The new superstorms, one after another, raging all over the country, month after month are challenging in so many ways. For me, and for anyone who lives with animals, there is a particular, sometimes very painful responsibility. Last night, when the power went out, I realized I had not filled a half-dozen buckets with water from the tub, I we would have no way of getting water to the animals out in the pasture, without power the heated water buckets would fail, the tubs would freeze.
We are also conscious of wind driving snow vertically in a storm like this, it blows through barnyard cracks, it blows into the Pole. Snow and wind are a dangerous combination for some animals, donkeys and sheep are quite hardy, but storms present a number of challenges. How will they get to the water buckets? How will they get to the feeders? Do they have shelter from the driving snow and ice, from the wind? If these new giant storms challenge us, surely they challenge animals as well and they challenge the people who own them to be prepared, think ahead. I think we need a generator of this storms are going to continue, the animals need heated water in the winter.
We are re-thinking our roost, this kind of cold and snow can overwhelm even the most carefully constructed roost, high winds can penetrate even well constructed wooden shingles and planks, I am reluctant to use heat lamps, they cause awful fires sometimes. We have to think about all of this for next year, if there is money, I want to think about a frost-free pump so that we don’t have to haul buckets all winter, and the animals will always have water.
The scope and depth and ferocity of this storm caught us somewhat by surprise, that isn’t good enough for animals. They need food and fresh water and shelter, even and especially in the face of these new kinds of storms, which seem a regular feature of our lives. I am sorry so many of our political leaders choose to remain in denial about the weather, I can’t afford to do that, my donkeys, sheep and chickens deserve better.