Is anyone else as tired of winter as I am? This one has been a doozy here in Indiana. Record snowfall, record temperatures. . . We've had some cold temps in the past few years, but they didn't last for days like they are this year. Today is only the second full day of school that The Husband and the Kindergartener have had so far this year.
I've never been a fan of winter, I'm a total fair-weather fan. Unless there's snow. I like snow. If it's going to be cold out, it might as well be pretty. I was just at the point in my life where I thought I could actually enjoy winter and the time off before the busy-ness of spring starts back up again. This year has killed that idea.
We're not even 1/2 way through winter and we've already exhausted all of our snow days. We typically get out of school the week before Memorial Day, but we're headed right into June and the high school has already pushed back graduation. We've got seniors who will be going to their college orientation before they've even graduated.
There's just 2 days left of January, then we still have February and March to get through, and it's not uncommon to have snow in March here too. . . We're just coming out of a deep freeze, and we're due for another snowstorm next Tuesday. Ugh. . . Hauling water buckets to the barn from the house since the spigots are all frozen is getting old.
The FIL says that this is the worst winter that the farm has seen since they started milking cows again back in the 90's. Such extreme temps are hard on the animals and the equipment. We're constantly battling freezing pipes, tractors and trucks that won't start, and trying to catch cows that are getting ready to have their calves so that the babies don't freeze at birth. (Note: We usually don't try to breed the cows to have their babies in January, but a handful of our girls got bred late. Great timing girls. . . way to pick the worst winter in 20 years to have a baby!)
I will say that I'm glad I made the choice to raise Alpine goats though. Alpines are part of the Swiss breeds, meaning that they hail from around the Swiss Alps mountain range. Alpines actually originated from the French Alps, but you get the idea of the climate. They're built for handling rugged, cold, mountainous terrains so they're pretty hardy critters. The cold weather has hardly phased them. I'll walk into the shed to check on the girls and occasionally I'll find one or two of them snuggled together in the bedding, but for the most part they don't seem too concerned. I've talked to friends who raise other breeds of goats and they've either got heated barns, or their girls are constantly in a massive goat pile trying to keep warm. They are eating a lot more hay though. Goats are ruminants and they need a constant supply of fibrous material to digest in order to stay warm. Plus, the girls are into the last month of their pregnancies, when the babies in their bellies grow the most so the girls have a pretty ravenous appetite.
The chickens haven't fared quite as well. I've lost 2 to the cold - including my rooster. A farm just isn't a farm without a rooster around to crow. I'll be on the hunt for a new one once the spring returns (if it ever returns).
In other news, The Husband started teaching the Agriculture classes at the jr high and high school this semester. It's been quite an adjustment for everyone to say the least. Not only has the school schedule been a little hectic with all of the snow days and 2 hour delays (and my awesome husband lets me sleep in on those days), but the boys' speech therapy has kicked back up and now I'm gearing up for the impending goat kiddings. . .
My biggest issue is the mornings. Farmers tend to be morning people, especially dairy farmers who are up usually by 5:30, and even earlier on bigger farms. Those who aren't can usually down enough coffee to get through it. I have never been a morning person. I love to sleep, especially through mornings and Sunday afternoons. Now, one would think that with practice, getting up early would get easier. Not so for me. I can do a morning or two of getting up before 6 am, but anything more than that and I start to get nauseous. I seriously am starting to think that I'm allergic to mornings. If I wake up at 6:05, I'm ok. I'm still sluggish and grumpy, but I don't feel physically sick. I've tried eating first thing, I've tried eating a light snack before bed, I've tried caffeine first thing, I've tried holding off on the caffeine. . . I just can't get used to getting up before 6. I wish I could. I really want to be able to. The Husband does it all the time with no problems. He can even do it after a late night during planting/harvesting season. But my stomach does not agree.
My ideal time to milk is at 7 am and 7 pm. I can head out to milk as soon as the big kids are on the bus to school, and it still gives me a little time to sleep in on the weekends. This also gives me the day to get errands run, shuttle the kids to appointments and practices, and still get dinner ready on time and eaten in the evenings. I can be available to help milk cows at 4 pm if I'm needed too. During the school year, it makes for loooong days, but once school is out things aren't quite as crazy. Of course, at the rate that this winter is going, we could be in school well into the middle of June.
But before all of that, I have to get healthy goat kids on the ground. That could be a trick in itself this year. Most of the time goats can kid by themselves with little to no problems. I like to be present just in case something does go wrong, but also to make sure that the kids get dried off in the extreme cold. We've lost newborn calves before to the cold, and then there's my doe Baerli who lost the tips of her ears to frostbite when she was born at the tail end of an icestorm when the breeder was at work. Being a stay-at-home mom makes it more likely that I can catch the girls in action, but this year the girls are due on days when the boys have speech therapy and I have to be in the next county for a couple hours in the afternoon. I REALLY hope that the girls kid when I'm at home. Luckily I'm getting better at predicting when they'll be going into labor soon.
Farm wife problems.
So there's a little peak at a winter day in the life of a farm family. It can be crazy, it can be hectic, but it's totally worth it. It's also a great excuse to go to bed early for more of that sleeping that I'm so fond of.
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