A Cold Cold Day

A lot can happen in a day, and today that was definitely the case. Bitter winds blowing, and the mercury falling like someone took the bottom out of it - I was in for a lot of water hauling. The sunshine can be so deceiving. I expected a break in the cold weather, but no, not today. Stepping outside I had to give the door an extra shove to get it open, since it was froze to the door frame. Then my first intake of frigid air outside I practically choked, the vapours from my breath freezing before it was out of my throat. When I got out to the garden shed to give my rabbits fresh, not frozen water, the first thing I saw was a big ol' rat in my trap. About a quarter inch away from the prize, he didnt even get a taste of that peanut butter. So gathering my wits, with shovel far extended, I set him outside to deal with later. I got all the critters looked after, and I proceeded to de-trap the rat. Not so easy though. He was froze right into the bar. Ill just interject a side note here, I HATE RATS. I hate seeing rats, and I really hate having to go anywhere near them. Dont ask me to touch a rat! So I mentioned, the rat was froze very solidly to the trap. My equipment involved here was a long stick, a garden trowel and my boot. Without touching the rat with anything important to me, I tried to finagle him loose but I couldnt. So I soaked him good with warm water, and finally got him pried off. Again, with shovel far extended, I fired him over the fence as far as that frozen rat would fly. I re-set the trap, contaminating my gloves with rat residue. Now Im down a pair of mitts, goodness knows how to sanitize leather mitts... So the score sits at this: Rats - 4 stikes (strikes including: destroying my potato crop, and 3 disturbing rat sightings), Farmer - 2 strikes (strikes including 2 very dead, very frozen rats). Rats will not prevail!
Just so you can see what Im totally hating (bear in mind that this is a rat trap, not a mouse trap):

On with my day, the chickens regarding nobodies rules, laid 10 eggs for me, which is the max theyve done in a long while. I fought with rabbit waters 4 more times throughout the day. I wouldnt be surprised if the water froze a mere 10 minutes after I replaced it. My deep freeze is significantly warmer than our -33oC weather... At least the house is nice and warm. For supper I made a trial duck to see how we like it. If it was a hit, we'd raise ducks in the summer, if not, no ducks. I started by slitting the skin in a cross hatch pattern, but not deep enough to touch the meat. I stuffed it with an orange halved and 2 garlic cloves. I rubbed it in coarse salt, pepper, orange zest, garlic powder, rosemary, basil, paprika and just a little cinnamon and nutmeg. I roasted it 2 hours at 350oF flipping it on its back halfway through. Then finished it off about 30 minutes at 400oF, flipping it again, and cooking until the skin was nice and crispy. And let me tell you, was duck ever a success!! We loved it, a deliciously succulent dark meat with a flavour packed crispy skin. Ive heard that duck is really greasy, but this meat was not greasy. (Dont bother making gravy out of the drippings though - theyre pure fat). A tasty snack of KFC would be far greasier... Being the success that it was, we'll plan to get some ducklings to raise over the summer. Thats one way to make use of our pond.

Ending off the day, the thermometer in the garden shed says -27oC for my poor cold rabbits, and the chickens are hanging out at -12oF (once again, I am so glad we insulated!)
On days like this I remind myself that spring is coming, like I told my rabbits "this too shall pass!"