Adventures in the Cold

I have a huge woodpile.

Wood snobs scoff at it, mostly because about half of the pile consists of old fenceposts and scraps of barn wood that my dog carries to the house.

Buried under all of that are chunks of a spruce tree that fell over in my yard a few years ago.

Under that are the remains of the last time my brother and I cut wood in the mountains.

As I watched the temperature drop 65 degrees in 24 hours – from freezing to 37-below -- a lot of barn wood scraps went up in smoke.

I smiled and kept stoking that fire.

The woodstove sits in my basement so the fire warms the floors above.

It warms my fingers and toes when I come inside after feeding the cattle and sheep, too.

Weather forecasters predicted five days of below-0 temperatures.

I double-fed the livestock down in a coulee, out of the wind.

I have three heated water troughs that work well, except for one design flaw: Ice builds up between the float and the insulated cover. When the float freezes shut the valve ices up.

The first day, at 30-below, I tapped on the insulated cover and freed the floats on all three troughs.

The second day, at 25-below, two troughs worked. I poured water in the third one and got it functioning again.

That night, at 37-below, my diesel pickup gelled up. The emergency anti-gel kept the truck moving but the diesel turned to Jello over and over.

Fortunately, I have a gas-powered pickup, too.

The third day, at 22-below, the tractor gelled up as I drove out to feed the livestock.

My daughter, Abby, and I poured in emergency anti-gel and got the tractor started again.

About 100 yards later, on the way back to the barn, it gelled up again.

The tractor stayed in the pasture.

The diesel skid steer pretended to hibernate, even after I plugged it in and warmed the oil pan.

The cows were hungry so Abby and I reverted to our tried-and-true strategy -- drag a bale at a time up on a hill with the gas-powered pickup.

I even used the same tow-strap that I used when we had to do this a few years ago. I know it is the same tow strap because it still has a knot from when it broke while pulling a bale last time.

The plan was to scoot the bale on the skiff of snow, but round bales tend to roll.

Abby and I perfected a snug pulling position so when the bale tipped, the edge caught on the end of the flatbed.

This technique worked until the friction of the ground pulled the bale apart.

Then we perfected our tow strap resetting technique, too.

We might have had too much fun at 25-below.

On Monday, at 27-below, Abby left for school. Her car started but wouldn’t respond to the accelerator. She stayed home to work online and help me feed the livestock again.

She de-iced two water troughs while I worked on the third.

By the end of the day, we both were glad the woodstove had plenty to burn.

We pulled the batteries out of the tractor and brought them inside to warm up.

Both were bad.

Fortunately, by now temperatures were rising.

I had one day to recover from the cold and prepare for 5 to 10 inches of snow.

The tractor got new batteries.

The diesel pickup got a new fuel filter.

With a lot of cajoling, the skid steer came out of hibernation.

The water troughs thawed.

The dog brought more sticks for the woodstove.

We are ready.

We hope.