Frigidity

[altivo]

Well, we made it up to 0°F today. Or actually, -0° according to my digital thermometer, which apparently won't drop the minus until it gets higher than zero. Tonight's predicted low is -14. Definitely too cold.

The animals don't seem to mind, except for the cats who are hovering near the woodstove or hiding under the quilts on the bed. Providing unfrozen water to the critters outside is a bit difficult, though. The boys have buckets and a water trough with heaters in them, so they are fine. But the bunnies don't fare so well. I put warm water into their bowls and if they don't drink it right away it freezes solid in about an hour. The same thing happens to Tess and the sheepers, though their buckets are larger and take longer to freeze. Tess has an insulated bucket in her stall with a floating styrofoam cover. That one stays liquid for several hours usually, but is frozen by morning. Tonight I plan to fill it with almost hot water in the hope that it will stay drinkable longer.

Ducks are the most bizarre. They seem immune to the cold, so much so that when we open their house and let them out in the morning, they rush out and plunge right into their drinking water for a swim. This gets their feet and belly feathers wet, of course, so then we have to go on "frozen duck watch" because they sit on the ground in one spot so long that they freeze to the ground and can't get up. This necessitates pouring hot water over their feet to get them loose. Birdbrains.

Spent two hours working on the spinning guild newsletter because it had to go out today. Now my hands are stiff and near frozen so I'm headed for the woodstove myself.

Comments

[marzolan.livejournal.com]

-0 eh? heh heh

And yeah, i bet this is rough on the animals... Be careful with the warm water though, I'm not privy to the details of the circumstances, but in chem we were presented with a case where hot water freezes faster than cold. *shrugs* You know the area and the bowls anyways. Hopefully it works out.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I believe hot water freezes faster if it cools rapidly by evaporation. Since this is in a covered, insulated container, that shouldn't happen. I couldn't give Tess really hot water anyway. She might injure herself trying to drink it without realizing. It was just luke warm, about 98 or 100F. I'd say.

I can't do that as a regular thing though because the hot water from the house tank has been through the water softener. That means it's full of sodium carbonate and I don't want to load my critters with excess sodium. I'm sure it's no better for them than it is for us.

[kyhwana.livejournal.com]

hahah. The frozen duck situation sounds hilarious!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's a nuisance, but yeah, it's funny.

[marzolan.livejournal.com]

That's probably very true...Hopefully it won't have to be done too many times.

[corelog.livejournal.com]

To indulge in a bit of chatspeak...

Frozen ducks LOL!!

[mymaimary.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's cold. You're a good dad to keep on top of all the water. It must have taken a lot of concentration to get anything done while running out to check on everyone.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, truthfully we've done it before enough times that it's pretty much a habit. The last couple of years have been quite mild, neither scorching hot in the summer nor bitter cold in the winter, but this is more like what we always got before that, at least for a week or two.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's kind of horrifying at first, but then it does get to be just silly.

Of course, in the wild this wouldn't happen because they'd have no open water under these conditions in which to wet themselves down.

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

Shows "Mr. Snuggles" the bunny down here in the
foxenbunker your post. He makes a meep noise and
starts drinking water from his tube.

^_^

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I suppose other ducks fly south? They freeze to the ground O.O do they freak when that happens?

If the water is moving does it freeze? perhaps a little recirculating pump might stop the water from freezing?

I think your cats have the right idea.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Some wild ducks migrate, some do not, or at least, they migrate to here from points farther north in Canada. Wild ducks generally don't have a chance to get frozen like that though, because all the natural open water around here is frozen solid at the moment. It's our artificially provided water that tempts them to get all wet.

No, they don't panic. In fact, they usually seem not to have noticed that they are frozen to the ground until we almost step on them. Then they quack and try to get loose.

Keeping water moving delays the time at which it will freeze, but not indefinitely. When the temperature is in the 20s (a few degrees below 0 Celsius) the rabbits' water bowls often do not freeze or only freeze partially. That's because they are agitated as the bunnies move around in their cages. But when it gets this cold, those bowls are frozen solid by morning each day.

I have seen frozen waterfalls. Even rapidly moving water will freeze when it gets cold enough.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

"I have seen frozen waterfalls. Even rapidly moving water will freeze when it gets cold enough."


That's scarey O.O