Better Weather

Well, we’ve settled into a bit more normal winter weather now.  At least the winds have somewhat died down and it’s reasonable–cold but not frigid.  We’ll take it.

Maybeline and Skittles back out in pasture

The bucks, both the big and the little were out in their paddocks.

Donkey and Gabe

Greg and Kong

Although, the rest of the goats are still pretty adamant that I need to provide room service because they are too delicate to have to go out to pasture.

That’s as far out to pasture as they made it.

Daisy

Melba

Pretzel

demanding food (it was not time to eat)

I can’t argue about that, but they are not getting grain every time I walk through the door like they think they should.

My Pretties

It’s hard to go out and spend time with the goats and take pictures when the weather is as bad as we’ve had the last few days.

I even had to shut the Morton building door to keep Wanda warm.

So today, you get some of my plants.  The Thanksgiving cactus is blooming. I’m still having a hard time keeping it healthy, so I’m starting to think its problem is a virus.  There’s nothing I can do about that.

Thanksgiving cactus

My Amaryllis that I put in the refrigerator to make it go dormant so I could try to force it to bloom for Christmas is looking awesome.  Lots of leaves, but no flower.  And then, I noticed it looks like it does have a flower starting to form.  Maybe it will bloom for Valentine’s Day.

Amaryllis

I need to do some work on some of them.  My little jade plant has really taken off. It’s so top heavy that it needs a bigger pot.  I also threw a couple of Easter cactus leaves in there that have grown, so I need to move them out as well.

I just repotted this succulent.  I think I shared that one of the leaves I knocked off while repotting rooted.  It’s growing like crazy, and I have another one that seems to want to start.

So I need to repot and put this new one in its own pot as well.  I actually have a friend to whom I will gift it.

And I have several jars of plants that I started and now I need to pot them and give most of them away as well.

propagation jars

I’m also excited to see that the Thai Constellation Monstera is getting a new leaf!  It is a much slower grower than the plain monstera.

Here are a couple of cats.

Herbie

Miss Thing Two

Because they are also all pretty.  Hopefully, our weather will mellow out a bit and let me get outside to spend time with the goats and llamas before I have to go back to work.

Winter Is Back

Sunday was a day of transition from rain and gloom to winter again.  Our high temperature came at midnight and was about 40° F.  Over the course of the day the temperature kept dropping.  Our gloom and rain that started the day ended up turning to sleet and freezing and snow.

snowing

Then my phone showed that we had a snow squall warning.  The roads were icy.

The winds were horrible.  They were sustained at about 30 mph with gusts over 50 mph.

we had white conditions on the roads

That’s when I remembered I had not picked up the food pans from the afternoon before, so I went out to get them.

that was the rain from the overnight that was frozen in them

I’m not sure this is an improvement from the mud and gloom because now it’s ice on the patio.

Sky trying to walk on ice

That’s also when I discovered that my door to the milk room was frozen shut.  I had to climb the icy gate and go in another door.

not raindrops–ice drops

Of course, the goats thought I should feed them.

begging for food

In hindsight, I probably should have because by the time I went out to do chores, we were in double digit below zero wind chills, and they didn’t even think of coming out for grain at that time.

high tailing it back to the barn

By this morning, we’d lost about thirty-five degrees and still had dangerous wind chills.

some cold sun this morning

But at least I saw the sun for a few minutes.