The end of October approaches and the costume box in our house, that was once forgotten is a treasure trove once again. With the costumes come the teachings of our children and the wisdom of the young mind if only I can find the presence to listen. What is a costume? What is not a costume? I was stumped when asked to elaborate such a distinction. Is it just the perspective of the observer, or the intention of the wearer? Can princesses check the tires on the livestock trailer? Absolutely. Yet even in that sincere question, lies a deeper insight into the assumption behind the query.
Our farm, like our children, has wisdom to impart to this parent, husband, business owner and human. There are many complex lessons we learn from other humans about how to be and how the world is. No blue dress donning, beautiful princess that we know of works on trailer tires, but therein lies the opportunity. The tires don’t seem to mind who checks them.
With the impending end of October, we had a few disorienting days of sunny weather in the 70s, which led directly to the plan to ride our bikes to school. October is a fickle friend however, and sure enough it was 29 degrees on Friday morning when we suited up to start our bike ride. Racey and I were the only ones showing signs of hesitation. Lovett was pretty sure she didn’t even need gloves. I brought two pair anyway.
Since turning five, Lovett has also been practicing using her pedal bike. She and I took off the pedals so she can still use the bike as a strider bike (no pedals), and we decided that she would ride her bike all the way to school. After all, that’s what five-year-olds do. Previous bike rides involved me towing a trailer behind my bike. When Lovett got tired on the strider bike she could put her bike in the back of the trailer and ride. This time there was no trailer.
We left at our usual bike riding time of 7:40 and in hindsight I was expecting the 2 mile ride to take the 40-50 minutes of previous rides. On Friday it took us 2 hours with many hand warming breaks, bike malfunctions and one good crash on a downhill where we learned the value of using the breaks on our pedal bike. And through the struggle, the cold fingers, the long uphill that seemed too long, the downhill that seemed too steep, we found that with some perseverance and good humor we made it all the way to school, on our own bike. The sun was warm and inviting when we got there.
Did you know that the water line that brings water to the last batch of chickens is about 2000 feet long? As the night time temperatures dip well into the 20s I have a few tricks up my sleeve. First I have a long hose that comes from the leading coop that I let water flow out of. The goal is a flow with enough water pressure to fill the chickens’ water cups and enough flow to keep the water lines from freezing.
The next trick is one of our cattle water troughs full of water that is always close at hand on a stone boat that trails the coops. If/when the waterlines eventually freeze I can fill up a few manual waterers quickly and have water available for the chickens. It sure is cold dunking my hands in through the skim of ice on the water trough to fill the waterers.
Reber Rock Farm Blog 