs here. Readily available at the pharmacy. One of mine is now 10 years old and I can still smell the lavender but only faintly. Wouldn’t be without them. I use mine for those niggly aches and pains and even as a hw bottle in the winter. Great for my aching arthritic hands.
Mine lasted years! Time for me to make a few new ones I think.
I hope things are set to warm up some over this next week for you there. No one is spreading doom and gloom about major upcoming storms blowing in from the Pacific anytime soon, just rain and temps around 50F so I hope that means you all get a break as well.
It was sweet to watch Quacker and Mr. F keep eyes on each other in the video last night!
They were sticking close to each other. It is such a sweet relationship though today is windy and cold again so I bet they both stay in their shelters.😀
I am in Southern Illinois and it is freezing here so I can’t imagine the misery you are dealing with in the North. Stay warm!!
Hopefully this freeze lifts soon. A very different winter to last year! Have you found that?
When I was out there this morning I wondered how your bunch was faring! As soon as I leave one barn to go to the next my face is burning. We are at -27’C (-17’F) today. I have all the barn doors closed – straw bale ‘bunkers’ built for the ducks and geese as their northern walls are wicked. The goats and the chickens are blocked from the wind but it is still awfully cold in their shelters. We have two more days to go before we get warmed up to -8’C (17’F) on Sunday. I was reading an article this morning about how climate change may be contributing to these wicked polar vortexes. The jury seemed to be out on that one. I don’t know if it actually was this cold when I was young. I think many of us could just ignore the temperatures if we were not meant to be outside caring for critters. I know I can bundle up – and I understand why it is so cold – and when it might warm up. My biggest concern is never we humans – it is how the animals will survive. Ugh!
I feel that the extremes are getting more extreme where we are. The temps fly up and down at speed. I remember having sheep lambing in the cold and making them little coats! 🤭 I think if an animal or bird is native or has relatives in the region then they will do ok. But they are not being given much time to adapt. Most goats can take really cold temps. The cows would do ok wild here if the fields were left to grow but I am not sure about the pigs. They seem to need deep beds here.
Celi. I was going to hit like but what’s the like about the weather you and so many of your readers are living through at present? It does seem so much worse than even a year ago, but I know that you will do all you can to help and safeguard your animals. How do the pigs fare in this weather? Wai with his damaged skin, we have trouble keeping warm, no doubt. Hugs from the other side of the world.
Wai goes deep into his straw. And with no sun on him his skin seems ok at the moment. But he will NOT even step foot onto snow. Just refuses. Even for food. So when the snow is down he sticks close to the barn. 🙂
Always thought he was a very wise pig!
Bloody freezing hell. I simply can’t imagine. Here in east coast Australia we are sweating through a pretty typical hot humid summer that feels like the longest ever… the temps have been hot since spring.
You live in such a hot continent. I am not sure I could! There is only so much you can take off!
We got a fresh 2” of snow on top of the foot on the ground. Nice dry powder snow. By morning it was -2F and windy. School called off again. I didn’t look forward to moving it off the driveway and front walk. Some neighbors were out doing theirs. As two of them finished, they came over and did mine! We have the best neighbors.
Oh!! Those really are the best neighbours!! How lovely!
The last two days it has gotten above zero, single digits but above and the sun has been out. Might have to break out the flip flops. I folded and sprung for battery heated glove liners ($65 on Amazon, yikes) but I have to say they are worth every penny. They heat down each finger and the thumb, I wear a pair of John’s old xlg gloves over them and if I have to do anything fiddly I can just take the outer glove off. The liners are thin enough to be able to open snaps and latches and stuff. My poor cold arthritic hands are very happy. Too bad they don’t have nose warmers. Earlier this week I thought mine might just break off, it was that cold.
They do sound good!!
I hear you about the face. I was walking to the chook house with my hands in front of my eyes the other day – in that wind.
We’re like Dale, but add about another 5°C, continual thunderstorms for the past 3 weeks, and now staring down the barrel of our second cyclone of the season. TC Kirrily is winding herself up out in the Coral Sea, leisurely picking her victims. I am so very grateful we have our own solar power and can keep the aircon going, because stepping outside to see to the chooks is like walking into a steamy shower cubicle. The old-timers are shaking their heads, the cane farmers are rubbing their hands together, and the graziers are wondering how much extra stock they can run on all this grass and how much longer the rains will last. At least heat rash is better than chilblains, even if we’re all down to the bare minimum of clothing.
Sounds super hot. And Australia is hot to begin with. Love that you have that solar! Good luck with that cyclone!
Gosh it sounds miserable Celi .. wish I could send you some warmth. Hugs