same task different morning

 Breakfast hay delivery, Sunday:

This cart was the hurried replacement when my lovely little green one got crushed last April.

Breakfast hay delivery, Tuesday:

This is my 4th hay sled, bought on sale at the end of hunting season. Finally a sled long enough and deep enough to hold a hay bale without tipping over between the roundtop and the paddocks. Huzzah!

I was up at 2 this morning - nothing was wrong; this is typical - and happened to check the thermometer outside the back door. -2F. 

Again at 4AM: minus 4.

The forecast is for a continuous drop til 8 AM, then a gradual creeping up above 0. The 8 inches of powder we got on Sunday night has settled a bit but hasn't lost much by way of melting. The sled will be getting a workout twice daily for a while, I think.

In case you're wondering what happened to Monday's hay, fear not; it was delivered to the goats but I didn't go back in the house for the camera. Which reminds me: does anyone have a recommendation for a good pocket digital camera? Please? I've been hemming and hawing about this since 2023, when I had budgeted for a replacement camera but then had to suddenly spend thousands on my water system. Goodbye, replacement camera. Hello, running water!

Before my current camera - which has been partially held together with tape since 2022, is having focus and metering issues, and can't be used during chores because it won't fit in a pocket - I had two little Canons with fine image quality, excellent macro, and surprisingly powerful zoom capabilities. I'd like those features again, but perhaps because the market has shifted dramatically due to increasingly good cellphone cameras, the good pocket digitals have become more expensive than I expected. (Of course this may just be my advanced years talking. These days the voice in my Shopping head often sounds very like my Dad, who always compared the price for a replacement item with the price paid for a predecessor, sometimes decades earlier.) Anyway, please share any suggestions for a pocket camera, because I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and invest in a new one. Thanks!

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