The snow has STARTED!

heda gobbler wrote:Hate those headlamps  - there is too much contrast between what it lights and everything else.  You can get a handheld lantern with varied degrees of light that plugs in to recharge - put it beside you when you milk.

Tried to put the sheep away last week with only the car's headlights and found that they hate the glare and weird shadows too. Had to turn off all the lights and put them to bed by moonlight at last.

Thank goodness for oven mitts!!

I love my headlamp, but I did pay a bit of money for it. Not just one of those cheap jobs. Has a whole bunch of settings and a red night light. Helps me see, but doesn't make the animals freak out as much. Also a BRIGHT burn your eyeballs out setting that comes in handy on the odd occasion.

-38 windchill here this morning. I am keeping my kid home! Too cold!

I too am a headlamp lover. Keeps the hands free. LED, 3 settings, can tell when the batteries start to burn out. Cheapies from Costco 3 for 10 bucks.

-21 with a wind chill of -29. Poor moo cows are all cuddled up under the tree closest to the house.

A balmy -15 here at daylight. Glad I did a heavy feeding of hay yesterday although may have to do more today.... lay down a lot more straw.

The weather forecast yesterday was for around -9, but woke up to -21 this morning. If the weather network is correct we are suppose to warm up today. This is the coldest we have had it for two years. The water use to freeze under our house around -15, but in recent years we have made a number of changes and seems to be only a memory of using a heat gun to thaw pipes under the house.

Well I'm willing to be convinced about headlamps - do you know what brand yours is Coopslave?

Sun's up, not a cloud in the sky. I think it will be warmer than predicted today.

Husband put in a new better insulated pumphouse this year - so I hope that like you Survivor, frozen pipes are just a memory!

I have a head lamp too. This one...

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Cheap and effective.

Up to a balmy -23 now, sun is shining, and it's -5 in the coop - turned a heat lamp on for a few hours.

- 15 here this morning when I took boys to bus. road like a skating rink, freaky freaky but got good tires on so all ok. Chickens happy in the barn (well, happy is a relative term isn't it), it is insulated so was -7 inside there. Probably closer to zero for our high.

It was -35 when I left for work this morning.

I will never get used to Alberta winters...  

coopslave wrote:

heda gobbler wrote:Hate those headlamps  - there is too much contrast between what it lights and everything else.  You can get a handheld lantern with varied degrees of light that plugs in to recharge - put it beside you when you milk.

Tried to put the sheep away last week with only the car's headlights and found that they hate the glare and weird shadows too. Had to turn off all the lights and put them to bed by moonlight at last.

Thank goodness for oven mitts!!

I love my headlamp, but I did pay a bit of money for it.  Not just one of those cheap jobs.  Has a whole bunch of settings and a red night light.  Helps me see, but doesn't make the animals freak out as much.  Also a BRIGHT burn your eyeballs out setting that comes in handy on the odd occasion.

we have joined the throng, -9 here this evening and only 5.25pm. that means a considerable drop further during the night.

I just read this post for the first time and thought to share something about the color of lights. My vet told me that if I want to hear the chickens breathing at night and not disturb them then use blue light. They don't see blue apparently. I have resolved to get a blue light to put into the work light I hook on to the mesh on their coops inside the barn so I can spy.  

Great idea! I am so into this sort of thing...

Wind's turned around and we are getting a big wet south wind. It is now only -3C and I wouldn't be surprised if we got rain tomorrow. And ice, of course.

heda gobbler wrote:Well I'm willing to be convinced about headlamps - do you know what brand yours is Coopslave?

Heda, mine is an energiser. Got it at Rona or Home Depot, don't remember which as I frequent both of them.   It was around 20ish dollars I think and I believe it may have 5 settings. I have had the Costco ones before as well, but the horses react to them much the same way you were describing. I have used the red light a few times with the chickens and they don't get as restless as when I am in there with the white light. Haven't tried it with the horses yet as they are not at home here.

Very interesting about the blue light and makes total sense. Blue wound spray works on open wounds to stop pecking. Heat lamps should come in blue!

Thanks! I've tried the petzel one Sue and it is just way too bright! Lee Valley's new catalogue has arrived with a couple of choices.

Generally my aim is to get everyone in bed before it gets dark - that's early these days!

Hmm guess I have some checking out to do on lights.  I always have little flashlights in my pockets but you can't lay them down and get them to shine where you want them so was thinking dorky headlight   Heda you are right my horses would not appreciate it so it'd have to be easily switched on and off.  Even my little led flashlights can get them acting up.  I do quick chores when kids get home from school but do the bulk of my chores when they've gone to bed because afterschool/supper time is chaos with kids.  I really only need a light that will turn on in the cold for when I do evening milking because my everything room fluorescent light refuses to turn on when it gets below -20 or so.  I do like the lantern idea for milking so maybe try that instead if goats react to lights like my horses I'll be cleaning up dumped frozen milk and growling 

Actually Coopslave you HAVE tried the red light around your horses.  Remember the deadofbleedingnight morning when you rounded up your sleepy companions and loaded up to leave? I noticed your red light that morning and was thinking how humane you were to both your sleepy horses and to my bleary eyes.  It was lovely!  No stress (other than being upright and outside!! at that time of the morning in an impending snowstorm) on the eyes, yet it illuminated things nicely.  Kind of made things appear as though seen through badly bloodshot eyes (though that certainly could have been me - please tell me you did have the headlamp on the red setting didn't you?!?  ).

farmchiq wrote:Actually Coopslave you HAVE tried the red light around your horses.  Remember the deadofbleedingnight morning when you rounded up your sleepy companions and loaded up to leave? I noticed your red light that morning and was thinking how humane you were to both your sleepy horses and to my bleary eyes.  It was lovely!  No stress (other than being upright and outside!! at that time of the morning in an impending snowstorm) on the eyes, yet it illuminated things nicely.  Kind of made things appear as though seen through badly bloodshot eyes (though that certainly could have been me - please tell me you did have the headlamp on the red setting didn't you?!?  ).

That's right Farmchiq. I had forgotten about that. It was my headlamp and not the stain of the red wine leaking into your eyes to early in the morning! The horse were easy to catch with it, weren't they. And you had first hand notice of it. Was it easy on your eyes as well? I know Hubby doesn't have the red and BLASTS me with his when he looks up at me and we are outside doing things.
You don't see a long ways with it and the red is quite focused but it is good for closer up work like in the chicken house. I am sure it would be fine for milking.

I know this head lamp has a blast your socks off setting too and I can see quite broadly and a long ways with it. I use it when walking the dogs in the dark. Don't want anything to sneak up on me!!  

We have 20-30 cm of the white stuff predicted to fall in the next 48 hours.

it the roads are bad I will not be able to get to the Poultry show and this is stressing me out. I have a big box of silent auction items to deliver. They may just be sitting here for another year.  

Well it was supposed to get warmer today.  It had down in Calgary but when I came home it was still -15C here.  At least there was no wind!!  What a relief, supervision at lunch time today was horrid.  
I just went and looked and we are up to -7C.  It will take me a while to get used to the temperature changes here especially when night time is warmer than the day!  

Warm wind out of the south today. Daybreak it was -11C now, 12 hours later it is 0. All the cows and horses happily grazing again. Another day another bale or three saved!

Hope this doesn't mean a lot of ice tomorrow.

We are gradually warming, but certainly a lot slower than originally predicted. During most winters we enjoy (not) a week or two of cold weather. The good news is that the Okanagan ice wine makers are happy.

Still -15C this morning. Maybe we will miss the warming trend.....

-10 the night before, that daytime temperature never rose above -5. Yesterday day temperature was -3, last night -8. Brrr...baby it's cold out there, but we have had glorious blue skies now for two days and yes, by Gordon, the sun has shone. So low in the horizon....how many days now til the solstace of winter? Maybe 29 days or so. Then we head the other way. What is the actual date of the solstace anyways? 22nd of December? Should just google that. Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

.

Beautiful, have a most wonderful day, CynthiaM.