Missing heifer and septic system

I finally found my missing heifer this afternoon.  She had drowned in the river near where I had seen the cattle tracks in the snow.  Yesterday's temperature reached 40 degrees and more ice melted.  She must have been under the ice near the tracks when I looked earlier.

She shouldn't have drowned, but she did. The water level is not high right now and I don't think the area was to deep for her to keep her head above water.  If she walked ten feet towards the other shore she would be walking out of the water.  If she walked twenty or so feet downstream she would have been in knee deep water.

But I believe the heifer tried to get back from where she fell in.  If this was Spring, Summer or Fall she would have been able to.  But she couldn't pull herself back up onto the ice shelf over the water.

I believe the temperature the day the neighbor saw the cattle walk to the river was in the single digits.  That greatly shortened the time the heifer would be able to remain in the water.  If only she would have walked downstream.

I once saw a video and story about how to handle falling through the ice into a lake or river.  The dangerous part was getting out of the water.  The air temperature usually was colder than the water temperature.  If one couldn't quickly get out of the water they could either freeze to the ice or freeze to death from the part of the body out of the water, or both.

Other Winters here have had lots of snow, but no river ice.  Or if there was river ice, then not so much snow.   The combination of snow and ice rose above the barrier and allowed the cattle to go past it.

The ice shelf was flat.  I think another cow pushed the heifer into the river. I knew many of the other cows did not like her.  Kind of like true crime stories where a spouse pushed another off the cliff into the ocean below and then claimed they accidently slipped.    In the past I have called my cows racists; I guess I can add murderers too.  Who knows.. maybe they stood there and blocked her from climbing back onto the ice.

This was a perfect storm for the heifer.  If any one thing had not happened I think she would still be alive.

It is too late for the heifer but after I found her I added three more wires to the top of the metal fence posts to prevent the cattle from getting too far out to the river.  In the photo, from the heifer's location now, you can see how quickly the river gets shallow.

The other challenge I have right now is that one of my septic systems is not draining.   It is the old system that is now only for the kitchen, mud room, and washing machine.  Suddenly neither sink would drain.   I think the frost got down far enough to freeze the drainfield or the pipe from the house to the container, or both.

I opened the 'door' in the floor to the crawl space.  While not below freezing, it was plenty cold down there.  I am leaving the 'door' open in hopes of thawing the pipe out, if that is the problem.

I grew up in North Dakota and lived in Minnesota for many years, both places which have real Winters.  While this has been a colder than usual Winter for out here with plenty of snow, I didn't think this Winter has been all that bad.  Then I read that this has been the second coldest Winter on record for Kalispell.  I am surprised.  This certainly is not the second coldest Winter I ever experienced.  Not even close.  I guess I need to take this Winter more seriously.