not about snow and cold

First of all, I should say I didn't watch the superbowl, only because the sport does not interest me at all. I didn't even watch the halftime show, because I couldn't be bothered to find out what time it was going to happen and knew there would be endless clips all over the internet for the foreseeable future. I do know that  Benito got rave reviews to which I say, well done him and a big "bien!" which was said with great gusto years ago when I asked the gardener at the Institute of Tropical Forestry how he was doing that morning. "Bien!"

Anyway, all that is to say I'm passing along a little YouTube video about an ad which was apparently aired during the game this year. An ad promoting a product to help find lost dogs.

Even if you have no dogs, this is something that might interest you. It certainly caught my attention.

The Very Dystopian Dog Super Bowl Ad

 I try not to soapbox on this blog at all, but this is a Public Service Announcement. It's just a 2-minute video. I hope the link works!

We will soon return to our regularly scheduled programming: the Cold and Snow Report.

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sunny morning

It was 8F when I came in at 11 this morning. But sunny! Let's focus on that!

It will surprise no one to hear that we've had a few more inches of snow. It hasn't made any difference in terms of chores, which are very much sled-based. I had a doctor's appointment last week and was a bit surprised that I hadn't lost weight since my previous visit. Perhaps fat has turned to muscle? Sled-pulling, bale-heaving, chaffhaye-dragging muscle? That could only be a good thing.

This is the corner where the house meets the porch, and the final morning chore is topping up the bird feeders here. The wilds have been going through roughly three times the usual amount of seed, and I'm just happy to have stocked up in the Autumn. I had a feeling we were going to have A Winter this year, but I never imagined such an unrelieved period of intense, even brutal, cold. I keep telling the hens and the goats: "It won't last forever." Here's hoping it changes in a milder direction.

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ongoing

 

Azalea with a frosty muzzle.

Barncam snap taken a few minutes ago.

6F.

Halfway to the barn.

Lily helping fetch in the hay.

By getting between me and the sled.

Someday I will post photographs that don't feature snow.

Can't say when, but someday.

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stovewood

After morning barn chores each day, it's time to fetch in more wood for the stove.

Got to the bottom of the first pallet this week.

Started on the second pallet:

Every morning I load up the smaller cargo sled.

It's enough stovewood for one day.

The next step is pulling the sled around to the portico and unloading it stick by stick into a log tote. It usually takes five or six trips with the tote to empty the sled. Since I can't walk through my house wearing cleats, the boots and gaiters have to come off before I can carry a tote through the kitchen to the parlor.

And there's another warm day and night for Moxie and Della and me

 and the water lines (so far, fingers crossed).

How are your mornings going?

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one more time

We had more hours and inches of snow yesterday, but the forecast is for flurries only for the rest of the week. So just one more roof-edge snap of the total accumulation:

I've been trying to persuade Violet, one of my two oldest goats, to wear a coat - made from my old fleece coat - at least at night in this ongoing extremely cold weather. So far I am having limited success. She has been patient about fittings only up til the moment when a girth strap of soft fleece goes around her rib cage, and then she says NO THANK YOU GO AWAY and we have to negotiate every time. I am persisting because I am worried about her, and one night last week I got out of bed and shuffled along the ice-path to the barn because I saw on the barncam that the coat had shifted around and was bunched up and Violet was looked justifiably unhappy. The design modifications have been ongoing; during evening chores tonight I was out there with a needle and thread making on-the-spot adjustments by the light of my headlamp, with Mallow as spellbound audience. The temp is dropping into negative degrees again tonight, so fingers crossed the coat stays in place this time and Violet enjoys the warmth.

Remember when I used to make little fleece coats for the babies who were born during very cold weather? I distinctly remember kneeling on the hard cold ground in the original paddock, cutting up fleece scarfs and designing on the spot. Very quickly, very simply. Turns out cobbling together a coat to fit a 120 pound doe is a little more complicated. Who knew?

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