Ready for Some Cold Weather

We have had a fairly mild winter so far but things are getting exciting. We had rain all night while the temperature hovered around 40 degrees. It has dropped throughout the day and is now in the 20's. We are expecting to be in single digits tomorrow. Now, compared to other parts of the country where the weather has been just ridiculous, we are doing fine but we still do a lot of extra work to prepare for weather extremes.

We have an excellent hay man who does a great job keeping us in very nice hay. Al picked up another four round bales over the weekend. When he unloaded the trailer he intentionally lined them up as an extra windbreak for some of the sheep. We make sure everyone has plenty of clean hay since a full belly is like a little furnace running as digestion produces heat for the ruminants. This little Shetland is obviously enjoying the lunch selection.

When I was out at noon to feed the dogs and gather the first of the day's eggs I noticed that a lot of the animals had not yet seen the weather forecast. They were enjoying a brisk sunny day. I guess they were letting me do the worrying for them.

The free range chickens, however, were not too enthused.  They preferred not to "range" today but hung out in various buildings around the farm.  Fortunately we have plenty of warm spots out of the wind for them to spend the next few days in & they love snacking at the seeds that fall off of the hay. The wind has picked up through the day.  I spent time down close to the ground feeling for spots where the wind was blowing into the old barn & filling them with hay.

The cold is not predicted to last long but we want everyone to be as comfortable as possible through the next few days.  And I believe I'll have to gather eggs a bit more frequently throughout the day tomorrow to prevent any frozen ones!