Hard Water

I finally found a slow day with mild temperatures so that I could get out on the ice and try some ice fishing again.  So far this winter the ice has been solid for most of the winter, but the temperature has been too cold to entice me onto the ice.  I do not own an ice hut or tent.  Son #2 came with me and we headed for Fritz's lake.  We drilled our holes, baited hooks, and set the poles, and waited.  Nothing happened for the first half hour or more.  Then, all of a sudden one hole started producing.  As soon as we took a fish off the hook and dropped the baited hook back in the hole, we had another one.  Fifteen minutes later the other holes (we had four poles out) started producing.  It kept us real busy for the next half hour going from hole to hole pulling up panfish.  Finally we decided we had enough fish and we needed to get back home, so we stopped baiting hooks and started packing up.  It was a productive day on the ice, and we have a mess of fish for a fish fry.

Phil took his old farrowing house and turned it into a warming hut.  It is a pretty impressive conversion!  They also built a hockey rink near it.  I brought my skates in case the fish weren't biting, but never had time to put them on.

Last weekend we headed west across the state line and spent the weekend in Burlington.  There was a couple of wedding showers that involve Son #2.  We stayed in a motel this trip so that the grand-kids ( who came along with their parents) could swim in the pool and have a little vacation.  We had a nice evening meal at the Wagenbach's and a blessed day in church.  It was an enjoyable weekend.

The weather has still been mostly frigid, with an occasional day or two of mild reprieve.  I think that this winter has had more days with subzero temperatures than any year in decades.

  And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
Genesis 9:2

Happy Frigid New Year

The first seed catalog arrived in the mailbox two days before Christmas.  The Stark Bros. catalog came two days before New Years Day.  I think they are pushing the season a little!
We had a beautiful Christmas eve snow that blanketed the ground and didn't blow.  This came after a relatively mild week.  But, a few days later, the temperature dropped to single digits and subzero, and we received another snow.  It has been real winter since.

The last Saturday in December, I had to call for two service calls.  A feed line quit working in the finishing building and I knew it was a wiring problem.  With a holiday weekend coming, I didn't want to take any chances by wasting time and trying to figure it out myself.  So, I called our electrician and he was on the farm within the hour.  He found a broken wire and another shorted wire in a control panel and we were up and feeding in less than an hour.  Then the feed mill wouldn't start.  I did all the diagnostics that I could, then called the repairman.  He came out in the afternoon, and determined a computer board needed replacing.  Fortunately he brought a spare one with him.  Our feed room is not heated, so it was frigid trying to work bare handed.  I brought in a kerosene heater to help, but I still needed to preheat the tools for him.  It took about two hours, but we were able to get it running just as darkness settled in. 
Sunday morning everything was working.

On the first two mornings of the New Year, the temperature was -18 degrees when I left the house to start chores.  It is like living in the North country!  Tractors don't start unless you plug them in, hook up the battery charger, and then use starting fluid.  Hydraulic oil is rather lethargic and takes minutes to operate cylinders.  The pigs in the deep bedded hoop buildings pile on each other and the weak ones on the bottom can suffocate.  Today the cattle water was frozen.  A half hour with the heat gun and it was thawed out and working. 
The bad thing about repair work in the winter is it often means the gloves have to come off.  That's when you really understand how cold it is!  It takes a lot of lotion to keep fingertips from cracking open.  And lotion on your heals to keep them from cracking open.  Those kind of skin cracks are very painful.

The rest of the week is supposed to continue the frigid weather.  Next week is supposed to be more typical temperatures.  It will feel like spring has arrived if it reaches 30 degrees during the days!

Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and cold out of the north.
Job 37:9