The day before my annual trek north for the holidays my parents received 12 inches of snow, and it stayed. And it hasn't gotten above 25 since somewhere half-way into my drive home. The windshield wiper fluid in the truck froze up four days ago (so much for working to +20 degrees, it was causing trouble by 26) and running a bunch of the "good -20 stuff" wasn't enough to keep the lines open.
But I made it to my parents place in good time, the dog is getting spoiled rotten, and leaving the house has become an as-needed event. I thought my hour and a half of guarding cow yard gates and helping bed the young cows on Saturday was a good measure of my cold tolerance but after spending five hours out in the cold on Sunday I can confirm my blood has indeed thinned after 12 years of southern living. I guess my limit is about two hours before I need to break out the hand and foot warmers. Either that or playing gate man is enough activity to generate sufficient body heat and blood flow to the extremities.
Snow drifts are anywhere from knee- to waist-deep in the cow yard. Not a problem if you are a full grown momma cow or even a yearling steer but one of the recently weaned guys learned the hard way that if you stray off the established trail between the feeder and water source that one can quickly become temporarily stuck chest-deep in the white stuff. At least the joyful, frolicking energy of youth made a bit of a game out of lunging and bounding back to the cow trail and the nice warm bed of straw at the end of it.
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