Cold Weather

It's COLD here! It was -0.8 on Monday, the coldest I'd ever been in. Then it was -8 on Tuesday! It's amazing how much colder it can get than zero. A high of 17 felt positively balmy after that. We got about 3 or 4 inches of snow Tuesday night and our pond is frozen. I've never seen a frozen pond. Mud puddle, yes. Pond, no.

Area schools have been closed due to cold and snow, and today they finally opened on a two hour delay (it was 1F this morning). I think when it gets real cold like that it takes a while to heat up the building and get the buses started. Plus I guess it's safer to have the traffic on the roads after sunrise, when folks can see.

The little rabbits stay mostly underground but the big ones don't care. I go out in the morning at daylight and break the ice out of their water dish and give them water, and they come over to say hello with ice on their whiskers and eyelashes.

The chickens have been locked in their house and they're getting sick and tired of it. Poor things, their house is not insulated and though we've made improvements it's draftier than I'd like. They have frostbite on their combs but seem perky and busy. They're still laying eggs, even. Stoic little buggers.

We're going through firewood at an alarming rate. We're staying toasty warm, though, and discovering which drafts we want to attack next.