Re: Not really that cold

Posted by JD Seller on December 31, 2017 at 14:10:04 from (208.126.196.24):

In Reply to: Not really that cold posted by David G on December 31, 2017 at 08:25:26:

David I had over 100 sows and 1500 or so fat hogs that winter. I did not loose any to the cold but it sure made a lot of work to keep them healthy.

Those older sows had "nests" made that would be 3-4 feet deep out of the bedding. Then 3-4 of them would be down in that "hole' cuddled together. The fat hogs where in open fronted buildings. We took tarps and close the fronts on them. Their body heat kept them warm.

The biggest job was keeping them watered. Everything was freezing up. Electric heaters on those old metal waterers would not keep up with the cold. We cut fifty five gallon drums long ways and welded the one half in the other one. We cut out doors in the ends of the bottom one. I would dump a half a bag of charcoal in them and light it then stick a hose in running water into it. I bet that I made 30 of them. While I would be dumping ashes out and relighting ones my wife would be running water into the fresh lite ones.

We were living in an older farm house then. Single pane windows and no insulation. I stacked straw bales up to the windows. We put plywood over most of the windows on the north and west sides. We burnt over a 1000 gallons of fuel oil and 3 ton of coal just in December. Even then if you set pop on the kitchen floor at night the bottles would freeze/break.

My main tractor was a Ford 6000 diesel. I finally got it started by borrowing a torpedo heater and putting a tarp over it. Never shut it off other than to check the oil and fill it with fuel, for over three weeks. I had to replace the muffler when it got warmer because the old one was full of black soot/carbon from unburnt fuel from idling for hours in the cold.

Two good friends lost fingers to frost bit. Their gloves got wet from working on waterers while doing chores.

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