Ok, We Get it. It's Still Winter.

Geez. I didn't realize that my premature spring-like post would anger the cold weather Gods. But seriously, did my comment really merit this 16 degree nonsense plus the blustery winds? I get it! It's still winter! You win.

The cold weather truly doesn't bother us too much since it's always nicely broken up by random days with 80 degree temps and humidity. So I can handle it. What really drives us crazy is the additional worry it causes for the livestock creatures we are supposed to keep alive. The frigid temps require daily (twice daily, probably) trips to the land to break up frozen water troughs and count animal heads. And those trips are just another obnoxious reminder that we STILL don't live out there. Today, the neighbor's pipes that we use for the water trough were frozen solid. There was absolutely no turning that baby back on to fill up the trough, which we had disconnected. This means that only one third of the water remained, half of which was a sheet of ice. Even the pond was half frozen, with evidence that it would mostly be ice by tomorrow morning. Since the donkeys refuse to drink from the pond, I need to devise a sneaky plan to haul water out there for the trough and keep it warm (without electricity, mind you). Any ideas? Anyone?

Hello?

Luckily, my chickens continue to provide the comic relief needed in these sorts of situations. Our hens approach everything with complete fascination, curiosity and bravery so when their kiddie pool of water froze over, the girls each climbed right on in and skated across. Because hey, if you can't drink the water, then you may as well skate on it - right? They've really got the lemons into lemonade ideology down pat.

Even though for us it's just a few really rough days, overall it's been a cold, cold winter. Winter. Not Spring. I won't make that mistake again.