I have to be honest with you.This is when I became disenchanted with the farm. I know you in other parts of the country are probably laughing about this, but we are not "wired" for the extremes in weather. No AC in the summer, no snowblowers in the winter.
As you can see, the alpacas were very distraught with what they saw outside, and went back inside, where they stayed for two weeks.
Tuesday morning, I called DH in tears. I had handled things this far, proud of myself, feeling like Pioneer Woman, but now I broke. He turned to his boss and said "Linda needs me, I'm going." That's what I love about this dear man. I come first. He arrived at about noon, bearing three extra long heavy duty extension chords. YeeeHaaa. We strung them from the old shop, all the way down the lane to the barn, and were finally able to heat the waterers. I'm making a long story short in telling you that we got the water running at 10-PM. It took a hairdryer and heat lamp and alot of four letter words. In the meantime, my clients alpaca died, and I felt just awful. But, it turned out her line had a condition called megaesophagus, and I will write about that later.
We got inside to eat dinner at 10:30 that night. DH told me to not feel bad about not being able to handle this by myself, since he couldn't have handled it alone, either.
Oh, some lightness to the story. Ha ha, a bit of sarcasm added here: We were moving two males from a quarantine field to the main section we keep the males in in the barn. They got loose and ran into a pasture, over a 5 foot drift! Then they couldn't figure out how to get back. We had to climb through the drift and round them up. Wind was still at 85mph and temp was dropping to the lower teens. DH and I looked like Abominable Snowmen.
Things have been much better since then. We have faced another flood and lots of wind, but this was the worst.
The alpacas paddock.
The lane during a calm in the storm.
My truck! I don't remember why it is so high!!
Whew......you are one tough cookie, Linda...that's for sure! I've known of some greyhounds having megaesophagus and the owners having to give them tiny meals and massage their throats as they eat.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine having to do that for an alpaca tho???
ReplyDeleteWinter on a farm is usually always the pits and not having heaters for the water is double pits!!! You are tough and life (and farming) is learn as ya' go!!!
The weather is changing all over the world, i speak to people in Canada and they really have not had a summer, it has not stopped raining, and they have had trouble cutting there hay for the season, Uk and Ireland it has been wet, and it is their summer also, our winter, (Australia) has been quite mild, a little rain, but in our drought areas they were flooded but the ground is so cacked hard, the water is not soaking through where we need it, it runs off.
ReplyDeleteNZ also have had one of their wettest winters.
and here you are still in Summer, and you are having such a bad snow storm, is unbelievable.
We visited alpaca breeders in Canada and Nth USA, in April of this year, and we thought we were like frozen eskimos, and it was only minus 4 degrees, we had to look for mittens and there were none left, people said to us why do we want mitens i said because it was cold, they said cold, you call this cold..
We had hust come from the hottest summer in Melbournes record, the worst fire in Australia's history, to the worst flood in the history of manitoba, and WOW.
It is hard on the land, and it is hard here in summer, when it gets so hot, i hope it does not get as hot as last summer again, although they are predicting it, Hottest day last year here was 52 degrees, but i could not take the freezing cold winters you guys have.
I take my hat off to you, i think you guys are just so good, i would not be able to survive, in such cold weather.
I hope this storm clears up, and make things a little bit easier for you, i am thinking of you.
and yes, it is great when you have a guy that will drop everything for you.
Mine did the impossible for me,and i am so grateful for ever.
Have a nice Hot chocolate, and i hope the water does not freeze again
you are a very brave woman, and facing that sometimes the reality of a certain life is not always easy, but we make the best of it and find humor where and when we can.... thanks for reminding us how to do it
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