The last two days, we’ve stuffed firewood in both the kitchen range and living room stoves all day and several times during the night.

Our HIGH yesterday was -13 and this morning there was a wind with -21, giving us a -50 windchill. Brrrrr. We haul our dry firewood into the house with a wheelbarrow. It takes two wheelbarrows full to last 24 hours when it’s so cold. But Mittens LOVES to ride outside in the empty wheelbarrow. As soon as Will heads for the door, she hops in and rides all the way out to the wood shed. We sure have strange animals!

Mittens-wheelbarrow
We made sure all the animals and poultry were warm. The goats and chickens weren’t let outside at all, being fed and watered inside the building. I added a doubled up old quilt on the goats’ door to the outside so there wouldn’t be any drafts and gave them an extra bale of bedding. Will brought all the cattle into the training ring where we had been keeping our beef steers so they could get extra grain prior to butchering. But the other cattle only had a small walk-out shelter and the steers have a barn to go in. So he let all of them come to the training ring and barn for wind protection.

We found plenty to do inside. I packed and filled seed orders all afternoon. It was fun to see our seeds go to so many different states. (Don’t forget we have a new seed listing; check the box at the top of the blog.)

On Friday, we bought a new tractor. We had been making payments on our Oliver and were able to pay it off early by saving some of our meat sales money. Unfortunately, the Oliver was just a little too small to run our big round baler without overworking it. Will was afraid he’d “kill” the tractor by baling. So he started looking for a larger tractor. Luckily, we found a Farmall just several miles from our homestead — at a reasonable price. The guy even offered to deliver it to the end of our driveway! Done deal! The day we went to look at it, it was cold and the tractor started right up. Great! And it has a loader and bale spear so that’ll sure help. We feel like farmers with three tractors! But we haven’t had to buy any hay yet and still have quite a few big round bales rowed up. That’s a great feeling.

Farmall
I’ve heard that this cold is going all over the country, so stay warm and make your animals cozy. — Jackie

11 COMMENTS

  1. Wally,

    Yep, the new tractor is a 706. Will hauled it home yesterday but it was so darned cold and windy today that it’s still on the trailer!

  2. I liked everything in your last posting too.Tractors have a special place in my heart. Is the new one a “706”? I am very impressed with mittens too.

  3. I was going to say, “Leave it to the cat to get the free ride while the dogs bring in wood”, but then I saw your next post about what a great huntress your Mittens is. I think she deserves a ride now and then with all the vermin she dispatches!

  4. All,

    It’s still cold, but we’re all doing fine. But we sure don’t spend overly long outdoors!!!
    (It’s pretty bad when zero seems “warm”!) But we’re thinking spring and know it’ll be here before long. Even Mittens and the dogs don’t want to spend much time outside. We’re all wusses! (Or is that just “smart”?)

  5. I know what you mean about chucking wood in the stove. This cold snap started Saturday and we had to fire up our second stove for the first time this year. Down to -35 this morning with no wind. We use almost twice as much as at zero. Stay warm.
    Howard
    In the Copper Basin of Alaska

  6. Thank you for the update Jackie! We’ve been watching your temps on the news. Sounds like you have the process down well. Stay warm. Love the new tractor!

  7. That’s one nice looking tractor! We’re in the single digits, but at least it’s the plus side of the scale. Turned our furnace down a bit and started doubling up on the clothes. No wood heat here, and I don’t like the electric bills, lol. The kids stay in the basement where it’s warmer. Loved your Christmas pictures, and that grand daughter of yours is a little doll. I think she looks a ‘bit’ like her granny, too. Lucky little girl. What a SMILE!
    Take care of yourselves.

  9. Glad you found the tractor. We cracked the frame on a much larger Ford and are trying to get replacement parts (going to be a chore to fix) and a replacement tractor so we can sell the Ford. It has been a great tractor, but was badly abused before we got it (welding skills are so important to keep equipment working and remember to grease everything – the previous owner didn’t know what a grease gun is which is part of our problem). There is enough wrong with the Ford that it is time to upgrade. Very stressful as we don’t dare use the loader so we can’t unload bales with it and we need to haul more hay home. You will like the bale forks (ours are on the back end). They are saving our bacon right now – as long as it doesn’t snow. We can use the forks instead of the loader. That is where our blower goes!

  11. Praying for all to go well with you all! The Farmall tractor looks great! Mittens loves companionship – thanks for sharing. Stay safe.

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