There was a big thunderstorm that came through upstate NY on Monday. Just after closing up the coop for the night, I thought I heard a very close lightning strike. Then my husband casually mentioned that he thought a neighbor was burning something. Turns out there were power lines down on my driveway and up through the neighbor’s property setting nearby vegetation on fire. Called 991 and the fire department came, but they couldn’t get the utility guys out to shut the line down. I was told to keep an eye on the lines, so I got to watch burning, buzzing downed lines for over 24h – goodbye sleep!
The utility guys finally arrived Tuesday night, so I went to sleep happy, thinking they had the situation in hand. What they actually did was cut MY power while leaving the downed lines sizzling away. That took out my heating with below freezing temperatures outside and they didn’t come back for yet another whole day. Temperatures inside dropped enough that I got worried the pipes might start freezing (fortunately they didn't). Of course, a big snow storm also rolled in that afternoon, hiding the whole power line mess under a good 6-8 inches to make the utility folks' jobs extra fun when they came back.
Other than chickens, I have a dog, a parrot, and couple of aquariums. The dog was fine with the cold but went insane after realizing there would be no afternoon walk in a blizzard. I was originally most worried about the parrot, who I put in a travel cage inside a blanket fort. He was fine even at the coldest point and just told me to get out of his blanket fort whenever I checked on him. The aquariums ended up being the more problematic case because of how long the outage was; water loses heat a lot more slowly than air, but a whole day is a long time. One fish eventually started to conk out from the cold, so I put him in a little container of water, and used my body heat to help him wake up and hang on until the outage ended and I could get him back in warm water. I don’t know how chickens do this with eggs in the cold; it felt like it I was holding a block of ice the whole time even though the water did warm up quite a bit according to a thermometer.
Meanwhile, my chickens were just chickening it up outside as usual. They were far enough away from the lines they were completely safe, but surely they could see some of the mess. I guess they just didn't care. So I’d go check from a distance on how the power lines were progressing with cooking various plants, then go back to the coop to check on the chickens and get invited to come sit down in the chair in the run like nothing was going on. It’s a good chair, come sit in it – here I’ll hop on it and show you how nice it is. No don’t worry about that other stuff just come sit here and receive chickens. What a weird few days.
The utility guys finally arrived Tuesday night, so I went to sleep happy, thinking they had the situation in hand. What they actually did was cut MY power while leaving the downed lines sizzling away. That took out my heating with below freezing temperatures outside and they didn’t come back for yet another whole day. Temperatures inside dropped enough that I got worried the pipes might start freezing (fortunately they didn't). Of course, a big snow storm also rolled in that afternoon, hiding the whole power line mess under a good 6-8 inches to make the utility folks' jobs extra fun when they came back.
Other than chickens, I have a dog, a parrot, and couple of aquariums. The dog was fine with the cold but went insane after realizing there would be no afternoon walk in a blizzard. I was originally most worried about the parrot, who I put in a travel cage inside a blanket fort. He was fine even at the coldest point and just told me to get out of his blanket fort whenever I checked on him. The aquariums ended up being the more problematic case because of how long the outage was; water loses heat a lot more slowly than air, but a whole day is a long time. One fish eventually started to conk out from the cold, so I put him in a little container of water, and used my body heat to help him wake up and hang on until the outage ended and I could get him back in warm water. I don’t know how chickens do this with eggs in the cold; it felt like it I was holding a block of ice the whole time even though the water did warm up quite a bit according to a thermometer.
Meanwhile, my chickens were just chickening it up outside as usual. They were far enough away from the lines they were completely safe, but surely they could see some of the mess. I guess they just didn't care. So I’d go check from a distance on how the power lines were progressing with cooking various plants, then go back to the coop to check on the chickens and get invited to come sit down in the chair in the run like nothing was going on. It’s a good chair, come sit in it – here I’ll hop on it and show you how nice it is. No don’t worry about that other stuff just come sit here and receive chickens. What a weird few days.
