We made it down to single digits this morning!  And despite our best efforts, only had it to 60 degrees inside this morning.

We are struggling to keep everyone alive.  Apart from Marji, our only other known death so far has been a hummingbird that Wally killed yesterday.  They are quite sluggish and like to hang out near the Christmas lights and their heated feeders.  So we are trying to keep Wally in, but it is hard.  She sneaks out between our legs when we go in or out the door.

Earlier I was starting to take down the Christmas lights and then decided not to because of this upcoming event.  I am glad I didn’t take them down as they do seem to be helping the hummingbirds.  I also am using the two heated feeders I bought for them last year with my Christmas present money (thanks Dad!).  I am also bringing the regular feeders in at night and putting them back out in the mornings with the Christmas lights encircling them.  But despite that, they have been freezing solid.  Today I thawed them completely and added new sugar water.  I also have been putting out bird seeds too.  I do not normally do this, only with nasty weather.

We had a scare this morning when the water stopped flowing.  I had been using it earlier so I knew the pipe hadn’t frozen for long.  But I had been thinking at least we have water, and then we lost it.  It is hard enough to keep the animals watered but to lose our water supply would be devastating.  Fortunately for us, it was only the pressure switch line in the pump house that had frozen.  Tom was able to thaw it quickly, and our anxiety levels improved significantly.

To get ready to do the farm chores, it requires quite a bit of preparation.  I have been using hand warmers I got for Christmas last year (thanks Mom and Al!).  Plus it is all wool on deck with wool socks, sweater, cowl (thanks Denise!) and a hat I made with ear coverage.

I used a pick axe to break up 10 containers of water to try and providing drinking water to everyone.  I am breaking up water for our critters but also for the wild birds.  Unfortunately the starlings are getting really bad in the barn with this cold snap.  Sonja, our cow, had tore down the starling net in the barn so there is no way to keep them out right now.

Tom carried two 5 gallon containers of warm water out.  One was for the chickens, and the other for the skinny goat and sheep.  Shorty really enjoyed it,

We broke down and set up the tank deicer that Tom’s cousin Mary Ellen had given us many years ago.  We do not have the cage for it so use a rabbit cage for it.  It is hokey, but it works.

I mentioned above known deaths because we did find these chicken feathers in the barn.  There is no body so we do not know if it was just a scuffle or a hen death.  Tom had found two hen bodies prior to the freeze, one out back and one in a nearby field.  So we obviously have some predation going on.

I have long noticed that my watch does not consider farm work exercise.  Today it did not consider pick axing 10 containers and carrying water, feed and hay to all of the animals exercise.  I give up!

After getting all of the chores done (which was completely exhausting), I made plans to stay indoors and watch football (and gave peacock some money).  My boot warmer is not keeping up and even keeping my boots in the laundry room wasn’t working.  So they now have a spot in the dining room.  We now have the Little Buddy heater going as well as a plug in heater in the hallway.  With all of this and the outside temperature going up to 25, we were able to get the indoor temperatures up to 66!

I sorted all of my papers of the year to prepare for taxes and did some knitting.  I signed up for some online cooking classes too.  We are checking on the animals periodically and hauling more water as necessary.  If we can get through one more day, we should be OK.