Can you teach the cows to skate?
A pretty good ice storm swept through here Sunday afternoon and evening. It left a pretty good coating of ice on everything, and the strong winds that went along with the storm took down several branches from the sugar maple trees lining the road . By this morning the temperatures had warmed up some and melted the ice off the car and truck, but the ground and the road still had a good covering of the slippery stuff. The opening of school was delayed two hours, so the boys didn't have to rush around to be ready for the usual 7:15 AM pick up time.
The ice made for tricky walking out to the grain feeders of the two groups of young stock outside. The heifers and steers gingerly picked their way across the slick ground to the feeders and their breakfast. The barnyard for the milk cows wasn't too bad, but the cows didn't want to venture down the sloped entrance to the barnyard and out into the pastures this morning. The walking was just too slippery.
This morning's slick conditions made me vow to put the chains on my two-wheel drive tractor that I use to haul the compost material. For both loads this morning, I had to use our four-wheel drive tractor to pull the other tractor and loaded dump trailer out of the loading area and into the lane leading to the compost windrow. The two-wheel drive tractor would just sit and spin both rear tires, unable to pull the load.
--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont
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Posted by Blogger Chris at January 5, 2005 09:45 PM
We had the same ice storm here, just north of the U.S. border in Hemmingford, Quebec. Our sheep would not venture out of the barn for the first two days, except for the 2 lamb (7 months old). They soon realized why the older and wiser ones stayed on firm ground! The llamas (2) who are usually so sure-footed really didn't know what to make of the of the ice, and they too stayed in their barn, despite that I brought the hay out to the feeder in the middle of the yard. We soon realized we were going to have to put hay inside or have a few accidents - the lamb kept bucking under or doing the splits. Although this was funny to watch, I worried about broken legs .... so they all ate inside for a couple of days.
Jonathan Gates reports from Howmars Farm in Franklin, Vermont.