Water, Water

"Water, water, every where,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, every where,

Nor any drop to drink"

 

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1798


Most people have heard the last two lines in some form or fashion, generally referring to a lack of intoxicating spirits. The poem itself refers to a ship that becomes stranded off of Antarctica and the crew is nearly driven mad by thirst despite water as far as the eye can see. This poem is certainly prophetic for the sailor and the farmer around this time of year. As a foot of snow surrounds the farm, with ice everywhere you step, the irony the sailors must have felt rings true.

I'll be the first to admit that winter snuck up on me this year. There was an early cold snap and it really hasn't released it's grip since, with exception of a quick thaw that teases as the ground is still hard as stone. One of the hardest parts of raising livestock through the winter is getting water in it's liquid form to the critters. Getting the water is the first issue. The hose bib out side has long since frozen so we have an inside spigot to draw water from. This was last years big upgrade from filling buckets in the second floor bathroom tub. there was a genius idea to mount a hand pump on a dug well we have in the fields so that the water would be right near the animals and it wouldn't freeze up. A great plan until the pump we got was defective and the month to get it exchanged had transformed the farm into a winter wonderland.

I like the weather-I blend in.

The second task is keep the water as a liquid once you bring it to the animals. The barn is the easiest, with outlets galore as we use heated buckets in the stalls. We have also put most of the animals close enough to the out buildings so that they too can have heated bowls to drink from. The one trick is that there is only so much space within range of the outlets and someone invariably gets literally left out in the cold. This year was Erica Jean our cow and the breeding pigs. A few factors determine this. They are the larger animals and there isn't much predator threat to them based on their size. While sheep require whole bales of hay, Erica only needs a few flakes and the sows only need two buckets of grain so it isn't as hard to feed them on foot. We then try to put the bowls in the sun so that even if they do freeze, we can just break the ice and there will be water once the sun hits it. They also realize that they better drink up right after the water is delivered so that also helps. In fact, most of the animals adapt very well to the cold. They move with the sun to keep warm and have their little spots away from their shelters that shield them from the wind. People are no different as we go through our routines to keep the winter blues away. My optimistic moment of the day is to look to the evening sky as it stays light just a few minutes longer each day and while I am enjoying the solitude of winter, I look forward to the explosion of growth that spring will bring- trees to tap, seeds to order and lambs on the way. Hey wait-weather just said it may warm up!