Yesterday was officially freezing. Real freezing cold. Not that fake cold when your dressing gown is in the dryer and you have to run to the toilet in your nightie and the toilet seat is cold and you shiver and say God that is cold. No, this was real cold. Razer cold that shaves at your face and leaves it stinging for an hour after you come inside. Cold that keeps your mouth closed because there is no word for it. Cold that brings pain. When you come in you take the boots off your numb feet and then with your jacket still on you walk to the fire and stand there, trying to get your gloves off, waiting for the pain to lift so you can move again. Real cold.
I took this image at dawn yesterday. I did not know at the time that the sun on the left was a Sun dog. Having never seen one before. But annoyed that I could not fit both in the frame. 
And thought very little about the shot for the rest of the day. We proceeded through the day. It was way too cold and way too windy to get the tractor out and move snow.. 
and the roads were not plowed anyway so we were snowed in, engaging in the usual low grade bickering about who makes the best coleslaw that comes from being locked up with too many dogs in the house for two days, yet hauling about getting things done. But being snowed in also gives one permission to do nothing at all so lots of that was done too, letting the wind go about its business of making snow drifts then unmaking them. 
When I was out and about doing chores I noticed the dogs lifting alternate feet and running on three, then running on another three, like chickens raising one leg to warm it but at full speed. Doves had come into the chook house to sit as close to the warm lights as they could. A starling was seen sitting next to a chicken sitting next to a pig. Peahens perched on precarious beams directly above heat lamps. Sheila the pig was allowed a warm beer with dinner. Daisy and Queenie ate twice their normal amount of hay. Mama The senior ewe clouted Tilly around the head and told her if she did not stop the whining she would be put out into the snow.
When I came in I had to be careful not to put a wet hand on the door handles of the outside doors inside the house, for fear of freezing to them. Doors were frozen shut and put off limits, windows covered in ice. Eggs froze solid in the nests. Water froze in the buckets. Table scraps turned to ice before they were eaten.
Then after a harrowing day fighting the elements the wind slowly died down towards the evening, the temperatures also rising to -10 by nightfall. A certain peace fell over the farmy. The laying down of arms.
Then in the evening as the sun was setting I saw this.
Another Sun Dog. Isn’t that just amazing. It is caused by ice crystals hanging low in the sky when it is very cold, creating reflections. I am sure the phenomena itself is much more complicated but that is a simple explanation. Does this bode well to see two in a day?
The animals went very still yesterday evening. The pigs slept deep in their straw surrounded in dozing chickens nestled into the same straw. The sheep went into a pause watching the wind go past their immovable door and not come back. The cows stood and chewed their cud, their tears frozen into chandelier drops on their cheeks. The dogs lay at the door, watching their sticks and waiting to go home.
After all the wind and its stinging cargo of snow, fighting, screaming, scrambling, nipping wind trying to stop me getting to the barn, or getting back home, it was like being in an alternate universe, where peace was a given and breath was everything. 
Today it will still be very cold but no wind. No wind is a blessing. Clean up day.
We will all have a better day today I hope.
Your friend on the farmy
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
77 responses to “Sundogs – like bookends for a frozen day.”
Sending you warm thoughts for support! Maybe it helps.
I’ve been watching the temperatures with horror, as we have friends in South WI!
Lovely sun dog!
The funny thing is, that I’ve learned about them two or three weeks ago. I was contributing to a travelling notebook with the theme “Happiness”, for a women in North Finland, where there’s so little sun (if at all) in the winter. So I sent her an image of a sun dog with one real and two fake suns. Never seen one myself though.
Sundogs…sundogs mean even colder weather is coming!!! Stay warm, stay low…stay aware!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
I understand the real cold. There’s frost on the inside of my windows in Chicago.
I think you are even colder than us.. and in the streets you must have might big snow drifts.. c
People in California don’t build big barns anymore. There will be a shed for the sheep, a shed for the cows, a coop for the chickens, and they’re all separate, small buildings. I suppose a big barn is a considerable expense, but what a cozy place for all kinds of critters. And easier, too, for humans who would have to slog around outside carrying feed and water to each of the little sheds.
Brrrr!
Thank you for the pictures of the sun dogs. I have heard of them, but yours were the best pictures I have seen. Say, you and Sheila could both have beers together. A toast to a warm Spring, eh? Well, for you, maybe brandy. Bottoms Up!
I’ve never heard of or seen sun dogs before, so thank you. Reading this has made me shiver; I just cannot imagine how cold you feel. Our stables were built American barn style and I now understand why you prefer them grouped under one roof instead of long single lines all with outside doors. Stay warm inside.
I am dipping in and out each day to check up on the farmy, but quickly go back to toast my toes by the fire. Stay safe.
C: help for your frozen face – I learned this while living in Ukraine. If you are walking in the cold, keep mouth closed, and make faces; rotate your lips around, clock and anti-clock; it works!
I will do it! This morning when i came in my face was bright red.. c
We get sundogs a lot here in SW Minnesota. And yes, they are pretty neat! It’s been frigid here, too – the entire state had no school yesterday because the governor said it was too cold! (About minus22 WITHOUT any windchill!) Eggs freezing in their nests, though…that’s an image I’d never had before!
and chickens with frozen combs.. bit sad, but soon the warm will come.. c
Oh, no! We’re expecting closer to 30 degrees by the end of the week – a warm up indeed!
the sun dogs were stunning and seeing two in one day? that has to be a sign of some special blessing – oh please let it be above freezing temperatures.
” A starling was seen sitting next to a chicken sitting next to a pig” this ought to be a line in a children’s book!
He was a rather startled starling too, but determined to edge into the warmth. Hope you have got your hot water back!.. c
no hot water but that’s okay, we left and we’re in Paris for a while and then off to the sea shore for a few weeks.
So glad you got a second chance with the sundog! I have never heard of one before. We are getting your weather a day later, so today is unbelievably cold in Western PA. Willis can’t understand why we aren’t out on our daily walk – dogs don’t seem to mind the deep freeze!
I know, mine are getting cabin fever, we went out and threw sticks for a while this morning but any more than that is just too cold.. c
I’m surprised that you haven’t seen a sundog before. I notice them quite often in the warmer months (spring & fall more than summer). Your sundogs are bright amd lovely, the ones I see are more muted, smaller and sometimes there will be on on each side of the sun. My grandfather always said that sundogs meant there was going to be a change in the weather. Of course with this being Illinois that is a pretty good assumption. lol You need a ski mask or a kitchen/ tea towel over your face and sunglass or safety glass for when the wind blows the snow. If you don’t get frostbite you can get windburn in weather like this. You will need to take extra care when it warms up to keep the sun off your face because it will be extra sensitive for quite some time. Been there, done that in the late seventies when we had 3 winters in a row of this kind of lovely (not) weather. Hopefully the warming continues and maybe I need to take the kids out and throw sticks for them or at them (would help my mood). They are getting antsy and crabby.
I used to throw sticks at my children, it helped train them for cricket season! I think I did get some of the burn today.. must be more careful.. c
Well, the NE US/Illinois weather surely must be the most popular subject on our TV news the last few nights [I suppose one could say nothing much must be happening in situ 😉 !] . . . There were long discussions of how it was a very,very rare phenomenon, an arctic ‘hurricane’ having been pushed two thousand kms south to cause all the havoc [well, the knowledge does not make it any warmer for you!!]. Even the Governor of illinois is a familiar face here now!! Had never seen a ‘sundog’ . . . something interesting on a dismal day!! And love how the misery has joined the animals in the barn to seek warmth together – may it soon be over!!!!!!
We are also caught in the incredible windy cold. Has been for the last 3 weeks, except for yesterday when it hit 40F and rained like a bugger. Now everything is sheet ice everywhere. Good luck digging out!
I HATE ice.. terrifying stuff.. c