C-c-c-cold

It's been cold here. We have been experiencing what our local meteorologists are enjoying referring to as the "ARCTIC BLAST". Whatever anyone calls it, it is making it quite inconvenient for O.N.A.T.T.C.'s (Oregonians Not Accustomed To True Cold) to water their critters.

Ice is suddenly a cumbersome factor to deal with:

Water buckets and stock tanks freeze, ice must then be broken:

As you can see, I have all the appropriate tools for the job. The picture below is me cracking the ice with the handle of the toilet brush I use to scrub the inside of the buckets when they get dirty:

and then scooping out the ice shards with an aquarium net:

Bottom line, though, it gets the job done, which is what counts, right?:

This was before it got even colder, though, and last night the ice became thicker. Early this morning, we hit our lowest low to date this year: 14.7 degrees. This is very cold for Northwest Oregon. The ice on the stock tank was thick; I had to use a broom handle to break it today:

Here is my goats', Pete and Reggie's, water bucket after I cracked the surface. The little goat berries were frozen solid and couldn't be budged:

Workarounds are necessary when faucets and hoses freeze. Here is the bucket I use to tote warm water from the laundry room down to the chicken coop:

Here is my helper. Maybe someday he'll carry that bucket of water for me:

With the forecast predicting even colder temperatures to come, last night, I put up the heat lamp in the chicken coop just in case I suddenly decided it was needed:

Dottie, ever the curious, is always the first to scope the new stuff out:

Everyone was anxious to see everything in the new light:

Bippity was the first to move in for a closer look:

I have to believe she was seeing stars after this:

Pretty soon, everyone was roosting under the warmth of the light and it wasn't even dark yet! So, I unplugged the light.

Last year, I turned on the heat lamp for them when the temperatures dipped below 22. This year, my chickens have just seemed hardier to me and, since it was still 25 degrees when I went to sleep last night, I decided not to turn on the lamp. When I awoke, I was concerned to see the coop thermometer read only 18.7 degrees (yes, I have a digital thermometer in the coop that I can read from the house):

Fortunately, everyone was just fine this morning. I am so impressed with the hardiness of my birds. This called for a celebration of warm oatmeal and pasta:

And even despite the cold, I had two eggs waiting for me in the coop nest box:

Two gifts from my girls on a day where the temperature never made it above freezing:

And this is what awaited me when I stepped out of the coop: