Yesterday was almost warm.
I know it doesn’t look terribly warm, and blowing so the snow was washed up into beachy tidal drifts but warm enough so I could spend hours outside preparing the barn and my animals for the deep cold that is forecast.
Though I will believe the weather when I see it. Weather is such Big News that there is a possibility that there is some exaggeration. Last nights radar was telling me an entirely different story.
However last night there was some snow, I am not sure how much yet I will tell you in the comments,more today and soon the temperatures will take a wicked dive pushed under by a strong arctic wind and tonight and tomorrow will be dangerously cold. It is the cold and the wind in tandem that is the worst.
So everyone is eating exceptionally well. The ruminants have a wonderful system of stomachs that enable them to store masses of fermenting grass which I call the stomach compost heap, heating themselves from the inside out. So I am stoking their boilers with extra hay. And making sure they do not run out.
The pigs are also over fed, all diets are on hold, and they have got their beds all sorted out. Sheila spent some time yesterday testing hers out.
i am trying new covers for Sheila. At least when she rips these up they are biodegradable.
The Plonkers were having way too much fun in the snow to come in. The sheep have their North door shut and a belly full of hay and oats. The chickens have their heat lamps, the peahens are perching above the little pigs light and the tracks are all plowed (then the red snow plow truck broke down but there you are.. you can’t have everything!)
The bees will be grateful for the added protection of the insulation (I hope) they still have all their air vents and housekeeping doors.
Hopefully this helps them keep themselves warm when it is so very cold. And I don’t doubt that the cold will come.
The dogs and I had an extra long walk in the afternoon, in a failed attempt to wear out Bad Boo. 
He still had plenty of energy for a little Sweetness. Though Marmalade is growing up. 
Boo tries to entice him into play with his soft toys but Marmalade does not even want to play with the Gorilla. Do you remember when Marmalade Cat was this big?
And now he is a sulky adolescent. Poor Boo Nanny. I know exactly how you feel.
I hope you all have a lovely day. I wonder what today will bring to us?
Your friend on the farmy
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
64 responses to “The Gift of a Day to Prepare for a Storm.”
look how big Marmalade is! oh they just grow so fast and then the growing up part has to catch up! Stay warm dear Miss C. those cold winds can be so vicious to critters and humans alike.
Please be extra careful as this next one passes your way I know we can only do what we can but I have to say this is NUTS! NZ is looking even better lol 🙂 They again that Ring of Fire scares me as I can not prepare for something such as that! Storms headed here with ICE on top of all this snow but he did the roof as all else was completed as we wait on freezing rain. Again stay safe. I know what you mean when you said warm as that is why I walk JT during hours we see it above the horrid mark 🙂
Your photo did look like so many of my ocean shots
HUGS to you and your crew.
Oh, Honey…I so hope that you’re right, and the forecasters wrong…We have one of those ‘gift’ days today, so the Small People can go out and play in the snow before it melts tomorrow. Then we’re back in the deep freeze for a few more days…
Love the photo of Big Dog!
Celi, our big dog who is half Border collie took two years to grow out of his pupish stage. Two years was a long time to wait for the lovely dog that behaves so very well now. 😉
We are going into the deepest of freezes for this part of the country.
The weather here is very cold. Strangely it will be 50 today then drop to 9 overnight. Tomorrows high? 15 and an overnight low of 4. I’m sure this is nothing for you by now, but it is too cold for the deep south. I am worried for my geese’s feet, and the silly guineas who won’t come in to roost, and our pipes under the house. Our water will be running, just a little, on every spigot tonight!
PS: Your clothes pins on the line reminded me of little birds on the wires.
Thinking of you, however, its very hard for me to imagine right now. Just experienced temps up to 39C on our verandah, and we had the fan going all night – even the toothpaste was warm 😦 Joy
Your preparations remind me just a little of getting ready for storm season here. Bottled water and food for 3 days, candles, torches, batteries, radio to listen out for Take Shelter or All Clear. Tape the windows, draw the curtains, bring in the animals. Lots of plastic bags… Flooding knocks out not just power but also water and.. um… sewage… I’m thinking of everyone who will be living through a Big Cold Storm tonight. Stay safe.
I am so glad you mentioned ‘draw curtains’, it seems to something everyone misses! No matter what the crisis i, be it hot, cold, tornadoes, hurricanes I always draw mine. Keeps heat out in summer, cold out in winter, if high winds brake window glass, helps to keep the glass from flying. So handy them ‘curtains’!! Yet they are never mentioned when the experts tell us how to prepare are they?
I don’t even have curtains, not on one window in the house! oops..I cannot bear that closed in feeling, i have to see out, always.. c
Me neither. But we do have roll-down exterior shutters which we close at night if it is particularly (for us!) cold.. I was thinking, reading your post and then the comments, the extraordinary range of environments in which all the Fellowship receives your blog. It makes me appreciate the temperate (quasi) nature of where I live, extreme events moderated by the Gulf Stream from Mexico.
That Marmalade is becoming a handsome teenager, while Boo is probably still a child. The relationship could become difficult.
Keep your spirits up, and wrap up well.
Love,
ViV
Never do I pull a curtain either. I can’t stand to feel trapped and/or closed in —since we live in the middle of fields the prying eyes of others are far, far, away.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
Our temperatures are VERY different in boring Palmerston North, N Z. But I too, cannot bear to have curtains pulled…
Is it a Kiwi thing? Do you think?
It will get super cold here too, low of 2F today and 1F tomorrow. So hoping that everyone here on the farm makes it through the next two days, and then it looks like we’ll be okay for a while. Sending warm thoughts your way! xo
Do you have a heat lamp on your piglets in their safe space?
Shiela’s ears are very sweet. Perhaps I should crochet some floppy covers for them. And Boo/kitty before and after are very touching. As Virginia Woolf entitled Part II of “To the Lighthouse”, “Time passes.” It just does. Happens to us all. Even Boo. Hunker down you lovely farm people (that includes animals) and we will be looking out for you tomorrow.
We’ve been hearing about the snow storms hitting the US – brrrr. fave photo of today is the one of the washing line and pegs – waiting to be put back into use.
So pretty! And I know, so cold. I love that you feed the cows in the trunk ( yeah, “boot” I know ) of an old American car.
John calls it Cow Art! c
wise man, that John
We’re bracing for some cold too, can’t imagine how chilly those animals feel.
The weather has gone mad – globally. Uk under water and US under snow and freezing. Really hope there aren’t any portents for our winter coming up. I really hope everyone stays safe and warm. Laura
When did that cat get so big?!! I’m off to put on a blanket, getting cold just looking at those photos.
Marmalade is getting very big – I see they’ve adopted a monkey now 😉
They are a little concerned that the monkey is not growing. c
Oh dear, Boo will want you to hand feed it 😉
Laugh! Maybe that is what they are waiting for. (sigh) can you imagine when I add a baby kune kune to the mix. c
Hopefully you don’t have a ‘racing circle’ in your house. In mine you can go from the kitchen, through the bath into the ‘back room’, into the living room and back into the kitchen. When I got Rosie as a young pig I also had two relatively young rat terriers. First the dogs would chase Rosie around one way, then Rosie would chase Drucilla and Dulcimer around the other way – a true circus for sure! I’m quite sure visitors thought I’d lost all my marbles with that group romping about the house.
Ha ha , that does sound pretty wild!! No racing circle here! Though Marmalade regularly runs around the whole sitting area without touching the ground once.. I am hoping that Boo will take to the piglet as well as he has taken to this cat. They would make a fine trio!
Oh, that last photo is precious! Stay warm, my friend!
Hugs from Ecuador,
Kathy
Ecuador sounds mighty nice today!