It’s Still Winter
February 10th, 2007 by Jim VIt is still cold here in southeast Minnesota. This morning it was around -15. This morning I was very surprised to find that one of our ewes gave birth outside to triplet lambs. Unfortunately two of the lambs froze, but the third is doing very well. I am amazed that the third even survived. I was expecting lambs to be born sometime in March since last October I saw a younger ewe that we have since butchered come into heat. I assumed that all the ewes came into heat at the same time, but apparently this is not what happened. During one of the last couple of days it occurred to me that we should check to see if any of the ewes were “bagging upâ€. Unfortunately I did not direct one of the children to check them nor did I check them myself and the one family member that typically brings hay to the sheep is often not too observant. So unfortunately I pay for my lack of diligence with the loss of two very nice lambs. So this morning my 8 year old son helped me bring both of our ewes into the barn and we determined that the second ewe is also bagged up and will probably lamb in the next few days. We will need to watch her close since the low temperatures are forecasted to remain below zero most of next week.
One significant thing that happened this past week was that we ran out of propane sometime Wednesday. Wednesday night I came in from chores and decided that the house felt a lot colder than usual. We discovered that the furnace was not running, so we attempted to restart the pilot light. After a couple of minutes trying to start the pilot light, it finally occurred to me that our propane tank might be empty. Normally our propane supplier automatically fills our tank, with the order to fill our tank apparently generated by some computer. So this time the computer was wrong and the tank was empty. There was no way to get propane at 10pm, so we decided to all go to bed, figuring that the house would stay fairly warm until morning. At 5am the temperature outside was -20 and the temperature inside was 53. We have hot water heat. Once they delivered propane and we got the furnace started, we discovered that some of “hot†water pipes were not getting hot and in fact one of them had become a frozen water pipe.
To help defrost this pipe, my wife went into town to buy a utility heater. While there, she discovered that the utility heaters were one sale, ostensibly because it is the end of the season. She found they were bringing out POOL SUPPLIES. Have we gone crazy? It is -20 outside and it will be at least until the end of May before anyone can use their outside pool. And this is not an affluent area where anyone has an indoor pool. I just talked to the neighbor who tried to buy a portable heater to use in getting his skid loader started. (The skid loader has been sitting outside in the cold.) He said that portable heaters are not to be found and neither can anyone find heat tape. His brother has searched all over trying to find heat tape to keep some pipes in his barn from freezing. Ahh, our retailers seem to have things really warped. Guess they want us to live in a fantasy world, dreaming about sitting in our pools on a hot day. Why can’t they let us live in the here and now, providing things we need rather than getting us to spend money on a dream that is far from reality?
February 10th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
I so know what your talking about! I am looking to replace my long warm worn out robe. Think I can find one? Nope but I sure can find lil thin cotton jammies. Got to 3 above here today WOW I think I’ll go swimming
February 10th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Oh, Jim!
Just when it was supposed to be getting warmer! Where is that “warming trend” anyway?? I’m sorry to hear you got pinched by ‘ole Man Winter!! We’ve been too long without a serious winter, me thinks, because it sure seems like a cold one, and its not much compared to yesteryear…
Hang in there!
GFJ
February 11th, 2007 at 6:29 am
Hey folks!
I just got up a bit ago, (I sleep late on Sundays), and it’s ten above zero. Now I’m even wondering if I really woke up! That’s hot!!
GFJ, your right about not having a serious winter in a long time, about ten years. It seemed years ago they were almost all serious. The last one was ten years ago or so and it was colder than a……well, it was cold, 57 below with prolonged periods in the thirty below range. Bulldozers trying to widen out the gravel roads, the snow banks were so high and the roads were getting to narrow and blowing shut with the slightest wind.
Yup, we were a tough breed then, not the wimps we are now. Walk to school, up hill all the way for five miles, in a blizzard, against the wind,(everyday), barefoot. Walk home, uphill all the way, five miles in a blizzard, (everyday), barefoot. All we ate was lard sandwiches……….and we were happy!!
February 11th, 2007 at 10:22 am
It’s 10 above here also, ha, ha. Time to start shedding clothes! I was looking at the plow on my way in from the barn a few minutes ago, won’t be long!
February 11th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Patti,
I wonder who decides what things stores put into their stock. Makes me wonder if somone from down south is deciding what items to stock.
GFJ,
Unfortunately, if I had been a more diligent I would not have let the cold take two lambs. The other things are not such a big deal. I hope your wife and girls are adjusting to a colder winter.
Tom,
Its a heat wave today. High around 20 above. We are a tough breed.
This afternoon we went to visit someone from church. As we walk out to the car I notice that my 11 year old daughter is wearing flip-flops. I said “flip-flops?” and her reply was, “Yah, its not very cold.” I guess we need some cold weather once in a while, since, as the old saying goes, “it keeps out the rif-raf from …”. (I won’t give the name of the State so as to avoid causing problems. Don’t want you to get any hate mail.)
Brent,
I know what you mean about it not being too long until spring. Today I was thinking that it won’t be long before I am moving cows from paddock to paddock, each day figuring out where to move next.
Jim V
February 18th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Since I work at one of those places and since I have told at least a hundred people that we have no heaters left, I guess I’ll chime in. Don’t blame your locals, because without a doubt they probably couldn’t get a heater if they wanted one, except for a few expensive ones you could special order. The problem with retail trade is the same as with farming. All of the same get big or get out thinking has dominated, as well as the *cash flow* emphasis dictated by the debt used to purchase inventory. The best you can do now is a small hardware store that is locally owned, but even these are dependant on huge suppliers like Ace or True Value. Frankly we would pay a lot more without the economies of scale, but there are numerous downsides. Among them is the need to be so efficient that you sell through all your inventory and do not tie up money over the summer on heaters that were left over. This stuff all comes over the water in huge containers and the available supply is determined way in advance based on average sales not on maximum possible demand. One of the most important factors is the expectation that all the inventory will *turn*. This causes the supply chain to be basically incapable of reacting except in extreme circumstances and only then by shuffling inventory from one location to another, as in the case of the recent Missouri ice storm. Because the goal is to run out of stock before you run out of customers inventory arrives early and fills space that is empty due to the retailers desire to be out of business while there is still demand.
The only advice I have is to buy early, have a back-up heater and a spare heat tape. And buy from the smallest, most local and independant source you can, realizing that you will pay more. But only if this is applied by a lot of people for a long time will you again see heaters all winter long.
February 18th, 2007 at 10:47 am
James,
Thank you very much for the information. Amazing how our society has built the same house of cards in the retail sector as in agriculture. I typically try to buy from small local businesses and will make even more effort to do this now that I understand things a little better. The last few weeks I have needed some new clothes and unfortunately there don’t seem to be any locally owned clothing stores left in the small towns near our home. It disturbs me a lot. I much prefer the better service you get in a smaller clothing store.
Jim V