Rather Nippy!

I awoke this morning long before daybreak.  The Little Bayou House suddenly felt a bit chilly so I knew that the wood stoves were out of wood.  Brrrr!  It was a tad cold!  The thermometer read 27 degrees!  Better get those fires ablazing!  After stoking the coals and adding a good bit of logs, it immediately began to feel warmer.  Now what?  I headed to the pier in the pitch black.  No use in waking up everyone else at such an hour.  This trip was made alone as the old dog found her bed too snug.  As she ages, it is getting harder and harder to convince her to make the treks in winter.  The first step out the door almost made me think she had the right idea!  It really was cold and that slight north wind was biting.  Needless to say, I did not linger on the wide open pier.  Perhaps a hike around the marsh edge would prove to be easier.  At one point, I came across a heron perched upon the remnants of an old pier.  Ha!  He looked as cold as me!  I had no intentions of bothering the bird but my walking startled a raccoon that scurried into the marsh.  In turn, the raccoon startled the heron.  The bird tried to make a hasty retreat but was thwarted in its attempt.  At first glance, I thought the poor bird had injured a wing but closer inspection proved otherwise.  During the night, the bird's feet had frozen to the wet board!  The bird sort of flopped a bit before its feet were released from their icy shackles and away through the Bayou he flew.  Ok, so that means it was too cold for me!

Watching the bird with his problems jogged a memory of being back on the farm.  There were a few times during my childhood that I remember the same thing happening to the poor chickens.  We had several large chicken houses with wooden pole roosts.  There was a few occasions where the temperatures dropped and the birds' feet froze to the roosts.  Early in the morning, Pop would find a couple of hapless birds hanging helplessly from the roosts.  Their wings would be flapping wildly as they hung beneath the roost.  He tried hanging heat lamps in the houses but if the chickens could reach them, they would peck at the bulbs and inevitably break the glass.  It took some doing to construct a chicken-proof heat system back in the day!  Those cold nights might also see a number of the baby pigs losing their tails.  If any sow had her litter before the last freeze, those cute little curly tails would not survive.  I guess pigs are not the snuggliest of critters.  The little ones would try hard to snuggle up to the warm mama but those little behinds would never be completely protected.  Life was not easy on the farm back in the day.  Barns, chicken houses and other out buildings were not heated.  My goodness!! Even the old farm house was not heated other than two fireplaces and one of those smoked incessantly!

Well, for that matter, the Little Bayou House depends on those wood stoves to warm it.  If I am negligent in stoking the fires, it gets quite chilly at times. And with that, I better gather another armload of wood!  It is going to be another cold night on the Bayou!