One of the reasons farmers talk about weather so much is because it can have a major impact on our day-to-day lives, especially if it is unusual or extreme. It’s like construction on a daily commute – ever present and destructive to a routine, but something you can’t control in any way.
Fortunately, we had advanced warning of the extreme cold earlier this month, so we could take our time preparing. We also have built a library of experience from enduring previous arctic blasts, which is quite helpful. (I’m old enough now that I appreciate the advantages of age...which makes me feel quite old.)
First, I am sure you are concerned about our goats, especially the tiniest ones. They are fine and fat and fuzzy. They didn’t love the cold. No goat loves the cold. And, it was hard on my heart to see them standing in hunched huddles when the air temp was below zero. I think the baby goats mostly resented that they were too cold to play. “Play” is the primary purpose of a baby goat (“eating” and “being hugged” are purposes 2 and 3), and watching them Not Play for nearly a week was sad. We knew it was warmer the first morning we saw them bouncing and chasing each other again.
The sheep, by the way, didn’t even notice the cold.
The primary way we help our animals through the extreme low temperatures is to give them extra food. As with the weather, farmers are also obsessed with the resources coming into their farms, and the resource we import the most of here is hay. Animals are notorious for wasting hay.
Some parts of a bale of hay are more delicious than other parts. It is a well known goat strategy to eat the yummiest bit of hay and then put on a pouty face to get their farmer to take away the rest and replace it with a fresh bale, out of which they will only eat the yummiest parts. The trick in maximizing your resources (and then hopefully having a little bit of money left at the end of winter to buy yummy people food), is finding the balance and convincing your goats to eat the slightly less yummy, and still totally nutritious, parts of the hay, rather than throw it on the ground, poop on it, and stomp it into the mud.
Generally, this is accomplished by giving the herd a set amount of food each day, rather than providing an all-you-can-eat buffet. For us, it is one bale a day. When the day time temperature is below 20 degrees, through, they get an extra half bale. Having a full rumen, constantly digesting food, is how sheep and goats stay warm. Plus, when it’s that cold, the goats only have to display a minimal amount of pout before my heart breaks and I give them whatever they want.
As for the couch mammals (me, Bill, and Pullo), we also weathered the cold but with a bit of extra pouting. Convincing a wimpy, short-haired doggo to go outside in -15 degrees to do his business, was always an effort. Without our daily walks, Pullo also got really restless. And by “Pullo,” I mean me. I’m glad to walk on cold or drizzly days. I feel really invigorated by air that makes my cheeks turn pink, and makes the tip of my nose cold. However, air that is trying to freeze my eyelashes together, or turn my lungs to ice, is a deal breaker.
We don’t have any central heat in our house. There are two wood stoves and a couple of space heaters to keep us warm, so the extreme cold meant employing a few strategies to stay comfortable. We have four hot water bottles, and we know how to use them to stay warm, and heat up our bed before we get in. We rely on hot tea and delicious soup. Our living room is shut off from the rest of the house, which means we hustle through the hallway to get to our bedroom, and that movement is good for warming up too! Our house was built before electricity, so it is well suited to winter without a furnace. The thick brick walls retain heat, and the old trees that surround it block a lot of the wind.
It’s warmer now though, and I don’t have to armor up to go outside. We aren’t worried about the chicken eggs freezing solid and cracking their shells before we can collect them. And, we’re using our hay and fire wood at a rate that means it will last through spring.
We hope you are warm in body and spirit!
Thank goodness the baby goats can Play again! Sending you wintry-but-not-freezing thoughts .... ❤️