Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[frustratedearthmother]

Crazy! Texas drivers know absolutely NOTHING about driving on ice....freeway systems have been mostly shut down...just started opening late this afternoon. Big rigs and cars sat for hours on overpasses when they couldn't make it up because of the ice and slid backwards/sideways into the guard rails - or each other. Our Dept of Transportation didn't shut down the overpasses soon enough - waited until cars couldn't make it before they closed 'em off. Schools all closed, lots of government offices, courthouses, museums all shut down. Better that way though cuz that way there were lots less drivers on the roads.

Gonna get colder tonight, but at least no more wetness...

 

[Wannabefree]

Yeah I saw a thing on FB about all the trouble down there! Stay safe and warm sis!!!!!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Yes ma'am!

I did get out once - had to keep that appt. to get the bed liner sprayed in my truck. Thankfully, we had postponed it until later in the day. Only one overpass between me and the place I had to go and I went around it - call me chicken. Had to come in to work some today - but even though we're cold - it's dry so all is well.

Critters seem to be doing okay - absolutely inhaling hay. And can somebody tell me why chickens are so stoooooooooooooopid? For months and months they've chosen to roost on the fences (metal fences in most cases). It's not like they don't have shelters - they do! So why, when it's cold, with freezing rain falling do they still sit their stoooopid butts on the fence? I can NOT tell you how many chickens I pulled off fences and threw in their shelters only to come out the next morning and find them on the fence again. And yes - they have roosts in their shelters too! Yesterday morning, some of them were wet and their feathers had ice hanging off the tips! CRAZY stuff, I tell you. Just crazy....

 

[Denim Deb]

Been there, done that. Only for mine, it was a tree. And then they wouldn't want to fly down when there was snow on the ground until I cleared a big space.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Pea brains for sure - and that's being generous!

 

[FarmerJamie]

handling the cold okay otherwise?

Predicted low of -8 here early Tuesday morning....

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Geeze, compared to your temps we're having a heat wave, lol! At least our cold doesn't last too long - embarrassed to say we're getting up to 70 today but back down in the mid 20's by Tuesday or Wednesday with MORE frozen precip. I'm afraid they'll shut the whole state down this time!

Biggest issue on the farm is water delivery. I've got automatic waterers to almost all my pens - so every time it gets this cold I need to undo all the hoses, drain 'em and put 'em in the barn.... Then it warms up and I put 'em all back out - then I listen to the ever changing weather report and....lather...rinse...repeat!

Next farm project is to hard pipe all the water to the pens via underground piping. Never really felt we needed it before - but all this fun is making me grumpy! Again - I feel bad about whining about this when I'm sure everyone else is having more problems.

Today I will be building a temporary shelter for some chickens that refuse to use their permanent one. (Have I mentioned that I think chickens are stupid?) Most of year they had their favorite place under a bunch of really thick vegetation. It was a great place a few months ago. But it's bare now and them stooooopid birds keep trying to hide out there when there's absolutely NO cover at all....geeze. (brainless birds) But at least they're not trying to roost on the stock panel fences....Other than that there's not much more I can do for 'em.

I think everything else is good. I can't stop myself from looking at the seed catalogs and that makes me grumpy too! I want to be planting and weeding and picking and eating already. I do needa follow WBF's lead and get some things started. I think I said that last weekend too - but did I do it - nope...

Ok - not gonna get nuttin' done if I don't gulp down this coffee and get out there while the gettin's good.

Stay warm and safe folks!

 

[so lucky]

I haven't been on here very often lately but I was just wondering how your grand daughter is, regarding her digestion issues? I didn't make it through the last 10 or so pages of your journal, so you may have reported on her, and I missed it. (Sorry, I just don't follow the journals)
I was wondering because my grand daughter who is 9 is having the same sort of issues. It might be stress related. It might be diet... Did you come up with anything conclusive?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Hey So Lucky! Good to see you.

That poor girl was tested for everything under the sun and absolutely no clue as to what caused her problems. She had a brain scan, ultrasound, blood work... with NO diagnosis. Her vomiting symptoms persisted for more than month, led to diarrhea, and then gradually dissipated. But, during the worst of it we tried diet changes that may or may not have helped - went as natural and organic as possible - but nothing we could absolutely pin point as the cause of her problems or the reason she got better.

It was really tough times. I hope your granddaughter gets better quickly!

 

[Denim Deb]

FEM, while we might be having some problems up here, at least these are normals problems for the most part. You aren't used to dealing w/temps anywhere CLOSE to that, so that just makes it that much rougher.