Enjoying January
This new year has been quite the roller coaster of temperatures. 2018 came in with frigid negative temps reaching windchill lows of -45°. Almost two weeks of this. Crazy how that if temps of -20 really don’t feel so bad when there is no wind. Then two days later we only have -9 or so, but the wind is fierce. The burn is not a good thing. Frostbite is not far away if we don’t be careful.
Chores become painful. In the sense of fingers freezing quickly. Naturally everything is more time consuming. There are so many more things to watch for. Water pails freezing, is the feed bunk full of snow, is there enough bedding, is everything Alive!
Thankfully our frigid temps have been short lived. Well, let’s rephrase this. Thankfully we have gotten a break a few times. We have just come out of a 3 day 40° heatwave. Only to receive a forecast of 8-14″ of snow over the next two days. I must say, the forecast also came with above 0° temps, so I’m good with this.
To help the barnyard out, a cure for cabin fever for the goats and ducks was in order. They were released into the great outdoors for two days.
Now let it be known, the goats are rather tame. In fact, mama Ally has made her escape a few times this last week with babe in tow. The girls just hang around the barn area, and will come running when they see a human. I have received a text or two asking what in the world was going on. “How were they out” we asked ourselves. If you have goats, you know only to well. All goats are blessed with the spirit of Houdini.
The last two days have done them well. And the animal instinct must be kicking in as well. My girls were ready to get back to the barn tonight as soon as I opened up the gate.
Now the ducks on the otherhand. Oh these feathered fowl have been quite stubborn with the lock-up. The initial lock-up for my water birds happened only right before Christmas. They refused to go in. They spent a few flurries outdoors. I worried until morning, going out to count and make sure all were well. Finally, they must have had enough and allowed themselves to be herded in.
So for our heatwave barnyard party, I did have some concern with letting them out again knowing it was short lived. All in all, it was an easy round up.
Now we wait for the massive snow forecast to dump on us and we tackle the daily chores on the farmstead.
