To be honest. Most farmers begin any discussion with talk about the weather.
The weather makes all the difference in our day.
You can tell a farmer because they can find a way to moan about the weather even when it is perfect. That’s me!
A woman said to me the other day she tries to get outside for at least an hour a day, when the weather is nice, for her health. And when you live in the city I can see that as an excellent objective.
As a farmer I am outside for two or three hours, two or three times a day, and even when the weather is not nice!
And I dress for it. I wear a lot of old broken down warm clothes. Layers of them. Clothes I would not be seen dead in, in town.
But in a prolonged cold like this my toes and fingers, even in double gloves and double socks, go from warm to cold to chilled to painful, to tingly to numb. Every time. The pain is real.
Most farmers talk about the weather because we are daily beaten about by it.
And to throw a further spanner in the works. Today we have strong winds. Sigh.
If I said I was not looking forward to a month of summer in Melbourne, Australia I would be lying. If I said I was happy to leave this cold work to others while I am away I would be lying too. It feels mean.
The worst is the endless battle of water for the animals. Animal hides are designed for weather. Our hides are not! How did humans get so vulnerable to the elements!
(When we start our archives journey we will come across that picture of Boo and his kittens! Do you remember that one?).
Ok! Time for work.
Take care and Talk soon
Celi
HERE is the last TKG Take Ten of the year. The Ducks in their frozen pond. This coming Thursday I will read Chapter One of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. And I will continue to read to you while I am in the city. I am a little nervous about launching this new initiative but a little excited too!
Join the CHAT so you can talk about the reading (and anything else). Talking about books and gardens is going to be a whole lot more fun than listening to the endless chatter about politics. That’s for sure.
The Kitchen's Garden 
27 responses to “Farmers and the Weather”
In New England, we always say “If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute, it will change!” And usually that is right.
Good morning Dorothy! That sounds like a great saying. Winter seems to have dug her toes in early here but we hope it warms up in a few days.
I really don’t know how you do it. I guess because you don’t have any choice and for the love you have for all your animals. I hope you are going to love the sun. I do remember the picture, what an amazing nanny Boo.
Farmers and the English! In Cornwall the rain is horizontal 😳
oh! That sounds awful!! Hope your Wellies don’t have holes in them!
🤣
Our fog is back! Very dense and mysterious. So happy to look outside and glad that I live in a deep valley on days like this. Not at all happy to hear you have wind- that’s a killer when it’s already cold.
It is but at least we are above freezing today!
Beautiful pinky-orange sky in the top photo. I can see the cold coming out of the photo, though, even before looking at your forecast. Brrr!
I grew up with the saying “red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning. Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight”. Not sure if there’s any truth in that!
Well this was a red sky in the morning and it is going to drop 30 degrees tonight. So maybe!
Yes, keeping up with providing water for the animals in the winter becomes a big chore! Hauling buckets of it and such…, difficult in the extreme cold. So happy you will be getting away! Funny about your old layers of clothes! I always look like a rag woman around here. And find myself choosing the old rags instead of the few nicer clothes I have. 🙂
I have a puffy vest that o inherited from John’s son – he grew out of it at 16! And is now almost 30. I have sewn it back together with wonky hand stitches multiple times – it is a middle layer so I only wash it once a year! 😂
I laughed when I read your comment about not being caught dead in your farm clothes in town. I always have to change my clothes when I go out! Our winter is not yet in full swing, but the cold, damp fingers of it do creep in between layers. I fight them off with wool (and firewood!) and look enviously at my sheep’s thick coats.
I remember!!!!
The cold weather is no joke! It makes everything more work. A good quality, highly rated heating pad works wonders for keeping the blood circulated to cold fingers, toes and relaxes the muscles after a long work day. The photos are amazing, as always! 🙂✨️☕️
That sounds great! Often I just have a hot shower and go to my warm bed early!
Be prepared for humidity in Melbourne… and to be fair any other kind of weather. Even in summer anything goes anywhere in Australia, it seems. But at least it will not be Illinois-freezing, unless maybe Tassie.
Thank you- yes. I am usually in Melbourne in the winter. It will be interesting to compare the humidity. Illinois is often dripping in the summer.
Melbourne can be humid, but it’s not tropical humid. If your bones ache in the cold, you’ll be comfortable in the heat there. Would you consider wearing rechargeable battery-powered heated gloves inside work gloves, if someone gave them to you? Some are very thick and heavy, but you can get them thin inough to go inside others. Let me know, because by ‘someone’ I mean me.
I splurged on a pair of heated glove liners – they have heating elements in the fingers as well as the back of the hand. Pricey but a game changer with the arthritis in my hands and wrists getting worse all the time. I can wear a pair of heavier over gloves and the liners are thin enough for fiddly work and still keep me warm when I have to take off the over gloves to do something. Just have to remember to keep the batteries charged.
Great idea. Do you think our ruined hands come from years working in the cold ?
My dad’s side, particularly his mom, had a lot of issues with arthritis. That, combined with too much time in the cold with not so great hand wear did me in I think.
I definitely need to attend to my hands in the cold. Today my gloves were wet again- draining the hoses – then frozen. Sigh. When I get back in January I will look into heated gloves.
The ones that heat down the fingers are worth every penny!
I can’t imagine being out in that kind of weather but needs must when you have a farm and animals depending on you. I notice you mention heated gloves. There is all sorts of heated clothing available that might help deal with the bitter cold/wind.
Safe travels Celi and enjoy the sunshine in Melbourne. We have been getting it for the past couple of days as well
It will be lovely.