Frosty Doors & Cow Pies

Thursday WAS the coldest day of the year, until Friday morning (yesterday) came calling with temperatures of 30 degrees below zero AND below, causing Coldest-Ever records to be set in several places in Iowa.

*

From the house door, looking to the barn, this is what you see shortly after the sun has risen. No, the barn is not on fire--Heaven forbid. Its the colorful early morning sunlight interacting with steam from the milker pump motor exhaust pipe.

Fancy frost adorned the door leading from the milking barn to the cowyard.

This guy---my husband---was definitely not in "happy camper" mode yesterday morning. Can you tell he's very tired of this weather, and is impatiently enduring a head cold. Sometimes I think my main purpose in life is to be there to say to him at strategic moments, "Things could always be worse, dear." Because they always could, dear readers. Husband had just returned from crawling into this dark, creepy opening and climbing way up the silo, carrying hot water in bottles, in order to thaw out the silo unloader motor so it would start running to throw silage down for the cows to eat. He was like Hansel and Gretel climbing into the wicked old witch's oven. Come to think of it......these dangerously cold temperatures ARE wicked.
For your viewing pleasure.......here's a fancy, flowery frosted cow pie......or cow patty, as Pat from Arkansas would say. Enjoy......
Ah, yes.......school was cancelled again yesterday, although the basketball game in the evening was held as scheduled. We did not attend. In this next scene, Betsy the Australian Shepherd Queen of the Farm regally keeps watch as my son loosens hay from a round bale to feed to older calves. There is no school Monday either due to Martin Luther King Day and teacher in-service meetings, meaning a four-day weekend for the schoolkids. Like they need that right now.
Poor Husband.......he's carrying more hot water........to thaw out cattle water fountains. A crust of ice forms on top of each one during the nights when its so cold.

Here's how the barn looked after the cows were turned out. Nice and steamy. Time now to do the scraping, liming, and bedding to provide comfortable digs for the cows to return to in a few minutes. They can't stay out very long in the extreme cold......their teats might freeze. Painful thought.

Oh, my......the barn windows provide strange sights to behold.

And, here's a herd of frosted icicles:

Buster doesn't seem to mind living in an icebox, that's for sure. I should have taken a video of him happily rolling and frolicking in the snow. Instead he's caught here in an odd still shot pose:

*

The mercury in the thermometers is moving upwards, thankfully. High today of 2o degrees ABOVE zero. Hooray! Maybe we soon can stop gritting our chattering teeth and bundling up in as many clothing layers as possible. When I wake up in the morning, that's what I dread the most.......pullling on all those clothes and thick, heavy coats, boots, scarves, gloves, until I feel bulky and awkward like the Michelin Man. It takes about fifteen minutes---and several gulps of coffee---to get into the mood to do that.

*

I know its been unseasonably cold in many areas.......perhaps yours, too. Just do it......bundle up and stay warm!

*

Frosty Mugs & No School

The faces of these heifers and dry cows give new meaning to the term "frosty mug". If you can't see the frost on their "mugs", click the picture to enlarge it. As I've mentioned in another post recently, livestock get along fine in the extreme cold......they seem to take it in stride......except for those frosty mugs, of course. Vouching for that fact is this article from yesterday's Waterloo Courier.

Oh, boy.......wouldn't you know.......yesterday, on the coldest day of the year we were scheduled to haul a steer to the locker. That meant flailing around in the 30-below-zero windchill to load the big galoot. Thankfully, Husband and I had extra help with that.......school had been cancelled for the day, meaning our son was home. Hooray!

*

I took one glove off for about 30 seconds to snap the critter photo above; pain gripped my fingertips after about 15 seconds. How Native Americans, early settlers, Arctic and Antarctic explorers ever survived such weather conditions, I will never know. While shivering and shaking, manning my spot as we tried to coax and direct the steer toward the trailer, I suddenly recalled that the idea for my blog's name was hatched in the exact spot where I was standing.......about 23 months ago. The first blogpost, entitled

"Initial Blog Post", explains how the phrase, "Midlife by Farmlight", came to be.

*
OK.......Husband is ready to head down the road to the locker. He's dressed warmly and has hot cocoa and snacks for sustenance, and his cell phone along in case of trouble. With an old trailer, you just never know what might happen.

That means Son is finishing up the morning's post-milking chores, which included carrying a newborn calf to a pen in the calf building. Because of the extreme cold, we did not turn the cows out of the barn today......usually they go outside for awhile in the morning for exercise and so we can scrape the stalls and alleyways, and spread chopped straw and lime.

In dangerous weather like this, using the "buddy system" is prudent and necessary, for if someone became incapacitated for more than a few minutes, they could easily get frostbite or freeze to death. Thus, I kept a close eye on my son as he worked on the tasks Husband had instructed him to do, including grinding steer feed. In this next scene, Son is shoveling corn from the grain truck into the feed grinder, which---obviously---grinds and mixes the corn and other ingredients together to make the feed. It is quite simply a big, overgrown food processor.


I thought the cobwebs in this next photo were quite cool so I convinced Son to pose with them. He's an obedient kid, but he really doesn't look at all like himself here......could it be that he's COLD? Nah. Maybe its because of the "growler mask" on his face. For some reason, when the kids were little, someone started calling these face masks, "growler masks", and the name stuck. When cold weather comes each year, Husband will holler up from the basement, "Where are the growler masks?".

*
According to the weather forecast, our temperatures are supposed to start rising today, to a high of 10 degrees above zero, which at this point sounds like a heat wave.
*
STAY WARM!
*
*
P.S. - My college daughter and I have been having some serious text message conversations about the laptop issue. She wants me to buy hers so she can buy a lighter-weight one.......only problem being that her checking account is also a lightweight. Hmm.......we'll figure it out soon.......my back and shoulders hope it will be VERY soon.
*

Have Some Snow!

School was called off yesterday due to the ten inches of snow that fell. Looks like chores should have been called off, too! Somebody should inform the cows about that......they need to take the day off when THAT much snow falls! Sheesh.......I have to dig my way to the barn door!

And, looky here.......the door to our lovely calf building is blocked with snow, too.......

Thank goodness for scoop shovels. This one is MINE, and all MINE, by the way! I bought it at a garage sale many years ago for $2.00. And, did I mention that it is MINE. Everyone around here knows that.......it is never to be left in places unknown on the farmstead.


This calf's pen needs shoveled out, obviously. I'm generously putting my precious scoop shovel at the calf's disposal.......he's free to put it to use.

Oh, yeah.......wouldn't you know it.......the calf takes one sniff and decides he's allergic to shovels.......and WORK! Like some teenagers I'm acquainted with.
Hey.......Husband has the snowblower going:

Just like a little kid........I love to watch the plumes of snow go flying!!

After this next photo, there was snow all over the camera and yours truly. She's a bright one, that she is.

" Thanks, Maw, for cleaning out my pen. You're such a good Maw.......I love you MOOch! Oh, yeah.......can you bring me my warm bottle of milk right quick now, too!"

*

And, lastly........I've read your mind, readers........you've been thinking: "Why didn't Jeannelle just make a video of the snowblower, instead of taking all those silly still photos of that exciting snow-flinging action??"

*

Well........here you go......I hope it works:

Friendship or Something

Obviously, something is going on between this calf and Buster.......but, is it truly friendship?

*

Do you think I should break the news to Buster that calves will nuzzle anyone or anything that gets close to them.......a hand, a coat-tail, a cat, a sleeve, a knee........and, yes, even a dog! It might break Buster's little ol' canine heart, though! Do I have the heart to do that?.......NO! Let Buster believe the calf's affectionate behavior is authentic.

*

*

Today is Veterans' Day in the U.S. and Remembrance Day in Canada......thus sayeth my calendar. Happy special day to all!

*

*

[P.S. - This has nothing to do with the above post.......I just checked my email and saw that Sunday's Dictionary.com Word-of-the-Day was horripilation........something which we all experience from time to time. But, what a word! I had never seen it before!]

*

Silage, Poop, Birds, Hoofs

*

Well.......what could those four items possibly have in common? Silage......Poop.......Birds.........Hoofs? On this warm September Saturday, they are all FLYING around on this farm!! Add my feet to that list, too! This post serves to allay your fears that perhaps ALL I do is blog.

*

First of all........corn is being chopped, by our neighbor in his weirdo GREEN tractor. The chopped corn is blown into the wagon trailing behind........sort of like "flying" into the wagon, for my post purposes, anyhow.

*

There are two active fliers in this next photo: birds and cow manure; plus one potential group of fliers: heifer hoofs; plus one pair of fliers you can't see......my feet! I'm out in the pasture trying to round up the heifers, which is a bit more difficult than usual with all the noisy tractor activity going on which tends to spook them. In the background you can see my son running the manure spreader.......with cow poop flying!

*

The dogs and I chased the herd to the end of the pasture, hoping a couple of them would decide to gallop the right way and lead the rest in the correct direction toward the gate. That's usually all it takes, although this morning things didn't go so smoothly. Let's just say I've had my exercise for the day, and the day is not even half done yet!

*

*

These flocks of cowbirds that hang around the cattle herds in the fall are just fascinating to watch......and, TRY to take pictures of! Click on this next one to enlarge it and see how bizarre the birds look! Which reminds me........anyone ever watch Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds?! Sorry to put thoughts of that movie in your head!

*

Caution........I think this next one's for you! This was lying out in the pasture this morning! I think it must have been attached to the back of some piece of machinery as a "caution" or "slow-moving vehicle" sign.

*

Here's a video of corn silage moving from the wagon into the blower which forces the silage up the pipe and into the top of the silo. I'm happy to stay right here on the ground......thank you very much!

*

Now........I must get busy and fix dinner for all these men who are roaring around in tractors!

Have a great day!

*

*

Hot Wire Tutorial

Enough of the goofy precognitive dream stuff and depressing childhood memories........let's get back to THE FARM:

**

**

To keep our bovine critters confined to their assigned pasture area, we use a "hot wire", otherwise known as an electric fence. There's an intermittent pulsing of electricity moving through the wire you see in the photo.

The fencepost is a metal rod, with the wire running through the yellow plastic holder which grips the rod. The plastic acts as an insulator, of course.
**
**
**

Using the above information, can you deduce whether or not something is wrong with this next scene?

**
**
**
That's right.........the heifer should not be able to lean against the wire without getting a shock, if the jolts of electricity are passing through it properly. Either this wire is not hot, or this heifer is a numb one! I noticed this the other day and had to tell Husband about it right away, before the entire herd discovered the "cold wire" and escaped! This time the problem was easily fixed.......an electric fencer box by the barn was not plugged in. The fencer apparatus is what sends the electricity rhythmically into the wire. The power jolts must be spaced intermittently, or otherwise an encounter with the hot wire could cause fatal electrocution, to animals or people!

**
**

Here's a corner fence and post setup, with white ceramic insulators being put to use:

And, here's a braced fencepost connected to old-fashioned woven-wire fencing from way out at the far end of the farm:
This last photo shows brand-new barbed wire fencing that Husband put up last spring. This corner-post configuration makes use of a cast-off item recognizable only by dairy people, most likely........and that would be the black rubber "inflations" hanging down in the background below the the wire.
An "inflation" is the inside part of the milking machines.......the part that intermittently squeezes and relaxes the teat of a cow during the milking process (hence, inflating and deflating). Inflations must be changed every couple months, thus we end up with piles of cast-off ones, of which a few end up being used on fences for their insulating capabilities. Husband ties the end of a wire to an inflation, giving him something to safely grab onto to move the wire around, such as for a gate out in the field.

**
**
I've accidentally touched a hot wire many times over the years. Quite a shock to your system that is........for a split second you know what's coming, but its impossible to pull away, then ka-POW!.........you feel the WHUMP which takes your breath away and you wonder if your heart is still beating! Then its over, leaving you vibrating slightly and feeling as if you have a whole new outlook on the world!

**
**

(There, now.......if anyone is writing a book set on a dairy farm,----a most exciting place for sure-----this blogpost contains a fence-full of suspenseful info to keep your readers inside the PLOT of the story. Should they tire of the plot they're in and go leaning over the fence, well you now know what to do about that........plug into the source of power and GIVE 'EM A JOLT!!!)

**
**
**

Pasture Psychology 101

Husband turned me, his wife, out to pasture the other day, to spend the rest of her days in peaceful grazing..........NOT REALLY!! My task was to bring the heifers home from their late afternoon alfalfa-munching session. The sun was very bright in the western sky, hence the lighting in these scenes:

***
***

To set the stage: A group of bovine heifers would be comparable to a bunch of human teenage girls. Oh, for pity's sake, why is one of them suddenly galloping, as if with great purpose........towards ME? What could she possibly want?

***
***

She doesn't look very happy, actually. Oh, brother.......wouldn't you know it. Whenever I decide to come out of my shell and socialize, it seems there's one critter in the crowd who has to run right over and start divulging his or her problems to me. At times, I feel like Rick in Casablanca.......everyone came to him, desperate for some sort of help. The heifers and others know they can safely confide in me; I'm empathetic and will listen with nonjudgmental ears and an open heart and mind, and do what I can to help them. Isn't that just the sweetest thing? (Gag) It can be problematic for me at times, though.

***
***

Upon reaching me, the troubled heifer turned away so I wouldn't see the tears in her eyes. Oh, the poor dear!

***
***

"They aren't being nice to me.......", she whispered, stifling a sob. "Them......over there......the other girls in the heifer herd.......they are snotty and won't include me in their chatting cliques as we munch alfalfa."

***
***

Racking my brain for comforting words to say, I replied, "Look me in the eye.....um, oh, I see you don't have an orange name-tag earring. Perhaps that's the reason the others aren't friendly to you; they don't know what your name is, thus they don't know who you are. There, there.......cheer up........its not really your fault, you see. When I get back to the barn, I'll try to find your name in the record book and make a new name-tag earring for you to wear. Perhaps that will remedy the situation: The other girls will know who you are and you'll be wearing the same earring style as they are. Sometimes that's all it takes to be included in the popular clique."

***
***
Well, will you look at this.......some heifers are just so brazen, coming right over and openly attempting to eavesdrop on a private conversation. I commented to NoName, "Are you sure you even want to be included in a group like this? Do you really wish to have friends who are that nosy??"

***
***
NoName could see my point, I guess. She wandered off to graze by herself in the evening light. She'll be OK. Sometimes being alone for awhile is therapeutic. It works for me. I predict NoName's mood will lighten up very soon........in fact, it appears she may have brightened already!!

***
***
***