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| Goat girls gather at the fence in hopes of garnering grain. |
We've had cold air for a couple of days now. The snow has been nice--pretty, and not too icy--but the nights have been downright cold. We find ourselves thankful for the help of the USDA's Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) local office because the livestock watering system they helped us install has been a godsend these past few days. Whereas last winter I lugged buckets of water uphill as a matter of course, now we have automatic waterers in some pastures and we can run hoses from in-ground hydrants to other watering locations on our hillside.
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| Feathered rovers, Lawrence and PrettyBoy, strut in search of grain. |
Do I spend mornings breaking ice over water buckets and tanks? Absolutely, but then I can add running water to the tanks, and replace the frozen blocks in buckets with fresh water--with ease. The readily-available water has meant that the penned chickens, guineas, and goose enjoy fully-refreshed water supplies with greater regularity than before. The horses, cats and dogs, most of the alpacas, and the free-roaming poultry and goats can help themselves from fresh well-supplied water at will. Even when the temperature drops into the teens, they can reach water with just a bit of effort.
Although I have met local farmers who could avail themselves of the USDA NRCS or the TN Dept. of Agriculture (TDA) programs but do not because they resent government interference and oversight, we here are most grateful to the programs that have allowed us to provide better care for the animals on our farm. Thank you, NRCS staff.
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