Crow’s Nest: Working with the weather

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager.

These aren’t the easy days of spring, summer and fall. I enjoy those days while they are here knowing that it won’t always be like that. But winter brings its own beauty. The preserve is open and walkways cleared.

We’ve spent the week focused on freezing pipes and making sure our calves are comfortable. Among the pipes that froze are the ones that are used to fill the heated cattle water trough. So we’re trucking in water from elsewhere on the preserve, an easy enough solution.

The calves have woolly coats and will be healthier outdoors than in a barn though they have a shelter with deep straw bedding. We’re feeding them extra hay and grain to give them more calories.

Spring will be sweeter having had a cold winter.