He immediately began to pack up. After all it was beer o’clock and getting dark.
Sadly the weather was not on our side and we were unable to have the Friday drink out on the dance floor of the coupe, instead we sat inside by the fire. The Matriarch said maybe next Friday. I told The Kiwi Builder to invite his whole family next time. His children are all home schooled so they will call it a field day. 
The strong cold wind howled all day, and no-one would come out of the barn and into the sun for a photo. I found L’il Puss The Scrapper (one of the barn cats) guarding the milk bucket, and managed a low light shot but every one else had their heads down. They all hate the wind.
So both my photographic plans were thwarted.
Good morning. We will try for the last of the shots today and then new shots will happen and who knows what will come next. It is hilarious to even try to plan what images will appear on any given day.
So, in the barn are three kittens. Author who is a female tabby, LouLou who is the wee ginger male and L’il Puss The Scrapper who is older, was discovered hiding in the hairdresser’s back room in town and is now the boss of the barn. Cats are important for keeping the rodent population down in the barn. Where there is feed, there are mice. Hence the cats. The kittens literally sit under Daisy and wait for their milk in the morning. Before Daisy moves out of the milking parlour she puts her head down very low, hoovering from side to side and kind of scoops any strays out of the way with her nose.
I hope you all have a lovely day. It will be warmer here (in the low 40′s I think), so the hoses will come out and all the water containers will be cleaned and refilled in preparation for the next cold snap which they say will be very cold this time.
celi
Oh, I do hope your winds calm down…we’re having quite the Bendy Tree day ourselves…
At least it’s warm. Sort of…
Good progress on the Coupe!
when our bendy tree wind stops it will swing to the north.. so at least it is drying out the pens a little.. c
Horrid wind. It is bitter cold here, but most of the snow has gone, leaving some very slippery surfaces. I love the thought of Daisy taking care not to step on the kittens.
Have a good day,
love,
ViVx
I am always amazed that she has not trodden on one with her great big hooves, they seem to have no fear of her.. c
good morn C; sorry bout the winds, maybee the animals will be better later so you can finish part 3 have a blessed day saints
today is looking warmer, so am hopethey will all find photogenic corners to sunbathe in.. c
What a bother with the weather getting in the way of your plans C.
Mandy xo
Have a happy day.
yup, there is nothing like a howling freezing sou’wester to drive you indoors.. c
Shame the champagne got postponed – better luck next week
AND The Matriarch tried to tell me maybe we could drink it anyway and then buy another bottle for next week! But no, maybe we will have Two next week! c
I love the image of Daisy clearing away the felines. Make way for the mother ship!
I can just hear you!! awesome.. morning siobhan.. c
But “there’s always next time;” one of your philosophies, I think, and a reason you don’t get discouraged when a plan goes awry.
we have that same wind today. it was howling last night! and oh boy..the cold is on it’s way for both of us! change that champagne to a hot toddy!
yes we are both going to be cold tomorrow morning,, extra layer of woolies i think.. c
Snow here. No wind. Temp around 0C. P and I shovel snow from the pavement every morning so we don’t fall and break our necks or some other bone that we require to stand erect. I apparently haven’t used those snow-shovelling muscles for a while because my abs ache.
There’s a new show on telly about farming, which is very interesting. I didn’t know that so many lambs were born dead or die soon after birth. Do you know why this is?
I think that the last one we lost was because she was so busy giving birth to the next one that she did not clear his mouth fast enough, they are often born with the bag intact and you need to clear it away from their mouths or they are effectively suffocated. This is my theory anyway. Both times I have lost a lamb he has been the firstborn and big and had not taken one breath. Or like Meadow she was just too weak to stand up and drink, if it had been a very cold day and I had not been there she would have died too. Sometimes I wish i could watch such shows too. Lots of learning there.. c
A couple of them died in the womb, several afterwards (within hours or days), and one lost the ewe and 2 lambs. Can you view the program from this link? http://www.channel4.com/programmes/first-time-farmers
I will have a go later on, i do not have a very wide broadband as you know.. can’t even watch utube,,c
Raining here! Watching the Black Caps and the Boks on TV (playing in the sunny Cape). Hope your ‘warm’ weather stays for awhile
Laura
It will be here most of the day I think.. already well into the chores. Everything is easier when we get a warm day.. c
I, too, love the mental image of Daisy shooing the little rascals away so that she can go about her business. You have such a gift.
I was just telling my husband how I love to hear your farm stories every morning.
I just read him the part about how Daisy is so sweet that she carefully sweeps the kittens away so she won’t hurt them when she moves. So much goes on in a farm that we really never considered. The main thing, the relationships between the animals. Thank you for another peek into the farmy this morning! xoxo ~ April
Like a mine sweeper, i could not remember that while I was writing this morning, but she sways her large head back and forth at ground level as she walks forward, like a mine sweeper! Little fluffy mines!! c
I’m in love with L’il Puss The Scrapper. Handsome. Purposeful. Very photogenic. What’s not to adore?
And a very good mouser! All good! c
So glad I found your blog. It keeps me rooted in how I grew up and what farms were like before corporate farming. Have a great day, C. Here in Georgia we had a thick frost to greet us, but the sun is now shining and it is a cold and beautiful Saturday.
Morning sabra, lovely to hear from you again.. i hope things are going well in georgia.. c
Wild winds and arctic cold, exactly what they say we can expect shortly also, but it does sound so nice..the thought of drinks by the fire!
Mornin’, c. Our cold snap arrived last night, when the temperatures dropped within hours from the melty plusses to the bone-chilling -20′s with windchill. This confuses my daughter, the scientist. “How is this POSSIBLE!” she demands, with her best six-year-old authority. I tell her that we live in Alberta – this is what the weather does, here – but more so recently, since humans are working so hard on breaking the weather. She has vowed to fix it. Sweet girl
she will fix it too.. it is all about letting the earth take over again, obey the balance! sweet girl indeed,, though the ability for the weather to plummet is an old one! c
Weather can ruin the best of plans, can’t it? But it seems the Plan B fireplace side drink was quite enjoyable. Wind chills in the minus 25 to 30 range here in Minnesota today with sub-zero air temps moving in.
and you often send your weather to us afterwards, well oh dear, try and use up some of that cold for me, that sounds formidable.. c
That shot of Lil Scrapper is lovely. The low light makes it even better. I wish we could send you our high-pressure system, to give you all some warmth. Good luck with the increasing cold.
Oh Dog! I bet those kitties are happy in that barn! I would be happy running outside in that cold air!
I agree: a great shot of The Scrapper: he looks positively Rembrandtesque!
Does beer freeze in those temperatures? I can recommend a hot steaming spicy punch to warm the cockles!!!!!
Too bad you didn’t have a chance to christen the coupe properly. It’s a wonder that you could even consider such a thing in January. Our weather sure is a mess! I hope you can conduct your coupe get-together on Friday. It will mean the cold spell that’s coming is short-lived. Sounds like it’s going to be awfully cold! Today’s a good day, though. I hope you can enjoy it.
Celi, you’ve stopped taking photos of the thermometer – I’m sorry to be asking if you already mentioned that and I’ve missed it? It sounds very cold indeed – over here we’ve just had Sydney’s hottest day ever – 46C. It was like stepping outside into a hairdryer. I love that you have a Kiwi builder who knows what beer o’clock means..
xx
Celia has stolen part of my comment, while I was distracted by and was commenting on her bread making post! It’s incredible to see it so cold & windy, (I hate the wind) when we apparently had the hottest day on record, eve hotter that a week or so ago in Sydney. (Both of which I missed. For the first I was away up the coast where it was also very hot for a few days, and Friday I was in the office from 7.30am to 6pm… ) And yes also, beer o’clock is common in Aussie usage, and Kiwi I gather now. Is it common in the U.S. or universally I wonder? This post is the culimination of my review of the last few weeks of your posts while I’ve been away, wondering what’s happening on the farmy, seeing only snippets on my email post lists & phone having little internet coverage, and it’s been wonderful catching up. I’ve loved seeing the cats, Daisy well again, Ton Ton & Big Dog, the magnificent Kupa to name just a few. It’s so good to be back, at least from a WordPress point of view
Having a lovely warm spell here…which I’m sure will head into the heartland sometime after it leaves us. Makes for doing chores ever so lovely. All the animals and I are delighted, the chickens fores sure are they are able to escape the coop run and bath in my garden.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
Celi, it is going to be a delight following the building of the coupe. Have a wonderful and hopefully warm week-end. V.
The cats quite literally know where their next meal comes from! How smart they are!
I hope the opportunity to sit and enjoy the beautiful bones of the new abode will come soon. It does sound just a wee bit nippy to me for outdoor much-of-anything! 
It’s a shame the weather ruined your plans but a dink by the fire still sounds like a lovely idea to me xx
Moving inside to fireside sounds like the right approach to the weather’s howling winds.
EllaDee got ahead of me with her beer o’clock comment: wonder how US and Kiwi beers compare! AND, I woke up at three am and had to put a blanket on: only 16 C that early up here in the Highlands: GLORY BE!! Hot weather to return in 2-3 days, but not high enough for all the Aussies to buy immediate air tickets to roll in the snow at the farmy
! Oh, L’il Scrapper: hmm, ‘guarding’ the milk pail or having little personal extras?
We’re in for a cold snap too : high of -17F/-27C, brrrrr..
We had the winds here fierce at times BF went to detect beach I went to admire Orchids
It was 40′s here but wind cooled it some tomorrow back to the beach for all 3 of us weigh in on Tuesday and football tomorrow night so I better WALK lol
Have a nice Sunday
Sending you some of our rain Miss C………just a little shower for the next couple of days. Then Thursday I think we probably vaporise.
An Ayrshire hoovering the kittens; a sight to behold. Splendid shot of Li’l Puss the Scrapper on guard duty.
I had to smile at the image of the kittens waiting for fresh, warm milk. How sweet of Daisy to be on the lookout for them.
Very nice post to read on a dull, cold and grey morning as I wait for the bathroom to be warm enough to enter. The house was 10C this morning – not as cold as the prairies but cold enough for me. Love the way Daisy hoovers the kittens out of the way:)
Nothing against beer, how could I, but I’ll call it wine o’clock in an hour.
Beer o’clock? That might be my new favorite time of day. Or maybe moscato o’clock.