Happy Snow Day!  Over the past few days we’ve been experiencing a rare winter storm here in Alabama and we thought we’d share a little of what we’ve been doing to keep our animals fat, warm, and happy through it all.

Our high for the day yesterday was a whopping 22 degrees, which was also the temperature that we woke up to – that may not seem very cold to those of you used to a Northern winter, but that’s almost unheard of for us Southerners.  Last winter we only say a handful of days (probable less than a week total) that hit below freezing, and that just barely.  With the temperatures so low the main challenge for us is keeping everyone watered.  Our livestock is spread over our acreage in several different pastures and getting running water to everyone is quite the task!  We started out breaking up the ice in the stock tanks, and from there moved on to filling them.  When our hoses were frozen solid we filled 5 gallon bucket and carried the water by hand to fill the tanks.  We certainly got plenty of excercise!

After watering, we had to make sure that everyone had appropriate bedding to keep warm in – the pigs particularly like to have a nest of hay to sleep in and it’s especially important for us to make sure they have clean dry bedding when it’s this cold since they lack a thick winter coat like the rest of our critters.  We provide them with fresh hay to bed down in so they have some extra insulation from the cold.

And of course we have to keep the farmer’s hand and feet thawed out while doing all of this!

We hope you all are staying warm and safe through this winter storm and we look forward to seeing you all again soon as the weather warms up and the Cotton Mill Farmer’s Market gears up for another season!