Coping with the Cold

I really am a warm weather person. Now in the depths of January with our second cold snap upon us, spring feels like but a distant hope - a tiny light far off at the end of a tunnel. The sheep, goats and rabbits are all snug in their warm coats, like my buddy Lancaster pictured here.

They enjoy the cold weather as evidenced by their spunky energetic behavior. Meanwhile, we are lugging water and my thoughts often stray to the lambs and kids we are expecting in February and hoping for moderate weather when birthing starts. Then there are the other winter events to cope with, like a burst hydrant. The old one cracked in a really weird place during a brief warm spell.

The other casualty was the shovel Gary had to use to dig out the clay and gravel to replace the old hydrant with a new one.

Luckily this at least happened when we both had the day off and the broken shovel can join the other tool heads on which we will someday replace the handles. The new hydrant is installed and we'll be able to use it again once the weather warms up a bit.

Angora Goats Ring in 2014!

The angora goats rang in the new year munching on this year's Christmas tree (after we'd finished with it).

Because the goats are so efficient, they transformed the Christmas tree into a Christmas twig very quickly (in about 3 days).