Jennifer Ewoldt, Rural Route 4 columnist
Things have been relatively quiet out here on the farm.
Wintertime means there’s less to do in general, and we are enjoying the break. As long as we keep hay out for the cattle and horses, and make sure the waterers don’t freeze, there’s not a whole lot else we have to do right now.
Mind you, keeping those things done can sometimes be a challenge.
We did have some issues with our cattle waterers on those incredibly cold days two weeks ago. It was about minus-10 degrees fahrenheit and windy, and the boys and I were out with a hairdryer, thawing the waterer on the west side of the barn. The night before, it had been the one inside the barn.
Any cattleman can tell you – thawing waterers is not a fun job. It always happens on the coldest possible days, and all you can do is blow warm air at the pipes until the ice jam melts.
Our one waterer had the heat tape go bad, so the inside of the waterer froze up. Luckily, a hair dryer and a light bulb that we put down into the waterer housing eventually got it to break free. The outside one froze on top, so all we could do was blow the hairdryer at it until it thawed.
Now they are both fixed with new heat tape and bowl heaters, so hopefully we won’t have to do that again this winter.
Livestock cannot go without water for very long, so these situations are emergencies when they happen. Just like people, you can go without food for a couple days if something happens, but you cannot go without water
Contrary to popular belief, they really don’t start eating snow for water. Instead, they get progressively dehydrated, which leads to all sorts of illness, especially in their digestive tract. Needless to say, we can’t just say “I’ll deal with that in the morning”.
We have been making our plans for the coming year, and working on all the paperwork for the accountant. It’s not my favorite thing to do, but it has to be done. Our taxes are very complicated, so we keep our accountant busy working it all out for us. There’s no way I could ever consider doing my own taxes. He will get it all figured out for us over the next couple of months, and hopefully it will be a good outcome for us in the end.
Besides the farming, Robb has been travelling to several meetings. He spoke to the National No-Till Conference the first week of January, and has several meetings to attend as the Iowa Soybean Association president this month.
I wish he didn’t have to travel at this time of year – the weather always seems to throw a wrench into things. He barely made it home Friday night in the snowstorm.
Here’s hoping that you can all stay warm this month, and perhaps enjoy some time outdoors in the snow. My boys were sledding this weekend, and getting pulled behind the Gator at high speed on a sled. Good thing I wasn’t watching. They had a blast, though, and no one broke anything. I’ll take that as a win.
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January 17, 2022 at 05:00AM
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RURAL ROUTE 4: Though quiet, winter presents its own hurdles - Quad City Times
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