When you read a title like that you know a bullshit excuse is in the offing. This (or simply "a") post should have been scheduled to publish at 0300 local. But since there wasn't one to schedule, and since I didn't get one hammered out before sundown, this post will barely be a counter for October 30, 2019.
The last couple of days were pretty crappy weather-wise. Cold, snowy, blowy.
I almost got creamed from behind several times yesterday and the day before. Dumb drivers who don't grok ice and visibility and stuff like that.
Nevertheless, those near misses put me in mind of a different near miss under similar conditions a couple of years ago. That one has an amusing story lurking inside, so I spent some time writing that today, instead of this. Go figure.
Yesterday I ventured over to the big city to see the doc about my nerve pain. His message was that it's time to bite the bullet and do surgery. So that'll be in the offing sooner rather than later, once the insurance people agree on an appropriate bribe.
In the meantime, I'll have more steroid injections, probably next week.
On the one hand all of this is quite a hassle and a major pain in the arse. On the other hand, I'm lucky enough to live in a time and be in a situation where modern medicine can do amazing stuff for me.
Today started with the usual unexpected problem. When I went to add water to the chickens heated waterer, the damme thing was frozen solid. Turns out that the switch on the power strip the waterer is plugged in to was turned On Full Force.
Now it was on when I shut the birds up last night, but off this morning. Mom had been in there earlier in the morning but she didn't turn it off. There were no unaccounted-for tracks in the snow. So the chickens did it, though I can't see how.
Or maybe aliens. Who knows. I told the chickens as I tucked them in tonight that if the waterer is switched off again in the morning someone (meaning some chicken, a message I'm sure they understood) is gonna get a boot in the ass. I mean the damme birds are living in a chicken mahal. Little consideration?
Finally, and just to share my misery, several of my brothers were whining about being all old and creaky and how they can't take the cold no mo'.
Sigh.
Oh, before I forget. Juvat asked the other day about keeping cattle watered when the tanks freeze over. There is another way.
Is there a pilot lamp in the switch, that might need pecking?
ReplyDeleteCould well be the case, I'm gonna have to rig up a guard. The thing is on the wall above pecker height, so you wouldn't think they could do it. However there are two young roosters in there, and as I recall from my days as a young rooster, nothing is above pecker height.
DeleteThanks for stopping by and commenting Scott.
Nebraska in October, chickens sabotaging stuff...
ReplyDeleteThis post is definitely a counter, good photos/videos humor, a comment from StB...
What more could one ask for?
A nice chuckle for a rainy Halloween morn.
That makes me feel better Sarge, thanks. That weather fron bringing you rain today was snowing all over us two days ago. Mother Nature is cool.
DeleteThanks for stopping by and commenting. :)
If you aren't cheating, you aren't trying... :-) And do be careful on that ice. Our old brittle bodies don't handle bouncing off that stuff like we used to!
ReplyDeleteThe ice falls always make me very thankful for my PLF training. I can fall gooder than most youngsters these days. :)
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With the Yampa River flowing along our West boundary, my Dad just kept a hole chopped in the ice. After all he had a teenager on hand that needed keeping busy (no need to ask the teenager's opinion). Worked well until we lost a cow in the hole. We then went to a heated stock tank fed by a pump from a well.
ReplyDeleteOuch! Losing a cow is serious business. We took our "dryland" cows to winter pasture along Lodgepole Creek many years ago, when I was a sprout, and they had the darndest time figuring out how to drink from the crick. It was only 18 inches deep at the most so they weren't in danger of drowning but after a couple of icecapades they had to be very thirsty indeed to water there. We actually hauled water to them a time or two before they got the hang of it. I did learn that there are few things in God's creation funnier than a cow on ice...
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