Winter Life on a Ranch

It's cold, bitter cold.  Some days I really wonder why I'm here?  The last two days the water going to the chicken coop has frozen, causing a major flood across our lawn, going into our carport and freezing all four of our truck tires to the ground.  It then froze from the back of the truck, across the driveway and into the cedar trees.  Ever feel like you should just move to Hawaii?

The first thing I had to do was disconnect the chicken water hose and get the pipe under the house so the pipe wouldn't continue to freeze, then I would have no house water!  That would be a bad thing, been there done that before.

So I'm laying on the ground unable to dig down because of the frozen ground.  I manage to slide the pipe under the house but there is a tap on the end, and there is no way it's going under, the hole is just too small.  What to do?  Call Hubby and whine and cry?  Well I called him but I can't let him think I'm that much of a baby, so I tell him that I will "figure something out."

In the meantime I have to pack five gallons of water out to the coop, we won't even discuss the condition of the unused all summer waterer that took me a half hour and a cup of bleach to clean!

After filling the woodstove and sitting back in the house, teeth chattering, trying to warm up, I'm trying to think of what to do with the tap/hose.  Sydney says "Can you drill a hole Mama?"  Good girl Sydney!  I drill a bunch of holes, take a hammer and pop out enough of the wood to get that hose, and tap, under the house.  It's patched back up and we are good to go :)  Sydney's getting a full stocking this year ;)

Now it's time to get the truck out.  A bag of summer leftover pool salt helps thaw the ice a bit.  A polaski (an axe on one side and a flat pick on the other) helps break the ice up around the tires.  Oh my! Cold air and the swinging of a polaski is just so flippin' exhilarating!  (Yes I'm lying).  I've also grabbed a bag of leftover kitty litter from when our cat was a wee thing and spread that all around, but I didn't have enough to do the whole ice patch.  Unfortunately Hubby has parked our other truck in a bad spot and backing up on solid slick ice will spin me out of control and wipe out the side of the truck I'm driving, and the front of the other truck.  What to do?  Move the other truck... but did you know that diesel trucks do not like to start when it's cold and I quickly find out that batteries die?  I wander over to the shop to get a battery charger.  After several hours I find out that the battery charger has shorted out and truck still does not start... By this time Hawaii is sounding sooooo tempting.  But one doesn't give up hope...

I grab the other charger (the big one!) and wheel it over to the truck and, as I type this I have it hooked up, by golly that truck better start in the morning or I'm booking plane tickets!

As I'm standing over at the shop I have a conversation with my FIL; Pops.  He's had to put down a couple of cows due to pregnancy complications.  Where else but on a cattle ranch, would you be discussing "vaginal prolapse" with your Father-in-law?  Ahhh the joys of living here (I'm being sarcastic).

Right now it's -19 Celsius, if my math is right that would be -2.2 Fahrenheit my American friends... and that's cold.  Call me wimpy but I'm a summer person, a blazing hot, over 35 to 40 degrees Celsius summer person! 

I must leave now and curl up with the dogs around the woodstove, she ain't pretty but she does hold a lot!  Have a warm night everyone...