Wind

The sun showed back up today and brought with her, the wind. I was wishing I had been more specific with my request for the sun. This afternoon, I was out working around the chicken houses when the alarm went off. Soon I was bombarded with calls from Rodney, who had gone to Mena to pick up the tractor, wanting to know what was going on. The alarm calls Rodney's phone first and then if he isn't around, he calls me. Anyway, the alarm was directing us to the #4 house, so when I showed up over there, I immediately went to the computer to check the alarm log. There, flasing on the screen, low temp alarm! So I stuck my head in the door and to my shock and dismay, tunnel fans were running, the cool cell doors were open, all of the vent doors were open and every brooder was burning wide open. I ran back to the gas tank outside and it was whistling with the force of so much gas running into the chicken house trying to heat it up while fans were sucking cold air in. I started to run around like a crazy person...save the gas, save the gas! I must have run 5 miles around that chicken house, back and forth from door to door in my big ol rubber boots and baggy sweat pants, which kept falling down, trying to get things together so that the precious gas would stop pouring out of the tank. After I calmed down, talked to Rodney about 10 times on the phone trying to figure out what the problem was...I got the vents and cool cell doors closed and somewhat calmed the running of the gas. The whole problem was caused by the wind which had blown the louvers off of one of the tunnel fans causing a static pressure problem and sending the house into survival mode. Anyway, this was quite an adventure for this farm girl and I learned a little bit more about chicken farming. I was also very glad that I didn't care much what my hair looked like because what the wind didn't dishevel, I managed to mess up in the throws of my panic attack. Rodney has told me on many occasions that "this isn't a job, it's an adventure", I think I had my share today