It got to -18 last night, a good deal short of the predicted -26. But the damage has been done. We are running the water on the main system on two hours, then off, then on another two hours. This is to water the two cattle groups in turn at a single side of a small hog drinker. Beside that small drinker two other hog drinkers are served by that line. This is not good for the drinkers, which are liable to freeze with no water in them. It is also not good for the cattle as a hog drinker is slow, inducing them to suck in too much air as they drink. The reason for this is that one of our cattle drinkers failed about a week ago, freezing solid and bursting the valve beneath the drinker so that the tunnel underground filled with water and froze over. We are trying to thaw the top with a heat lamp so that we can replace the valve, or at least stopper the line until spring. We need something warmer than -18 to do this. We shut the other cattle drinker down because of bad design. It freezes at zero and takes about two hours of wet hands and clothes to bring it back to life. Not worth it. There will be replacements going on when the weather moderates.
But first we have to get that far. Warmer weather is predicted for Saturday, but then two very cold nights before we get to what looks like a warmer time next week. We hope everything holds together that long. We are fighting exhaustion here.
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