Hunkering Down: The Ice Man Cometh!

For you "Oldies" fans out there, the theme song of this post is "Limbo Rock" . . . you know that line, "How LOW can you GO?" ♫

Monday it's supposed to start raining, change to snow (although around here it could end up being freezing rain), and get down to a low of 4° with a wind chill of -10°.  BRRRRRR!  Tuesday is supposed to be relatively balmy with a high of 23° and a low of 13°.  After about 36 hours of the Ice Man, we're supposed to get back our more normal winter temps of low 40s during the day and about 27° at night.

Although Dexters and horses routinely do well in even more severe temperatures, our forecast deep freeze can come as a shock to livestock that aren't accustomed to it.  So this afternoon we did some hunkering down to get ready for the Ice Man.  (Herb will be seeing counseling clients till late Monday evening and won't be here to help me get ready.)

Herb got out a new round bale for the animals in the pasture.

While Herb took care of the round bale, I collected turn-out sheets from the tack room and took them down to dress Angel and Brandy for freezing rain, just in case.  Once the rain is over I'll probably take the blankets off so the girls can fluff back up and stay warm in the cold.

The horses are old hands at wearing blankets, but Julie wasn't quite sure about this.  I tried our smallest one on Julie, but it was still too big.   So poor Julie will just have to tough it out.

Herb brought down the Rubbermaid tank and filled both tanks in the pasture.  In case the ice freezes solid, it's easy to remove it from the Rubbermaid tank by whacking it with a heavy rubber mallet.  Tomorrow I'll run down there with a big log to float in each tank, which helps to prevent solid ice forming.

Boudin has been banished to solitary confinement in the Back Pasture ever since Cameron caught the big galoot trying to nurse Ebony over Christmas vacation.  We let him back in with the horses today so he can get to the hay and so that we don't have to go to the Back Pasture to break ice on the pond for him.   The less scattered our animals are, the easier it is for us to keep an eye on them.  Boudin still wants to be with Ebony, so we weren't taking any chances.

Herb led Ebony up to the barnyard (it is SO great dealing with halter-broken cattle!) where she promptly dug into the manger full of hay.  She is Boss Cow, so the others left her in peace, although Macree ventured to eat from the other side.

Next we got a pile of clean hay that had been strewn in the hay barn and we built a comfy nest for Misty in the feed area.  She may or may not choose to use it, but at least she'll have a dry, warm place to go.

We plugged in the electric dog bowl to keep some water warm for the chickens, ducks and Misty.  It's safely inside the feed area where the cattle won't mess with it.  (Let me add here that putting electricity in the barn is one of the smartest improvements we've made!)

The water tank got a de-icer plugged in, and we drained and hung the hose.  The proximity of the tank to the chicken coop allows us to run one extension cord up high out of reach of mischievous horses so that we can safely plug in the tank de-icer and a heat lamp for the chicken coop.

A new salt block encourages the animals to get plenty of salt and stay thirsty enough to drink the water, even though it's cold.

Next we got some exercise stripping the stall we use to separate Siobhan and Macree overnight for milking.  I'd gotten behind on this, so Herb helped me.  Between the two of us we were able to lift the loaded wheelbarrow enough to dump it into the manure spreader, saving us from having to shovel everything twice or carry each shovel load clear across the barnyard.  (I will not be milking Tuesday morning in near-zero temperatures!  It's better for the animals to share warmth when it's that cold, and I can very well imagine the milk freezing as it hits the pail--I have no need to see it!)

After filling the water bucket and stuffing the manger with hay, I spread lime over the wet spots on the clean floor and carried in lots of loose hay the cows have spilled around their manger and hay nets.  They won't eat it once they've dropped it, but it makes a nice clean bed for Siobhan.  (Since Sir Loin has joined the barnyard gang and has decided he should get to nurse like Macree, I need to put Siobhan in the stall instead of Macree.  That keeps Siobhan away from everyone who still has nursing on their minds!)

We turned on the heat lamp in the chicken coop as usual in the evening, and we'll just leave it burning until things warm up.  I added fresh clean hay to the nest boxes before covering them for the night.  (You can see our high-tech nest box covers here:  two door mats with handy holes.  I just drove nails in appropriate spots so we can hang the mats over them.  During the day they are propped on the folding door that covers the nest boxes.  The mats are heavy enough and just the perfect size to cover the nest box openings and keep the chickens out of them at night, thus cutting way down on chicken droppings in the nests.)

That's it--we're all hunkered down for the Ice Man.  Everything and everyone is as ready as we can get them . . . except poor Boudin, who is hanging out near the gate where he bid Ebony farewell!  Herb thinks we might find him frozen there Tuesday morning, but I have faith that he has enough sense to head down for some hay and shelter once his hunger overcomes his broken heart.  Meanwhile, he's making quite a racket letting everyone know how upset he is!  Moo away, Boudin--it'll keep you warm! 

Seek and Ye Shall Find . . . But What?

I'm sure you've had the experience of searching for something on the internet.  A page comes up with various sites and you click on the most interesting ones.  If you're like me, you were just glad to get whatever you were looking for and you didn't stop to think about the mechanics of how your search results appeared on your computer screen.

A short time ago I discovered that Blogger keeps stats on each blog.  I can see which are my most popular posts, which servers people use to get on my blog, what countries they are from, and probably most interesting of all, the keywords people were searching for that led them to my blog.

I can see a list of search keywords for Right Now, Today, The Past Week, The Past Month, and All Time.  So what brings people to Zephyr Hill Farm?  Here goes:

zephyr hill farm-28

zephyrhillfarm.blogspot.com-25

medial patellar ligament
splitting-24 (That's the surgery about to be performed on Brandy in the photo at left.)

cellulitis in horses-20  (That's the complication Brandy had after the surgery.  I'll spare you a repeat of the gross photos!)

medial patellar ligament in animal-5  (More of the same.)

patella tractors-4  (Hmm, what's that?)

cattle headgates-15

cattle headgate plans-13

head gate-11

homemade cattle head gate-4

cattle head locking gate-2

t bone the steer-2

california bander-14  (That's the rubber band thing-y that Herb used to turn T-bone into a steer.)

potato condo-12

abi spreader-16

used abi manure spreader-1

And then there were the less popular topics, but still searched for often enough to appear on my blog stats:

molting chickens in winter-2

dexter cattle in snow-2

house with pasture filled with cows-2  (I hope they found the pastoral scene above.)

pasture poultry tractor-2

pig crate pickup truck-2

temple ladies-2  (Whaaat?)

"pickled tink" translation  (Whaaat, again?  How on earth did that search bring someone to Zephyr Hill Farm?  I don't have a clue, but if they found what they're looking for, I'm tickled pink!)

One recent search that has now disappeared from my stats was "shemar moore and wife."  I know how that person got sent to my blog, but I have to laugh at their disappointment upon discovering that my Shemar Moore is a black rooster, albeit one with a Criminal Mind!  Yes, sad to say, my Shemar is the bad guy, and he's been sentenced to capital punishment for attacking the hand that feeds him!

So if you found us by accident, welcome, and I hope you find what you're looking for!  And if you're a regular visitor to Zephyr Hill Farm, we're glad you came back!  You never know what you might find here.  After all, there's a reason I didn't call this blog "Dull Days on Zephyr Hill Farm."

A Faithful Friend & A Good Day's Work

Yesterday Herb took advantage of a dry day to drag harrow the Home Pasture . . .

and Kara's Pasture.  You can see where he had harrowed by the nicely combed grass in his wake.  I noticed Misty was keeping him company (a white spot behind the pines).

Kara's Pasture is quite large and took several hours.  It really needed harrowing, being the last pasture the livestock were in before moving into the barnyard for the winter.  Herb said that when he did the flat section (in the photo below), the manure was so thick it spread out behind him as if he was using the manure spreader!

No matter how long it took, faithful Misty (a little white dot at right) settled down to wait.  It was odd not to see Hero, Herb's usual "shadow," but Misty had obviously taken on the job in Hero's absence.

When Herb headed back to the barnyard for the manure spreader, Misty followed him there . . .

and back and settled down to wait again.

Right before feeding time it started to rain, just as Herb finished spreading manure, leaving the pastures ready for the rain to soak the manure into the ground.  Hero appeared from nowhere and raced past Misty.  Don't worry, Misty, you may not be as fast as Hero, but we know who was Daddy's faithful friend all day long!

I told Herb later that it looked like he'd had a harrowing day.  His reply?  "Oh, it was a drag!"  I'm glad his sense of humor was intact after such a long, busy day!

Our ABI Classic Manure Spreader in Action

Today was a big day.  We used our new ABI 50 cu. ft. Classic Manure Spreader for the first time.  It was delivered back in March and sat on the remnants of its packing crate for awhile until Herb could get the cotter pin he needed to hitch it to the tractor.  Then he moved it into the barnyard.

For the last few weeks, we've been gradually been filling the manure spreader, catching up on picking up manure as we can.  The spreader is small and maneuverable enough that Herb just parked it in the barnyard.  The chickens love it; they spend all afternoon under its shade.

A lot of this manure has been scratched through by the chickens, but there are still dry lumps.  It's been rained on, too, so there are soggy lumps.  And lots of hay.  We're throwing everything at it at once!

The ABI salesman recommended the Classic for us because it can handle both horse and cow manure, whereas the smaller Elite is made to handle only horse manure.  Let's see what our Classic can do.

Here's the pasture that needs the most help.  This strip between me and the tractor is where we tend to get floods when the creek overflows.  (It's been a while since that happened!)  The floods wash rock and gravel across the ground and wash topsoil away.  It may not look too bad from here, but take a closer look . . .

Oh, yeah, it needs some help!

Two levers to pull down, the left-hand one determining how fast the manure will be spread.  Herb opened that one all the way this time to see what it would do.

Lights, camera . . .

Action!

This is so fascinating, I just had to keep taking pictures!

And a side view.  You can already see how the pile of manure has moved toward the back, thanks to the nice chain mechanism inside.

This is SUCH a satisfying sight!

I just had to get in for a close-up, which would explain the flecks of dry manure on my shirt afterwards.

The spreader is almost empty, and this is what the ground looks like behind it.

Here's a close-up.  Herb decided this was thicker than he needed it, so he decided to try Notch 2 instead of Notch 4 on the regulator (which should put out half as much).

The spreader was empty in the time it took Herb to drive a loop with the tractor, so he headed back up to the barnyard for a second load.  Oh, yeah, those horses are Manure Manufacturing Machines!

Conclusion:  We LOVE our ABI Classic Manure Spreader!  Herb was actually excited about going back up to the barnyard to shovel up more manure so he could use the spreader again!

Now if only we could train the horses to back up to it and dump it right in the spreader . . .