I can't imagine living in the North....

[Brunty_Farms]

Really though... you guys on the west coast have it made.

You have the ocean, mountains, forest, deserts, ummm..... great weather year round!! I mean come on what't the worst weather... a bit of rain?

The downfall would be the earthquakes from time to time... but they are no different from the hurricans or blizzards...

 

[Reinbeau]

Quote:
Who says?

Well, that all depends on how high your fences are, doesn't it?

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No way, I'll take hurricanes and blizzards over earthquakes any time.

 

[patandchickens]

Yeah, but there are GOOD things about a northern-style winter:

--no mud, not for long anyhow. Easier to walk on, and easier on animals feet (at least once there is a couple inches of snow on any pointy parts of former mud). I spent six winters in piedmont NC. I *know* about mud. I like this better

--you can shovel snow and it more or less stays where you put it. Rain, in contrast, goes any ol' where.

--you can make things out of snow - snowmen, sledding hills, insulation for coop walls. Rain just makes mud. See #1 above.

--things slide Real Good on snow. Taking bales of shavings out to the barn, or heavy piles of hay out to the horses, or coop cleanings to the compost pile, or whatever, is EVER so much easier when you can just pile 'em on a sled or tarp and pull them along with next to no drag.

Mind, I would prefer to live somewhere that doesn't get as cold as it does here (and this is a *warm* part of Canada, the coldest it's been on our property in six years is -35 C which is, what, -30 F or so?)... and if the winter were *shorter* that'd sure be okay with me too... but on the whole, it has a lot of advantages to help offset the disadvantages.


Pat

 

[possumqueen]

This is one of those win-win threads where everyone gets to be right, and nobody's wrong!

I DO like cooler weather, because reinbeau is right, you can only take off so much to cool off -- heh heh heh

And I DON'T like earthquakes or hurricanes or snow, so I'm here in NC with the hurricanes, that being the weather I mind least.

And Pat's right about the mud -- BOY are you right about the mud, Pat! Especially if it's made of clay! Mind you, I can slide pretty well in wet clay, too, especially if I've landed on my big ol' butt on an incline. I just don't look as good when I get back on my feet!

 

[Uzuri]

I'm with Pat XD You folks have no idea how glad I've been that the mud's all frozen again. I was so sure I was going to end up on my butt in the run -- falling in liquid chicken leavings wouldn't be fun.

Only trouble now is that I think my tractor's parked until spring -- can't break the wheels, they're frozen to the ground

 

[cnjtnt]

Quote:
Who says?

Well, that all depends on how high your fences are, doesn't it?

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No way, I'll take hurricanes and blizzards over earthquakes any time.

Lived in California most of my early years....never experienced an Earthquake. Had a couple Blizzards when I was in New York, and some Tornado warnings in the middle of the country. Now all I got to worry about is Tsunamis and Volcanic eruption. Oh well, I guess you have impending death around every corner. Anyone know if chickens can float on the lahar?

 

[henney penny]

We had a high today of 6,and the wind is blowing so the wind chill is 25 below 0.I closed up all the vent in the coop so not much ventilation but its just to cold to keep them open.Going to be like this for a few more days. Brrrr

 

[TipsyDog]

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Careful - I'm being tempted!

It's 4PM, still light out and the temp is 12*. I just put the second heat lamp out in the coop and it's struggling to keep the temps at 35! The wind is too strong today and I'm hoping it will die down soon. Brrr. I've got some corn cobs here for the girls for dinner so they can keep warm tonight.

 

[ducks4you]

Here's a little history lesson about the US of A. The south took enthusiastically to raising tobacco, which leaches more nutrients out of the soil than any other crop. The next biggest feeder of nutrients is corn, and one the next, is cotton. The further south you went, the warmer, so why stop with only crop per year? By the early 1800's, many southern farmers had destroyed their topsoil base and people went around staring at man-made gullies, sometimes 15 or more feet deep, resulting from bad land stewardship.

In the north, however, needs must rest the soil from the Fall until the Spring, a period of about 1/2 a year. Even if you didn't take good care of your soil, you couldn't abuse it year around. Some expressions, like "snow is the poor man's fertilizer" refer to the good practice of letting the land rest. Our northern cold weather also kills off insects, rots leaves and other vegetation for the next year's crop, and gives us fun winter sports, for us and for our dogs!!!!! It comes upon g r a d u a l l y, so as to let our critters grow a winter coat and fatten up for the season. My horses LOVE to be free of flies--even the Fly Predators let some of them live!! The cats and dogs are tired of fighting fleas, I've HAD it with ladybugs and Japanese Beetles and grubs and tomato worms and grasshoppers and the beetles that my toads didn't eat!!! Nice to have a break from these things.

In the south, you don't think about getting on your layers, doing the morning feeding and...IT'S SATURDAY!!!, and I can take a nap on the sofa or the bed with a warm blanket and warm dog at my feet. Unless there's a blizzard going on, I can layer up and work outside ALL DAY, then have some tomato-basil soup to warm me up. Too cold to mow, or fix things on the outbuildings, or to do any painting, or move the last 8 blocks of cement from the previous, 50 year old cattle fencing--all of those jobs will have to wait.

We in the north local forward to these things.

 

[Akane]

Anyone who says you can just put on more clothes to get warm either really likes clothes or hasn't really been cold. It's not anymore fun to go outside in the cold than it is in the extreme heat. It just takes more effort in an attempt not to freeze to death. 5 layers takes awhile to put on, take off, and then realize you forgot something just as you start to thaw.

I think Iowa loses on everything. Spring floods and mud from melting snow. Summer you have a week of 90-100f which doesn't seem too hot until you figure you've also got maximum humidity. Every year at the July show 1 or 2 horses collapse from the heat. Fall more mud so you wish it would just freeze until the ice storms come and then you wish it would just melt. Winter snow, snow, snow, ice storms, and at least a week of -20 to -30F. Start over with spring. Plus those moments every year of "Yep that's another tornado siren"

, "hey we're under a blizzard warning for the next 2 days. Did anyone buy food so we don't have to live on buttered noodles this time?", and "can I get to Iowa City or did all the bridges flood again?" . However there are few people and there are even fewer poisonous critters. There are some that officially live in the state but to talk to someone who has seen something poisonous they have to spend a good portion of their time outdoors and they've probably only seen one.