28 degrees F, playful deer, stuck tractor, drought and fires

We have had morning low temperatures of 28 degrees F for the last two or three days. 

This morning there was a deer family / small herd that were very happy and playing and running around and jumping up on their hind legs out in the pasture, nice to see.  The deer and the dogs have worked things out, the dogs won't bother them as long as they stay at least 100 yards or so from the house. 

I'm not sure if I have written about the drought yet, but we are in a serious drought.  This is the driest it has been since I have lived in TN (since 2001) and the driest according to the news for perhaps 30 or 40 years. 

Today is an air quality alert day, smoky haze from various wildfires, we have had these air quality alerts now for about a week. 

I took advantage of the dry weather to continue work on a wildlife pond on the farm, over a few decades it had filled up with a lot of dirt.  I am in the process of draining and cleaning out this pond.  About two weeks ago I got my tractor stuck in this pond, it was the first time I have ever gotten my tractor stuck.  I thought that it was too dry and I would not get stuck but I was wrong.  The tractor is an 85 HP tractor, 4wd, with ag tires, so it got stuck pretty good.  I left the tractor overnight and thought that freezing temperatures would stiffen up the mud enough so I could get out but it did not work. 

Here is what did work.  Tractor in 4wd, first gear, about 1400 rpm, locked rear differential (front differential is limited slip and works well), forward direction on the hydraulic shuttle (rocking back and forth did not work), continuously steer the front tires back and forth left and right, and finally, for me to bounce up and down (weighting and un-weighting) on the seat of the tractor.  This technique, slowly but surely, inch by inch, allowed the tractor to crawl out of the muck and escape the pond. 

Back to the drought, we have water in a few locations on the farm, upper pond, a little bit still left in the wildlife pond that I'm working on, and the creek.   Normally the springs would be flowing nicely at this time of year but now there is just a very slow seep.  

There has been no rain I think since the summer, forest fires are a problem, and there is no pasture or local hay.  Farmers are having to sell cattle and / or purchase expensive hay from outside our region.

Our pasture should be good to get us through the winter, we typically just graze and don't feed hay, but we really need some rain.

It might be a good idea to try to measure the water level in the well, just to see where things are at this point of the drought.