more whining

I'm sure about as tired of hearing about the nasty cold as I am living in it.
But seriously its -27 C right now. With wind chill its -38.
I feel like I'm never going to warm up again

It would be nice not to have to be dressed like this every time we go outside. Just sayin'
We're definitely about function over fashion now!

chicken myth articles

Barbara Foreman is writing a series of articles entitled "7 myths about Urban Chickens" on the Mcmurray Hatchery Blog.

In the first article she published yesterday, she is trying to dispel the myth that Chickens carry diseases communicable to human. ie. The avian bird flu.
Apparently many experts and even the CDC think that the solution to the Avian flu may actually be backyard or smaller flocks. Since commercial raising of chickens usually has such massive amounts of birds housed in less than adequate space, and and all diseases can run rampant.
It stands to reason that smaller flocks, especially small well cared for flocks will be better cared for, housed and fed. Therefore being much healthier and more resistant to diseases.

It may be an interesting series of articles she has planned...

ENOUGH!!!!

As soon as we managed to tunnel our way out of the snow, we were faced with an entirely new problem. The temps. have dropped drastically, with most days ranging between -24 to -30 during the day. With wind chills, its been feeling like -38 C more than once.

Late last night, I had to go in to Edmonton to pick up Chris coming back from Fort Mac. The Van wouldn't start. There was no way it was turning over. I cussed a blue streak. Then I plugged it in for about 45 minutes and crossed my fingers (that's a story in itself since it took me about 4 tries to find a extension cord that would both reach and fit the plug). I was venting on Facebook claiming I was ready to give up and move to Florida.

But honestly, the worst fight of this cold snap has been the animal water.

Cars can be coaxed to life.
Snow can be trudged through and packed down. (or in the worst case shovelled)
Hay can grudgingly be hauled.
Heat lamps can be run 24 hours in the barn to keep the goats snug.

But try as I might I can't keep the water from freezing.

We have heaters similar to this one that float in the water pail. They are supposed to keep the water thawed at the very least. With the temps. as cold as they are, these beauties are freezing solid, right in the middle of a giant bucket shaped ice cube.
I'm at the point where I just make a trip to the barn several times a day with HOT water hoping to melt the ice a bit, and give the goats enough water to drink for a few hours at a time.

I was glad when Chris came home and could break apart the ice, freeing the heater (for all the good its doing), and making the bucket able to hold a maximum amount of water. Tonight, we're going to try an experiment with 2 heaters in the same small bucket. I hope that 2 heaters will be able to keep the water above freezing.
*sigh*
I'm not sure how else to fight this battle at the moment.

Workshop sign up.

Oddly only days after I wrote the post about losing Larry to what I think was hypothermia. I got an e-mail from Kathy at Herbal Maid Fiber Farm asking if anyone would be interested in a workshop on Hypothermic Resuscitation. It's more for lambs and kids, since lambing and kidding season is about to start. But she's promising a pattern for a knit/crocheted kid coat, Instructions for making an incubator barrel for your nursery, pictorials on how to resuscitate a hypothermic newborn and more.
I sent off an email expressing my interest. If I'm going to be stubborn and stick with this goat deal. I have to start looking to the experts for more info!
Plus I took the goat milking and Cheese making classes from her last spring, and thought they were excellent.
She doesn't have the workshop listed on the website yet, but if anyone else is interested all of her contact info is there. Just shoot her an email and let her know.

some goat humor

see more funny videos

I laughed so hard when I saw this picture I just had to share.

V is for Victory

At least it feels like a victory.
I managed to get the entire driveway shoveled yesterday. By myself. Yes just me and a snow shovel. We still haven't invested in a snow plow.
My back, my arms and oddly my thighs may never forgive me but I did it.

The Gate to the house. Luckily it was very powdery, dry snow so it was easy to move and lift. But still not a fun chore.

 Can you see how it comes up to Maggie's chest? it was super deep in some places and not bad in others. Kind of like the back yard where it was anywhere from the top of my boots to mid thigh. Depending on how it had drifted. That's one of the problems with getting so much snow with a wind at the same time. Maggie made sure she was out to supervise all the work being done on the driveway. Even when Nathan was out "helping" which consisted of throwing snowballs at Maggie and trying to get her to let him ride her through the drifts. Poor dog puts up with so much from that child.

The front of the van and the accumulation beside it. I've heard we got at least 40 cm over the 2 major days of the storm. And obviously a few cms more in the scattered flurries that followed.

The drifts are piling up.

Somewhere behind this drift is the goats. All Snug and warm I hope.

But so much for all the tracks and path I laid down yesterday.

*sigh*

Another day of slugging through snow drifts

Snow wall

I opened the front (mudroom door) to literally a wall of snow this morning

That's my rubber boot front and center that comes up to my knees. Notice how much higher the snow is? Yeah past my waist. FUN!
I'll give you it's not that deep everywhere out there.
The garage and mudroom entrance is set back about 4 feet from the front of the house. The house and the deck must have acted as a snow fence all night. The snow and wind swirled it all nicely into one big drift directly in front of the door.
It's been snowing since at least 8 last night and hasn't stopped yet.
Although it may not be this deep everywhere I have already lost the benches on the picnic table out back. You can only see the table top still.
Dragging hay to the goats was fun. My paths are all gone. The snow was to my knees.
Heck. It's a good work out right?

I'm thinking I should have picked up more milk when I was in town last. We may be snowed under for the week.

Back to the Drawing Board

All I have to say is….”Somebody LIED to me!!!!”


So you may have guessed by the post More Goat issues. We had another traumatic goat problem. Our new goat “Larry” died, and were pretty sure it was from exposure. I.e. Hypothermia. AGAIN!!!!

I’d left the evening chores for Chris to do when he came home from work.
He walks in the kitchen looks at me and says, “So how long has Larry been dead?”
I was so mad I could barely respond to him.
Partially at him for stating it so abruptly, for thinking that I may have known and left this discovery for him to find and deal with…but mostly I was pissed at the goat, at us, at the situation, again.

Let me say that in most of my travels, readings and seeking of “expert opinions” the one common theme is that goats have very minimal shelter requirements. The lady we bought most of the goats from told me she’d had 2 small bucks stay in a large doghouse all winter.

So why is my goat frozen stiff in my barn?

That’s right, he was inside this time. In the barn and frozen.

Most articles I’ve read say that a lot of the time goats require only a 3-sided shelter. They need only a place to escape the rain, snow and wind. Yet here I am with the barn that we went out of our way to patch up, insulate and repair, and it’s not enough?!?!?

What the heck is going on?

I swear there is no other time I have been so close to throwing up my hands, admitting we don’t have a clue what were doing and putting this place up for sale.

There is nothing like losing 2 animals, quite literally within a month of each other to the same thing? I wanted to scream. I wanted to sell the rest of the goats, because we may be unfit goat owners.

On closer examination of Larry, we realized he had a completely unfit coat for our weather. The rest of our goats have their beautiful goats, and if you lift the hair they have an undercoat of hair as well. They look shaggy. They are warm. They are Alpines that seem to be able to survive in our severe climate.

Although I think Larry had some Alpine in him, his floppy ears were a dead give away that he was a cross. And whatever he was crossed with must not produce the same kind of undercoat that the other goats do. You stuck your hand through his coat and you touched skin. It was like sending someone outside in –28 degree C weather in a spring jacket.

Chris had mentioned before that Larry wasn’t as shaggy as the others. I wrote it off. Maybe he’d been a total inside goat his whole life. Just let him adjust to the cold he’ll grow a thicker coat like the others if he needs it!

What was I thinking?

I should have gone out there and put the “goat coat” on that animal.

I didn’t know.
And my ignorance has cost us yet again.

I’m stumbling blindly right now. There are so many things I don’t even know where you’d find the “answers” to when you don’t even know to ask the question. The worst-case scenarios could be endless.

I don’t know right now what the next step is. I don’t know where were headed from here.
Do we try again with another male goat?
If we do it will be a purebred Alpine, or something equally hardy.
Do we sell Romeo?
He can’t continue to bunk with the girls, but no companion in his own barn and own field may kill him too.
Do we sell them all?
Admitting maybe goats are harder to figure out than we thought.
Right now I don’t know…

Anyone surprised that Oil/Gas companies have no manners?

This is what greeted us at the end of the driveway bright and early January 1st. Apparently were ringing in the New Year with explosions. Not the fireworks kind either.

I haven't been impressed with these guys since the start. Less than a week after the water test, they showed up. Opened whatever gates they wanted to. Rode Quads across the field. And gave us absolutely no warning they were there. It was the dogs that alerted me actually.

This time again. We didn't even get the courtesy of a quick knock on the door.

"Hi, we're here"

Nope too much to ask.

We left for the afternoon, so I never figured out if I could actually hear the explosions or not.

But they better hope they don't want to drill on our land.

There will be some mighty big changes before they are allowed back here again.