NICE COLD DAY!!! NOTTTTTTTTT LOL

Middle son called me at 5 am this morning. It was -12 F. at that time. Transformer across the road went out last night. All of the cattle on that side are without water.

I bundled up and went to help. We get the generator hooked up and going. No water anywhere. Waterers and lines froze in every single yard.

So he goes and get the 500 gallon pickup water tank an starts hauling into old galvanized water troughs.

I get the small generator, space heater and four sheets of plywood. Also several gates.

So while he is getting some water to the cattle I am building a box around the first waterer. I get the space heater going and start thawing out the first waterer. It takes about twenty minutes to get the first one thawed out and working.

Then I have to take the box apart and move to the next waterer. Most of the waterer set just a little different on these lots as the pens where built over the years just out of what ever we had at the time. So I have to make the enclosure "fit" each one.

I got the last one working at 7:30 PM. It took 25 gallon of K-1 and all day but it was not hard work. Just mainly watching that things thawed out and where not broke. Had to fix several burst valves and fittings.

You know what it reminded me of????? Ice fishing. LOL I never have been ice fishing but me setting on a five gallon bucket inside a crude enclosure with a rigged up heat source seemed a lot like it.

Well they all got cleaned and adjusted for the next while. I had to do something while setting there. The Grand Daughters kept me company as school was out for a teachers day. They made hot chocolate and snack runs. LOL

Well everything turned out OK. The cattle where not without water long and as cold as it was they really where not that thirsty anyhow.

The electric guys had a worse job to me. Up in that basket changing that transformer looked a lot colder. I at least had heat.

I feel for ya buddy. I've spent many a day in years past doing the same thing here in Southern Id. Sometimes we had cold snaps of -25 to -30 for two weeks at a time. It's a fight every day. Hope your weather turns for the better.

Times like that makes me glad I DON'T have livestock....Glad everybody has water now

Ice fishing is fun though. Always more fun to play in the cold than work in it. I bet we have a lot of frozen pipes around the area tomorrow morning as it is already -24 here right now and falling.

-30 at 6 am with a -39 wind chill . Our biggest threat is broken water mains , sewers and power lines --- bring on spring !!!

Larry -- NORTHERN ONT.

Here in the valley of no sun in NW Pa.
It was -27° at my house, -29° at the barn
all the water is froze in the young stock
barn.. Dairy side is OK. Titusville say's
-21° Here in Guys Mills -22° wind chill est.
is -40°. Bradford it's -32°.. Tomorrow &
Sunday 30° above, can't wait!!!!

-22 in the low land area between the Kanawha and Ohio rivers after a high of 8 yesterday. Cat napped the last two nights keeping the wood fire fed.

little off topic but might help some. Yes I am now trailer trash-------after putting up and remolding many homes I gave up after I69 came through my so to speck retirement home. I put 16x80 trailer in woods on my farm. Wanting to make it as trouble free as possible some of the things I did .place the dryer vent about 3 feet from the water filters and riser of incomning water line. Last few morning , and well in middle of night when an old man has to get up. turn empty dryer on for few minutes. Another tip to anyone is underpenning using with osb then tyvek house wrap, anf finished out side with painted roofing metal same color and pattern as metal roof. Probably the dryer was not even needed, however on the south side of seventy years old one takes fewer chances. Keep your stick on the ice !!

posted something before I Read your post,but it applies,,look up at my post!

I feel for you... 14 hours in the cold! Only thing worse would be getting four, 1,200 Hereford cows out of a frozen pond, fence went down and they got on the ice and broke thru. Got them all out, didn't loose any , but breaking thru ice and mud at zero degrees was no fun! Old M and several ropes got them all out.. Happened 50 plus years ago on the farm with my dad when I was 16 or 17 years old. Would kill me now! True Son

Better sell out there and move to Montana.

You're gonna hate me.
Just looked out and my thermometer says it's 40. So probably 35. At 130AM.

I guess we must have been living right or more likely lucky. After dad put in one of those Ritchie waters, we never had problems with Frozen lines. Or waters. I do remember chopping ice for the cows before that though. We still had to run a hose to the other end of the barn for a pen of dry cows. If the hose was pulled back to the east end of the barn it would not freeze in there very often the number of cattle and the tightness of the barn. Could work in there with just a light jacket.