North Winds 'A Blowin'

Proverbs 27:12

“A prudent person foresees the danger ahead and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.”

According to the weatherman we have some cold weather blowing in tonight. Actually I didn't need to rely on the weatherman - I just walked outside and brrrrrrr!  It is 32 degrees right now, but there are 30 mile per hour wind gusts blowing through giving wind chill readings of 20 degrees.  That's a little chilly for South Louisiana.

And that means that precautions need to be taken to protect everything.  Lots of work to do before I go inside and light a fire in the fireplace.  First I went into the attic and rooted around until I found some foam pipe insulation that I had purchased last year.  I cut off what I needed and wrapped an exposed white pvc water pipe to protect against a hard freeze.  Benjamin and I then got one of the trusty blue tarps and covered some plants around the back patio.

Next I harvested some nice Red Romaine Lettuce that's growing in the garden.  This stuff looks pretty now, but a hard freeze will really knock it for a loop.  Most of the other stuff in the garden is hardy and will withstand very cold temps.  There was a good bit of romaine that I didn't have room for so I'm going to try covering it with a tarp.  I weighted it down with some T-posts.  We'll see if I was successful in salvaging the crop tomorrow.

Red Romaine Lettuce

Then I turned my attention to the animals.  After milking we ensured that they had all the hay that they wanted to eat.  If a cow gets too cold, they'll start burning their stores of fat to keep warm.  After haying the cows and goat, I got the staple gun and stapled the blue tarp around the pullet tractor. They have plenty of feathers that give them good insulation, but I want them to be comfortable.

I had to laugh at this pitiful fact of Amy.  Can't you just tell she's begging to get into the barn?

Please?

After seeing the cows in South Dakota doing just fine in much colder weather, I don't feel as sorry for our cows.  They are pretty spoiled.  Actually I feel more sorry for me and Tricia.  Tomorrow morning will be one of those mornings when we walk out to the barn in the early morning to milk and when we squirt the warm milk into the bucket, the steam will rise.  Everyone's taken care of and unless I've forgotten something (like we forgot a couple of the ficus trees last year), we're prepared for the weather.