January 20, 2012

The third day of -30 C in the AM, the first day was actually -40...we kept the kids home from school that day even though they still had the bus running on our route.  Stinkin’ cold!   Well, after the first day the next two at -30 didn’t seem quite so bad but sometimes it’s the cumulative effect that causes trouble;when it’s not just a one day thing.

This morning was cloudy, no sun in sight but at least no wind to taunt you.  I noticed that one of my Dominique roosters has frozen his wattles, he has quite long ones and I guess they got wet when he was drinking from the water pail and now he shakes his head vigorously as I imagine they hurt him quite a bit. 

A friend of mine brought her frostbitten roos in the house and doles out liquid Advil to them every 6 hours or so to help with the pain. 
But whenever I bring an animal in to doctor it, it seems to me to cause them every bit as much stress as the pain does, unless of course they are too far gone to care, but at that point there is not much good to be done anyhow.
My Dominiques are wild enough that I think he will be better left alone with his aching wattles.  I wasn’t going to use him as a breeder this year anyhow and I guess this is reason enough to keep him out of my breeding program if those long wattles are going to be a problem.

The hens seem happy enough but their coop is staying at a pretty reasonable -6 or so.  I give them the leftover oatmeal in the morning and they go crazy for it.

Things were not so good in the calf pen. The tiny little heifer that has been bloating up off and on the last while, was slumped in the back corner of the calf shed, just like an old, forgotten heap of blankets.  I had to get her up yesterday and bring her along to eat hay with the others.  I know when the kids fed them at supper time, A had to get her up again.  She did eat with the other calves once she got there but I guess it just wasn’t enough to keep her going through another cold night...

We started with 10 in the Fall.   Only 8 little calves to feed now. 

But if you have a dog (or four) there is always some joy in every day....
Ace is the happiest creature I know:  He exudes joy from every pore.  Every fibre in him is alive and absolutely bursting with enthusiasm for the moment.   And I think he fully expects even better things to happen in the future!
He found his truck in the snow, pouncing on it and trying to push it with his nose back and forth on the ground, covering his muzzle completely in snow.
Then suddenly he switched to his “purse”, a soccer ball with a strap, and he tore off across the yard shaking it wildly!
I remember G remarking one day:  “Ace makes Bee seem old.”  You don’t notice how slow and pokey your dogs are getting until you have a young dog to contrast them with! 
It made me feel better just to watch him and it almost seemed that Ace's joy spread to the other three dogs as well as we set out for our walk in the snow.