The early cold spell caught us by surprise. Nine degrees fahrenheit on 18 November is on the chilly side; a week of low temperatures is unusual. God knows what the winter will be like; we don’t. The turnips are still in the ground, and there are pintos still to be pulled before really cold weather makes the bean pods split and curl, dropping the beans we want for winter soups and refrieds where they will do no good. We are supposed to see some warmer weather over the next week, and we will have to scramble.
The six-months heifer with the cough is recovered now. We put her in a quiet pen with green grass, a straw-lined loose box, and no competition, and within a few days the spring was back in her step. We’ll take her back to the dry cows’ paddock as soon as we fix the tailgate on the pickup truck.