winter clothes

After seeing the "wind chill" video on this blog  the question comes up,  "How do you survive in that climate"?

The answer for going outside is to dress in multiple layers of clothes.

See this video for clothing for nasty weather.

and the wind chill video again.

 

WIND CHILL WARNING !!!!!

 This site has viewers from places where the concept of wind chill is unknown.

This post is for the followers from
New Zealand
Malaysia
India
South Korea
Philippines
Saudi Arabia
The first and most important thing about our weather in January is that "it is a MINUS or NEGATIVE sign in front of the temperature number.  -32 C" Most of you know what + 32 C is, as it is what you experience in your climate. Water will freeze at 0 C and then you reduce the temperature another     32 C from 0 C  to get to      - 32 C. This is a difference of 64 degrees C.

-32°C

Feels like -47 C  

NW 25km/h

Wind
 The next important fact about our weather is the concept of wind chill.
Notice in the little caption above that it says"feels like  -47 C".
You may be wondering"how did they know that" or "what do they mean by that"?
Wind chill is "the rate of cooling, not just a temperature".

For example,
"Why do you blow on a bowl of hot soup"? 
To cool it faster.
The soup has energy in the form of heat, and by blowing on it , you are accelerating the rate that the heat energy is mixed into the air.

Now imagine that you are "the bowl of soup". Your body has energy in the form of heat. The wind blowing across your body is removing the heat energy of your body at an accelerated rate. That is why it feels even colder than the temperature as read on the thermometer.

Have some fun and play around on the wind chill calculator on this link.

http://www.ec.gc.ca/meteo-weather/default.asp?lang=En&n=0F42F92D-1

and a greater explenation can be found at 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_chill 

feeding inside barn

-33°C

Feels like -48

NW 24km/h

Wind

09:14

Sunrise

17:10

Sunset

Now they spend much more time in the barn.

They still get water and minerals outside in the corrals

feeder moved inside barn

I have moved the bale feeder inside to keep the sheep in the barn and out of the cold. My concern is for the newborn lambs born wet in cold weather.

After more than a month of watching the habits of the sheep, I am concerned  that our sheep are not concerned  about the cold temperatures we experienced in December.  

This is bad news for the new lambs that will be born in late January and February.

Our sheep have no interest in the shelter of our barn.

The sheep use the doorway as a scratching post and block the other sheep from entering the barn.

Its time to change the routine and feed them in the barn, and only give them access to a much smaller corral.

This will also allow us to separate those early mothers from the later birthing ewes.