Snow and cold

Monday was a break between our Winter weather events.  Tuesday it snowed ALL day.  I don't know how many inches - predicted 5 to 10 inches - and it was at least that. The moisture content came to a little over a half inch - and this was dry snow.  So you know we got a lot of snow.   And the wind picked up by late afternoon.  And it blew hard.

Mid afternoon Tuesday I put another large hay bale for the cattle just outside the corral.  My tractor's hydraulics worked fine.  Then again, I let the tractor warm up a long time while I shoveled a path through the snow over to the gate by the garage.  I don't care to later shovel packed down snow tracks.

This morning, just before sunrise, the snow stopped. The wind kept blowing.  I got up at 5:15 am to use the bathroom.  I had water.  At 6:15 am - no water.   Hours later when I got up I went out and checked the well pump.  I have an electric heater in the pump shed - and the shed is very insulated.  Yesterday the indoor temperature in the shed was 40 degrees.  Which is fine.  This morning it was 32 degrees.  Which should be fine.  But at ground level the temp must have been a little lower.  I turned up the heater.

Later when I checked there was water on the concrete floor.   Huh?  Still no water in the house.  I turned the heater even higher.  In the meantime I shoveled a path to the garage.  The wind had blown all of yesterday's snow everywhere and made drifts.  I felt like I was back in North Dakota.  From the garage I got a 5 gallon bucket and filled it with water from the cattle's water trough.  That way I could flush the toilet.  A short time later I had water from my well.  Checking the pump house I could see a little more water in the low spot in the floor.  I dipped the water out again.   And a few times during the day I checked and a little more water. I can't tell where it is coming from.  The bottom of the water tank?  The pump itself?  In addition to the electric heater I also have a light bulb in the pump house that also generates heat when on.  When trying to see where the water was slowly coming from I broke the light bulb when I brushed against it.  So for now I will dip out the water until it is not so cold outside and I can then check to see where the leak is.

The cattle's water trough.  

First thing in the morning the cattle drank almost all the water.  I went to fill the water trough.  Halfway full the pump shut off.  The GFCI electric outlet had shut off. I reset it and began pumping water again.  Then the GFCI outlet shut off.  Again and again I reset the outlet.  Each time quicker it went off.  At three-fourths of the trough full I quit.  Later I ran a length of electric cords from my tool shed with a regular outlet.  I filled the water trough no problem.  When I refilled the water trough again late afternoon, the GFCI worked fine.  Back in June of 2011 my uncle Larry chose the GFCI outlet when he and my uncle Curtis helped me rewire my barn. I don't know if Larry chose a weather resistant GFCI outlet.   I think next year I am going to replace the GFCI outlet with a regular outlet.   The water pump is well below ground, and using this outlet is not like using an outlet in a bathroom with water near you where a GFCI outlet makes sense.

Also making today frustrating was using the electric cords.  The electric cords are three pronged.  The outlet in the old tool shed is a two prong outlet.  When I tried to put a three to two prong adaptor on the electric cord, it wouldn't go all the way on.  I tried four adaptors and none fit.  I tried two electric cords and the same thing.  What is going on?!   I found another electric cord that already had an adaptor on it, and used that cord to plug into the two prong outlet.  All this in cold windy weather with snow all over.  I had to shovel a path so I could walk and string the electric cord.

I have a heater in the water trough to keep the ice from forming.  My heater is a very old one that sits on the bottom of the tank. It still works but it is very old and who know how much longer will it work.  Donna bought me a new floating heater for Christmas and gave it to me Monday night.  I haven't used it yet.  The GFCI outlet has no problem with the old water trough heater.  The new water trough heater... I'll see when I use it.

I heat using my wood stove.  I let the fire die overnight as I prefer to clean the ashes out of the stove each day.  Normally I could go two, maybe three, days before I fill my bucket with ashes.  But I clean it each day.  In the morning the house temperature will be in the low 50s.  Which is fine with me as I found my internal body temperature is warm in the morning and I don't start to feel cold until after noon. I think that is how I wake up. It is when my internal body temperature rises.

I still felt warm this morning even though the house temperature was 40 degrees today.  And this was after I had kept the fire going until after midnight the night before.   The overnight low outside last night was 8 below zero.  But the wind chill temperatures last night, today and even now is in the minus mid-30s below zero.  Things get cold fast.   It is minus 9 degrees right now and the predicted low is in the minus 20 or more range.

I still haven't found a new camera to buy.  Today the camera I was using didn't want to turn on. That was how this day was going.  I had to use a previous camera with a scratched lens.  That is why the photos have a blurry spot on them.

The old fence creates a snow drift on the driveway.  The new rail fence does not.  See... no drift where the rail fence is. That is one of the reasons I am replacing the old fence with the rail fence.  Next year I WILL get it done.

Tomorrow if things go well I can shovel the snow off the driveway and elsewhere.

The cattle are doing fine.  They have the loafing shed to shelter in.  The loafing shed opens to the south and the wind, since it comes through the gap in the mountain range, comes from the NE.   The cows are kind of white as the snow on their backs hadn't melted yet.  The cows are not as white as they were yesterday.

Three of the replacement heifers in their area.  Even though their area opens to the west and south, earlier I had to shovel snow out of this area as half the area had a little snow drift. Apparently the wind whipped the snow around to the south half of the shelter.  I also put out a little straw every day or two.  This is the area the heifers most often leave their manure.  In this weather the manure gets as hard as a rock.  I end up breaking and shoveling the manure out to make a smoother and better place to lay.

The replacement heifer's hay bale in the south corral.

I decided to walk out and look at the river.  On the way I discovered a saw I had used when cleaning the broken branches from the north pasture.  I forgot I left the saw and the snow earlier covered it.  The wind blew the snow off the saw and I found it.  I put it here for the photo.

As you can see the river is mostly frozen over.

For the next photo my better camera turned on.  So no blurry spot.  

I haven't seen many birds since I had finally put some suet out a week or so ago.  Today I seen a couple birds.  Here is one.

What a day!  And Thursday will be another cold and windy day.  I can't wait until Friday when the wind is suppose to stop and the temperature will be above zero again.