Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[SageHill]

Wish I could send some of our warmth to you all. We need to be about 10 degrees cooler.

 

[farmerjan]

It got down to 6 on the recording thermometer.... with a wind chill feel like of -2 so the weather said. I got to thinking and the thermometer hangs just under the porch roof... so it might be even colder out away from the house. It is up to 24, the sun is mostly out with some clouds... supposed to hit 30.
I texted farm and said I was not coming due to frozen pipes... Which sadly, I did encounter last night... Took over an hour of opening up all the cabinet doors, running water in the bathroom sink, and the washing machine, to break loose the ice in the cold water pipe to the bathtub... they run off the same main pipe. Did not get the water to the corner sink in the back room to run yet... but it was dripping just a smidge. Finally got the cold water to the tub to run... so did manage a shower as the hot is HOT.... and had to leave it trickling all night. Same with the kitchen water all the way on the other side of the house... This is partly from being an old house, foundation that has "air leaks" and when the wind blows like it was, the cold air gets in... They ran the pipes on the outside walls too, which doesn't help....

I just do not feel like going and testing today...so won't.

Needless to say I was not happy. But at least no busted pipes.. And I got a load of jeans washed... they will get hung as the weather is supposed to get alot warmer in the next couple days... forecast for the next 10 days is all 40's and 50's days and upper 20's and low 30's at night... since it is forecast to be mostly nice, I will probably do at least another load of clothes, or 2... catch up with laundry while they will be able to hang and dry.

Will go out to the chickens here in a little bit. Will have to go up to the big concrete water trough at snyder's and possibly break some ice on top... it continually flows from a spring... to make sure they can drink, but it will stay open pretty much unless we have prolonged bitter temps... and the top freezes over... water will still flow under the ice crust on top if it stays too cold for too long, and out the overflow...

Just thankful it is warming up and do not have to look at a week of temps like that.

 

[fuzzi]

Glad your pipes didn't break. We had a partial frozen pipe years ago in a rental. It was a duplex where a bathroom was added by enclosing a porch. Of course the water pipes were added against an uninsulated wall. Geniuses.

 

[Mini Horses]

Checking barn pipes yesterday, realized I had not plugged in the heat tapes. Cold way earlier than normal so hadn't done it. But there is foam insulation tubes over all the pipes with the heat tapes inside, so I've been ok, so far. There is underground pipe all the way back to my DD trailer, crop up spigots in between for water. A few thousand feet underground! Had 2" of frozen on tubs this morn Broke that & plugged in a heated one to thaw it. Winds have died down -- thankfully! It's cold but sun is out nicely. Still low 20s & teens tonight.

 

[SageHill]

Glad your forecast is to warm up. And thank goodness the pipe(s) didn't burst. I so remember dripping faucets all winter long.

 

[fuzzi]

@farmerjan I recall you getting bitten by ticks, and at one point you thought you had Lyme disease. Here's information about an antibiotic that has shown promise at combating Lyme disease in trials:

An Overlooked Antibiotic Shakes Up the Lyme Disease Debate

In a pair of new studies, one unexpected drug eliminated Lyme bacteria at doses 100x lower than standard antibiotics — without wrecking the gut microbiome.

www.vigilantfox.com

 

[farmerjan]

Thanks @fuzzi .... Unfortunately I am allergic to penicillin, and this piperacillin is of the same class of beta-lactam penicillins... so a total no go for me... good article... I get The Epoch Times and think I saw that article back awhile ago...

Between being around a couple people that seemed to have some "cold" sypmtoms at the bull sale, and being out in that crappy cold wind on Sunday to move the cows, (and never feeling like I got over the last "bout").... I picked up and made worse a cold/flu bug... and have been really feeling pretty wiped out the last couple days. Terrible sore throat, nose blowing/constant drip which has made my stomach sick... and has made it impossible to lay down without coughing my head off... so have spent the last 2 nights "sitting upright" in the chair to try to sleep. Coughing makes the headache real acute....
Never had these long lasting problems until I got the tick bite last June and the drs really did not take it serious enough, or did enough tests for it...like the blood work I wanted done... they did one but did not do the other associated tick disease... tested for the Tularemia, and Lyme, but did not do Ehrlichiosis and that was one I wanted... tick diseases work on your immune system long term, and cause problems down the road...

So anyway, the last 2-3 days, I have felt like I got run over by a truck and the sore throat is such that everything, including water, hurts going down. Not much fun....

Survived the worst of the cold, chickens are dealing with it... and after the cold on Sunday/Monday... it has warmed up some... only down to 37 last night and in the mid 50's now. Mostly cloudy out... it is "bright" cloudy, but not calling for much sun... clouds all day and then going into tomorrow, more clouds and rain over night Thurs into Friday morning, then more sun and temps still staying in the 20/30's and up to the 40/50's during the day.... Langshan still laying at least every other day, sometimes a couple days in a row...

Cancelled my farm to test this afternoon... just told him I had a flu bug and was not doing anything this week.

Going to make some oatmeal for "brunch" I guess... maybe that will help soothe the throat.

 

[drstratton]

Thanks @fuzzi .... Unfortunately I am allergic to penicillin, and this piperacillin is of the same class of beta-lactam penicillins... so a total no go for me... good article... I get The Epoch Times and think I saw that article back awhile ago...

Between being around a couple people that seemed to have some "cold" sypmtoms at the bull sale, and being out in that crappy cold wind on Sunday to move the cows, (and never feeling like I got over the last "bout").... I picked up and made worse a cold/flu bug... and have been really feeling pretty wiped out the last couple days. Terrible sore throat, nose blowing/constant drip which has made my stomach sick... and has made it impossible to lay down without coughing my head off... so have spent the last 2 nights "sitting upright" in the chair to try to sleep. Coughing makes the headache real acute....
Never had these long lasting problems until I got the tick bite last June and the drs really did not take it serious enough, or did enough tests for it...like the blood work I wanted done... they did one but did not do the other associated tick disease... tested for the Tularemia, and Lyme, but did not do Ehrlichiosis and that was one I wanted... tick diseases work on your immune system long term, and cause problems down the road...

So anyway, the last 2-3 days, I have felt like I got run over by a truck and the sore throat is such that everything, including water, hurts going down. Not much fun....

Survived the worst of the cold, chickens are dealing with it... and after the cold on Sunday/Monday... it has warmed up some... only down to 37 last night and in the mid 50's now. Mostly cloudy out... it is "bright" cloudy, but not calling for much sun... clouds all day and then going into tomorrow, more clouds and rain over night Thurs into Friday morning, then more sun and temps still staying in the 20/30's and up to the 40/50's during the day.... Langshan still laying at least every other day, sometimes a couple days in a row...

Cancelled my farm to test this afternoon... just told him I had a flu bug and was not doing anything this week.

Going to make some oatmeal for "brunch" I guess... maybe that will help soothe the throat.

I hope you feel better soon Jan!

 

[SageHill]

When I had that terrible "cold/flu" the beginning of the year that I couldn't seem to get rid of, I tried ivermectin - it knock it out. Took it for I ~think 2 weeks and that bug never returned (and it was before).

 

[Finnie]

We had a warm up in our weather today too, finally. 45 feels wonderful after all those days of windy bitter freezing cold!

Can you tell the doctor that you’re sick and want to be tested for ehrlichiosis? Or did that have to be done shortly after the exposure?

It seems only right that if you are paying for lab tests, they should let you have the ones you want.

I hope you feel better soon.