It so cold....

[redneckdan]

....that when I brought my 1911 in from my truck, the slide froze to the frame as soon as it hit the warm air inside my apartment.



can anyne beat that? theres gotta be some place colder than houghton!:mrgreen:

[Halfbreed]

As a former volunteer fireman, we got called out for a house fire. The chin strap went through my beard, of course I was wet, when I pulled my helmet off, my chin strap broke a 1" wide section out of my beard. I did not know anything about it, till my buddies started laughing at me. Then I notice my beard still stuck to the chin strap. Kind of an interesting side silhouette.
John

[dk17hmr]

Its so cold here, -6 right now as I type, we went fishing Saturday our holes froze up within minutes of spudding. We had tip-ups out the hole froze to the point where we had to spud them out, when we went to pack up we were pulling them up and had a 10" perch on one of them, flag never threw. Its so cold it froze our tip-up solid.

[Bret4207]

-18, 10" snow in the past 24 hours and a 20-30 mph wind. Global warming my Aunt Minnie...

[mainiac]

-18, 10" snow in the past 24 hours and a 20-30 mph wind. Global warming my Aunt Minnie...

tpr.bret, aint this canuck wind nice??? The same wind blowing by you gets here a while later,and its damn cold!!!! I was blowing my horn a few weeks ago about how nice this winter was,(warm and no snow) but now its like reality,in the last 16 days,it got up to 30 last saturday,and that the high. Will seem nice to get above freezing again,hell, id like to get above zero!!!

[Scrounger]

Weather here is crazy. A week or so ago the daytime high was in the low 40s; today the thermometer on my back porch said 82 degrees. Still below freezing at night.

[Hackleback]

.... you can actually ice fish in Missouri!! 4-5 inches thick!!

[Shepherd2]

It's 10PM and already 5 below zero. It's been below 0 the last 3 mornings. Just went out and made sure the outdoor woodburner has plenty of fuel. At least the wind is not blowing like it has been the last couple days.

[Ivantherussian03]

I had minus 45 below for the 2nd week of january. Then the past week the temp we had 40's for a week. My math might be off, but that is 95 degree swing.

[Boz330]

Ivan,
Global warming blew it all south to us.

[shooter575]

Sunday I fired up the JD loader to go fetch some firewood I had cut and split in the fencerow.Had it pluged in overnight so it did start. None of the hydrulics worked.I let her run for a hour or so,still nothing.Looked at the oil level and that
5w oil looked like room temp bacon grease.I just shut her off.Never seen that before?

[redneckdan]

last night I was worried I would bend the stick when I went to shift into neutral to start my truck. The butane I use to start it just kinda dribled out of the can and dripped down the venturi, truck did start though. Gotta love dual batteries.

[mozark]

5 to 10 below here the last few nights, with an hellacious wind. Sadly we lost a 3 week old kid. Suffocated during the night in the huddle of does and kids. Unfortunately my wife found him. First time she's found one. Pretty broken up.

2 weeks ago it was pushing 60. I got a lot of shooting in in January. What I've been reading says that GLobal Warming will wreak havoc with interior continental weather patterns. Central Europe's sure been getting crazy weather too. A week near or below zero isn't uncommon here, but the wide swings are unusual.

Michael

[madcaster]

This morning I wanted to shoot Ole Sweetlips,my smokepole and the thing started acting funny weird,the flint fell on the pan and a good flash for the primin in the pan,but then nuthin.....
Now being as safe as I could I kept the muzzle downrange fer a minute or three,and then sorta leaned it again a tree.
I thought I KNOW I loaded er up like I always do,powdr,patch'n'ball and seatd on the powdr.But jus ta be safe I double chekd it with the wiping stick and left it leanin again the tree whilst I scratchd mi head and tried ta think what went wrong.
I startd gettin cold so I struck flint ta steel and got a campfar goin ta warm up.
It startd easy,counta the cold had done sapd all tha moiustur otta the twigs i wuz usin fer tinder.
I glancd bak at Ole sweetlips and shez don pushed the wipn stick abot outta the muzl!
HUH?Sayz I!
Dirctly I spyz sumtptin orage pokin its head out of Sweet One.I waitd a couple minutes and it started making a rumblin sound so i rushed it an threw it down into my fire.
WHOOSHSays it and my campfire blew up!
I thinks I kin wait till warmr weadder to shoot ole Sweet Lips agin....

[joatmon]

Shepherd2, come on man throw some more wood on that outdoor woodburner!!!
Maybe some of that warm air will drift VA way!

[Bret4207]

Mozark- I don't know how tight your barn is, but we'd take a 4'x8' sheet of half or 3/4" plywood and mount a large red (they run cheaper than the white) heat lamp in the center through a hole so the lamp sat flush with the bottom of the plywood. Then we'd tack it about 2 bales high in the warmest corner and build a 2 tier bale wall leaving an opening for the does and kids to get in. Worked real good for us and the kids would nibble the hay. BTW- if you find a kid near death from cold, immerse it in hot water. It'll bring about 75% of them back. If you can learn how to tube them and get some warm colostrum in their bellys, your survival rate goes up to about 90-95%. I hate losing kids and lambs and calves, but it happens.

[Shepherd2]

Mozark - When we got into sheep years ago everyone lambed in January so we did too. Seemed like bad time of the year to be bringing lambs into the world so we eventually moved our lambing to start in mid-April. Much better weather and
the ewes are fat on spring grass and full of milk.

The January lambs all seem to hit the market at the same time and the price takes a dip. We sell 4 or 5 months later when the supply is down and prices are up.

I see a lot more people lambing and kidding in the spring now.

Take Tpr. Bret's suggestion and learn to tube if don't know how already. It's not hard to do and it's a life saver. I've done the hot water thing too and it works.

[nighthunter]

About 3 weeks ago the heat exchanger in my oil furnace cracked so I had to spend $2300 on a new furnace. Today with the temperture at about 3 degrees the furnace quit. Couldn't get a furnace guy here for about 5 hours. Yes ... it got a little cold in the house. Luckily the furnace guy got here and the furnace is working again. It got kinda cold indoors ..... so cold that the brass monkey was thinking about going outside to warm up.
Nighthunter

[mozark]

Thanks for the input Bret, Chuck. We've been raising goats for only 4 years, so lots still to learn and do. Isolating the does and buck in order to move kidding to April is on this years list. Built a lot of fence last summer, but didn't quite make the deadline. I didn't know about tubing or hot water, and will make those a part of the routine. I have had to introduce a couple of reluctant sucklers to the teat, which isn't too difficult with a docile doe. The nursery barn I built is pretty tight, and does have a heat lamp. This was actually the first kid we've lost that wasn't a premature yearling doe's. From the body's position I'm pretty certain he was smothered in the cluster, not frozen. Thanks again.

Michael

[Boz330]

When I was raising cattle I used to shoot for February calves till I had 3 freeze to death in one week from being dropped into snow banks with bitter cold temps. Moved it to March the next year.
Michael, what type of goats are you raising? I have been thinking about that for some retirement income, after I retire. At least they won't maim you when they step on your feet. I was thinking that now would be the time to get fences and facilities built so when I quit I would have everything in place to start. I really need to talk to someone about the pitfalls and sofourth of doing it. There is supposed to be a farm not far from my shop that has the Boer Goats, just haven't gotten around to lokking him up yet.
Bob

[robertbank]

Canuck wind!

Hey guys I live at 54 degrees latitude. Temperature yesterday was 45F. If you folks are good we will send some of this warm air south.:mrgreen: Rain expected next week, guess it beats snow. Should go over to Pr. Rupert and get a game of golf in supposed to be over 50F.

I remember once in Alberta it was so cold deaf people didn't have to sign...your words just hung in the air.

Take Care

Bob

[Bret4207]

Boers are the "big thing" these days. You're serving the ethnic meat market. Milk and cheese products are harder to market. You should check with the local County Cooperative Extension and see what markets are available. We have Nubians and Lamanchas with a bit of Angora blood thrown in the mix. Cross breds have some real benefits vigor-wise. Look into it a bit. Fence is the biggy with goats 'cuz they are all descended from Harry Houdini.

[mozark]

We're raising "Fainting." or "Tennesee Stiff Leg," goats. For us they began as lawn mowers, for rough areas near the house where we didn't want cattle. Began when my wife brought a pair home on a whim along with two burros. One of the advantages of Fainting Goats is that apparently they do not trace direct lineage to Houdini, i.e. they do not jump. They are easy to fence. In fact we are applying for matching funds from the Extension Service for Stock and moveable fencing. This is a University study WRT herbicide free control of Rosa Floribunda using small livestock, sheep and goats. We've been considering crossing ours, as they are not a particularly hardy breed. As Tpr. Bret mentions, the ethnic meat market is the most likely source on income, and is surprisingly viable. When we get our herd up to 20, we'll be using this outlet to stabilize numbers and provide that elusive "Farm Income" for the IRS.

MM

[Boz330]

Boers were what I was looking at. I need to see what kind of fence will work the best. I was kind of hoping that multiple strands of the high tensile might work and might even electrify several of the strands. We do have coyotes around and I understand they can be a problem. There is a butcher shop from up in NE PA that sends a truck to Lexington several times a month to pick up goats so there is a pretty good market. There might even be some AG funds available as well for seting up.
I don't have any experience with goats other than the neighbor used to run a couple with his cattle when he rented pasture from me. He cussed them mightily.
The goats didn't much care for my Rotweiler and used to beat the hell out of her everytime they got a chance. Really kept her on her toes, even though she was at least twice as big, she never did try to take them out though, it must have been that herding instinct. These goats would have put HH to shame they could escape anything. I even found hoof prints on the hood of my truck so they could do some serious jumping.

Bob

[Bret4207]

Yeah, hi-tensile, about 7 strands, every other strand a ground wire and a real good fence charger. At that it'll take some trainng and you have to keep them fed. Goats are worse than most everything else for getting out. Fortunatley if abuck goat gets loose, he probably won't kill anyone. A Jersey bull on the other hand...

[Shepherd2]

I use 8 strands of high tensile wire with the top wire being 42" off the ground. The sheep don't try to go thru it and the cattle don't try to jump it.

I don't have much experience with goats. We only ever owned two and that was only for a couple weeks. The sheriff lives down the road and his wife used to have a large mixed bag of goats including some super nice Boers. They put up a new woven wire fence and in 6 months the goats had trashed it. Many times I'd be driving by and stop to free a goat or goats that had stuck their head thru the wire and got stuck.

[mozark]

Goats and woven wire can be problematic. Kind of an organic/inorganic molecular bond.

MM

[Slowpoke]

My wife does the border collie thing with her sheep so electric fence is out for us.

We have settled on the 13 line cattle panels 52" high X 16 ' long for our fencing they are 4 gauge galvanized.

Pretty easy to put up and should out last us, I bought one of those Man Saver T-post drivers and run the posts every eight feet so no digging or wrestling heavy post's around for me. I came up with using 5/8 galvanized lock washers to splice the panels together, works great, hold over from the many years on the trapline.

The panels are easy to navigate on rolling terrain and make it easy to follow the tree line's and use every bit of cleared ground for pasture most all of my corners are round.

good luck

[ron brooks]

Slowpoke,

Try using small cable clamps to fasten the panels together. Works great.

Ron

[floodgate]

We use the heavy-gauge 2" x 4" x 60" high tied "horse fence", 4" x 4" posts at 8' to 10' spacing, 2" x 4" top and bottom rails and a 2' x 12" "dog-board" along the bottom, for Alpines and Nubians; it has held up for 10+ years, and I can sure recommend it, for does at least. We don't keep a buck; go to a neighbor's for breeding.

floodgate

[floodgate]

The 5/16" or 3/8" chain repair links work well, too.

floodgate

[Scrounger]

I have a cousin who runs goats, I could ask.
http://www.touchstoneboergoats.com/

I thought you guys ran sheep...

[Slowpoke]

I am talking thousands of splices, the lock washers are cost effective and will hold more than the wire when push comes to shove. After spreading and closing back up the washer is a perfect fit on two 4 gauge wires.

Another thing with the panels is that if you live around big timber and a tree goes down on your fence, you only have to replace one panel.

good luck

[Shepherd2]

I've had several trees fall on my high tensile fences. I cut the tree up for the woodburner and torque down the strainers on the fence. There's nothing to replace unless a fence post takes a direct hit.