Cold, but warming slowly

It was a cold weekend.   Our overnight low prediction of -30 F was actually -33 F.   We easily set a new record low for two days due how cold it was overnight Friday/Saturday.   By 5 degrees one day, 7 degrees the next day.  The coldest it has ever been in Kalispell was -38 F.   So setting daily record lows is not a problem.  Old Man Winter is aiming for the all-time record low.

Sunday was better.  Not as cold with a low of only -16 F.   Last night was colder than predicted, by a lot.  The overnight low was -28 F.

At least Sunday the high temperature was warmer as we reached -2 F.   Sunday was a day to put out another large hay bale.   The diesel anti-gel seemed to have worked as the tractor started and ran.  The hydraulics... another story.  Initially the loader lifted but struggled to do so.   I let the tractor warm up.  Even after a half hour of warming the tractor up, the hydraulics didn't want to work.  I added just a little more hydraulic oil to the tractor.  That was slow as the oil didn't want to move fast as normal when poured out of the container.  Still I waited and let the tractor warm up more.  No hydraulics.  Then I figured I would drive to the hay shed and then maybe the hydraulics would start working.  I had to do something else as just warming the tractor up was not working.  After a few minutes at the hayshed, and stopping and restarting the tractor a few times, the loader finally would move.

I hauled the bale to the metal feeder.  I wanted to move the feeder over to a different spot as that spot - Haynes only pushed the feeder a little bit this time - had manure.  Since the loader was "iffy" working I lowered the bale a bit and used the tractor to push the feeder over.   Not so good.   This should be no problem.  But a feeder leg went against a frozen pile of manure and the manure would not move.  So the round metal feeder is now an ovel shaped feeder.  I can still put a large hay bale in the feeder.

To further move the feeder I had to do it by hand once I got the feeder over that frozen manure pile.  Grunt.  Grunt.  Grunt.  I did it.

Then to put the bale into the feeder.  Now the tractor's loader did not want to work again.  I had to stop and restart the tractor a half dozen or so times and finally the loader would work.    In went the hay bale and then the cattle were let out of the corral to eat the hay.

A 20 minute job took an hour and 40 minutes.

Today's high temperature reached 1 F.   Above zero.   Hurray!  I shoveled some snow off the driveway this afternoon.  I also walked to look at the river.  Yup.  Frozen.  Not 100%, but close to that.  You can see where the main flow of the river is at that location.

Downstream from the previous photos you can see how end of the open water froze and would push up the ice as it froze.

Afterwards I tried to clean manure out of the loafing shed.  Prior to Wednesday night I had all the manure cleaned out of here.  I wish the cattle wouldn't drop manure where they stand and lay.  The manure freezes and makes it hard for the cattle to lay.  I spent time cleaning the manure.  What I could.  The manure was so frozen it was also frozen to the ground.  I used a sledgehammer and still couldn't remove a number of the manure piles.  It was like breaking hard rocks with the sledgehammer.   The area is a little better, but not close to ideal.

Wamer temperatures are forecasted.  But now 6 to 11 inches of snow is predicted from Wednesday morning to Thursday morning.   If not one thing from Old Man Winter, it's another.