It’s been a long day to cap off a very long, trying week both with work and the farm. Winter on a farm is tough but for those of you who are single, especially women like me with a penchant for pretty, girly things, you should know winter season is extremely demanding.
Today we had a winter storm. It produced the kind of “snow” that really means tiny ice pellets. This was not those beautiful, quiet flakes one thinks of with most snow. This was a driving icy snow, one that when it hits your eyes, it hurts. And it’s slippery. The only animal that’s happy in this weather is Luca. The colder the better for him – except that no one wants to play with him.
I knew the weather was coming so I was able to prepare and fortunately the water stayed on in the house. The barn was not so lucky. The pipes in the barn burst. The good news is I got a good workout hauling buckets back and forth from the house to the animals.
Right away this morning I knew something was off. The animals were quiet and let me sleep in until 7. They were too cold to yell for me. In warm weather I usually just go straight out to fee the animals in whatever I slept in. Winter time is a different story. It takes time to put on my “snowman” outfit before heading out into the cold air. What normally takes 20 minutes in the morning takes much longer in winter. About the only thing that looks good in cold weather are boobs and not much else.
As soon as I walked outside I noticed the geese were a frozen mess. And they were pissed. Their feathers were flat, matted and completely crystalized. Ugh. Luca was, of course, super happy with his frozen kingdom which didn’t help the attitudes of the geese.
The goats started crying when they heard me coming. You’d think they were the wicked witches of Oz the way they scream over getting wet.
Once everyone was fed and watered I had to figure out what to do about the geese. They needed to be defrosted, literally. It’s not as easy and putting a blow dryer on them (as if that would be easy) they are very independent, prideful beings. I looked around for some way to force them into better shelter.
My barn isn’t exactly a real barn. I’ve made due with it’s open space but I really need to start building it out – exactly for times like these. Since tools and building things are not my talent and the geese are more like gang members who think it’s cool to deface and destroy property I couldn’t leave them free to their own devices inside the structure. I can’t imagine the amount of destruction their curiosity could cause, it would be on par with what the goats would do if they weren’t partitioned off in their own area. So I had to improvise, as usual. I decided I would make the geese their own corner nicely padded with straw. Since building something real was out of the question I took bales of hay and made a fort like I would have done as a kid. I had no idea if the geese could break themselves out to terrorize the other animals and my barn but I was proud I thought of something at all.
Once I completed the goose fort I padded the floor with plenty of straw to absorb their profuse amounts of crap and the ice I’d hoped would fall off their feathers. Then, instead of their usual baby pool, I gave them one bucket of warm water to drink and defrost their feathers. I was hopeful my setup would work and keep them happy. I lured them into their fort easily, to my surprise. They seemed to know I was trying to help them even though they hadn’t been allowed in the barn since they were wee goslings.
With my poop machines all settled in I was finally able to head back to the house. At this point I was just as frozen as the geese. I was exhausted just from the morning chores already and still had to build a fire, make breakfast and start dough for bread – not to mention actually get on the computer to work.
By the way, if you want a rural life please note that inclement weather almost always means no internet or tv.
For some reason it always takes longer to start a fire when it’s really fucking cold outside. I don’t have a gas starter, it’s a legit fireplace. And with my extremities close to frostbite it took longer than usual this morning. One thing I failed to do before the storm hit was bring kindling and wood inside the house. Snow is lighter than rain so it drifted much further into my deck area where I keep wood dry (usually). So all of my wood was covered in ice. UGH.
So, 45 minutes later I finally had a fire going. Once it’s going well a little frozen wood just makes the fire much more entertaining to listen to and watch.
At the end of the day it’s feeding time again and I have to wait for all the animals to drink water before I take the waterers inside with me for the night. I’ve learned the hard way that ice cracks plastic waterers and frozen buckets and waters suck to deal with. So it’s easier to bring them all inside to fill in the morning.
Now the day is finally done and I’ll be doing it all over again tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow the geese will be in a much better condition than they were today, if a little stir crazy. I can deal with irritated geese as long as they aren’t popsicles.
Winter means higher electric bills, water trickling on the faucets so they don’t freeze, a light on the well, opening cabinets to help pipes not freeze in the house and 100 other things that can make life a lot harder if you forget any of them. With no one else to remind me of things it’s all on me when something goes wrong. But…
At the end of the day I have candles burning, the fire is roaring, the house smells of freshly baked bread that I didn’t have to fight grocery store lines to buy and I’m about to enjoy real deal hot cocoa and relax my sore body. In my old life this would have been romantic, and I suppose it still is but now it’s also necessary. 2018 has started of in a crappy way. But you know what? Even by myself and on the worst of days in winter this lifestyle is satisfying and on my own terms.
xo