As I left work and began my drive home, it was cold and windy. After all, we’ve been spoiled by an unusually warm winter. As I got close to home, I began seeing a few snowflakes. By the time I got to my gravel road it was snowing pretty good.
I’m not complaining about the cold or snow, but I really could live without the winds. When I did chores last night it was still fairly warm (just near the freezing mark) if you could get out of the wind. I was a little concerned about the recent changes in the goat groupings. With the warm weather, everyone was still sleeping outside.
This morning, I discovered that some naughty goat or two wouldn’t let Litha inside. Poor girl. I let her in with a different group. I still am concerned about a couple of other girls. Vixen is usually plastered to her Maa’s side, and she’s not very assertive without Cutie to back her up. Cutie, however, is not getting near a buck, so Vixen is on her own.
Vixen Osboer
I did make sure she had hay in the Quonset hut, and she seemed quite grateful. There really is plenty of room for everyone, but the snow and cold seems to bring out the cranky in the goats. I confess, it’s not fun to do chores in this weather with all those goats thinking they are starving to death. They have these little personality conflicts. They all want to be in the big main barn. Muffin is the only goat in this building that will comfortably house six or seven.
Muffin Jane Osboer
The other one that I am concerned about is little Clover. I can’t have her with her Maa because I don’t want her with a big buck. She was wanting me to give her some hay outside tonight, but she did go in and eat with everyone else.
Clover Blackboer
I was only about half way through chores when I had to go back to the house because I thought I was going to lose my nose and a few fingers. I had to dig and find new gloves. Up until today, I had only been using light cotton gloves or nothing.
Mushu was glad I had to come in for a break because he thought he’d spent enough time outside. After all, he’d started shedding his undercoat. I think he’s regretting that now.
Mushu
I finished feeding the goats, and I figured I should check on the cows. Because of the howling winds, Maxine didn’t hear me coming, and I about scared the poor girl to death. She took off on a dead run, and it took her a minute to calm down.
Maxine
I was happy to see that the cattle tank was still thawed. They still have plenty of hay. It’s important for me to check this because it is possible for them to move the stack feeder (those portable fence sections) and get stuck in it. I think MJ just reaches over the top and keeps it close to the stack of hay. I’ll open it so that they don’t have to reach through pretty soon. I’d rather waste some hay than have someone hurt or killed.
By the time I came in from doing chores, the temperature was 10* F (-12*C). That’s quite a change.
It is beautiful, but a bit more gradual shift into real winter weather would have been nice.
Linking to Farmgirl Friday.
Linking to Friday’s Fences.
Teresa
