'Cause If Elizabeth Ain't Happy...

This fall I moved the oldest sheep into the lamb paddock.  It's small, but the grass is was thick, there's a cute little shed and best of all, having the oldsters gated away from the pigsters, they could have free access to as much hay and grain as they wanted. 

With the weather turning so cold I decided to move everyone back into the "big barn".  Surely it would be warmer tucked into the inside stall, they could go drink from the heated water tank...  Elizabeth had complained about moving to the retirement home...for about one day.  Now she wanted no part of moving back.  

Okay.

So I stapled heavy plastic around the outside, cutting out the wind blowing through the cracks.  I added extra straw to keep them further up off the cold ground.  The water...that was the problem.  We do have a heated bucket, but I get very nervous plugging anything electric like that into a barn.  

On nights when it was only getting down into the 20s I was having good luck tucking their water bucket into mound of straw.  I knew that wasn't going to work in the single digits.  I again asked Elizabeth to move inside.  

"NOOOO!!!!!"

O-KAY!!!

I'd read somewhere that you could build a box around your outdoor stock tanks and stuff it with horse manure to insulate.  Yeah, sounds gross, but if you've ever dug into a pile of compost on a cold day...you know why they recommend that.  I decided to try it with a couple buckets.

I used a manure/sawdust mix (Thanks, Hickory ;-) for the bottom 4 or 5 inches.  I couldn't bring myself to use that around the drinking part though, so stuffed as much hay and straw in there as I could and hoped for the best.

It got down to 10 last night and this was all the ice that had built up!  I tapped that hole with the corner of my feed scoop.  Maybe 1/4 of an inch of ice and I'm guessing they had access to water most of the night.  Sweet :-D.

Now I just carry the whole contraption into the barn, stick a temporary immersible heater in it to warm it up and back out to the little barn it goes.   Animals will drink more water in the winter if it's warm plus I figure it can't hurt to warm up the insulation a little too.

"Thanks!"

Actually, that's the "Hey are you going to give me a cookie?" face.  To which I of course said, "Sure, as soon as I get done with the rest of the chores."  And then forgot :-(.  Looks like cookies for lunch today :-).