The heat lamps come back on. 
The dogs creep back into the house.
Last weeks snow beings to look saggy and loose, disheveled.
No longer pristine and attractive. Snow is a great leveller until it starts to sink and go sallow.
And the Daily View reaches a pinnacle of sublime sameness. But back comes the cold anyway. Not too cold though. We all know what real cold is now. And sinking into single digits is a breeze after that.
But I do love the tucking in.
After dinner I re -dress in the clown suit and my ripped and worn out Carhartt jacket, NZ gumboots with the crampons firmly attached (there are fierce patches of deep ice out there- thank you Macka) and with my dog TonTon, (not Boo the Savage – too jumpy) we puddle quietly out to tuck in Sheila – the Big Fat Pig. As you know she sleeps in the sun-room of the barn, it has a door to quite a good sized field that she turned over in the summer so we can resow it in the spring. Mud-hole for the winter though, or ice hole, as the case may be. Her door has two parts, a 50 year old heavy old wooden garden-gate kind of barn-gate that opens IN and then closing over this a big solid corrugated iron door that cuts all the breeze and opens OUT.
I open the corrugated iron door in the morning and I put a brick in front of it to hold it open then unlatch and open the interior gate and in the evening I take an axe with me to wack the brick out of the frozen ground so I can close the big door. Things like concrete bricks freeze very fast to the ground around here.
Well, when I went out to shut her doors last night, (and then shut the west barn doors from the wind) Ton and I, armed with my tools (axe), found that she had made a very good attempt to move the concrete brick that kept her big door open. And then failing that she had closed her little interior garden gate, stuffed straw into the cracks between the boards and gone to bed. I crept through the closed garden barn gate, open and shut, and picking up arm-fulls of straw, covered her 6 foot long supine body down in the straw already, from bottom to neck. Her bed was high, and she was deep in there – she was expecting cold. She grunts as I cover her. More there. More here. OK good. OK get that dog out of my face. OK, ni ni. Yup, whatever. Shut the big door on your way out. Put the straw back in the cracks. Don’t let the door hit you in the fanny on the way out. (In America Fanny means back bottom not front bottom, I was confused for ever so long! So rude I thought!) But Sheila is an American pig. She does not know any better.
Then softly Ton and I walk without words and shut the West doors, without waking the cows, so the wind does not whip through the barn. Moving on toes back through the barn, we check that Meadow the pregnant sheep, has not got her head stuck through the gate (like she did the other night). Not terribly bright that sheep. Ton checks that the Plonkers are also deep in straw. Ton does this by himself, if I go near them -they think food and rise up yelping. The chooks and the guineas and the peahens and the wild night birds, who surprise me when they shelter in the barn but I don’t know why, cher’up with their gentle melodious, content, gentle-sweet, long-time, night-time, shuffle in the feathers voices. What she said. Shut the door already. Good night my ungrateful darlings.
This is one of my favourite times of the evening.
Have a lovely day.
your friend on the farm
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
40 responses to “As it gets colder again (but not too cold we hope)”
I am laughing so hard. You are the only person I know besides me that says FRONT BOTTOM and BACK BOTTOM. (I’m sure we’re not alone.) I’ve been using that terminology since I was wee. Couldn’t think of any other way to express it. But, yeah, I can imagine. Getting them confused might be problematic!! Have a lovely day, Celi.
Lol, me too!!! You should have seen Robert’s face the first time we met a lady called Fanny (Francis, we call her Frank)! It was a picture. He looked down at his toes and din’t dare look me in the face for a while until he got his giggles under control. Oh you Brits are so charmingly secular sometimes. (I can only say that because my father was one) 🙂
My Irish Granny was called Fanny! and it’s my second name.
I’ve written a haiga on the long-suffering Boo picture – I will send it to you.
That Sheila should join Mensa, and present the weather forecasts on TV!
OH dear there are so many words here in America that when translated to English have completely different meanings – and have gotten me red faced many times!!! LOL My second name is Francis too, but not many people know that!
I will never forget the look on the face of one of my Australian students when I suggested she keep her money in a “fanny pack.” And then the explosion of laughter and explanation. English is full of embarrassing traps!
and here I always thought the Americans a bit rude… now I know its the back bottom or bottom and actually not the fanny…
Americans haven’t a clue to the ‘Fanny’ meaning of the Brits, Assies or Kiwis! When the
Fanny Pack (actually a waistbelt to carry stuff) became popular in the US, Fanny Pack seemed like a great name. Only when traveling with Brits or Assies or Kiwis did I discover how horrendous it is to call a waistbelt a Fanny Pack! 🙂
It has always been known the same here in Africa and when they referred to a fanny pack I assumed they had good cause to due to its position… have the Americans renamed it yet… ??
In England we called it a ‘Bum Bag’!! Fanny Pack had a whole different meaning!!
‘thongs’ is another good one…….I swear my Aussie-living-in-America daughter clapped her hands over my mouth when I called out to little g/daughters in the store to go choose some thongs! She said everyone would think I was buying them unsuitable underwear, rather than flip flops. But of course the kids loved it and would shout ‘thongs’ in public every chance they got.
ROFL – Sheila’s keeping you on your toes 😉
I love Sheila’s bed making :-). Had no idea they did that and so thoroughly.
Boo has the most hilarious expression of “Oh God, what have I done to deserve this” on his darling doggy face. Bad fierce Marmalade is getting to be a big strong cat and one day, he’ll inflict some serious damage. And I’m guessing Boo will just take his lumps without protest…
Hmm, Boo Nanny needs to start disciplining that Kitty a little, I think. 🙂 Love the night time tucking in ritual. Hope this cold front moves on soon. Laura
Stay warm!
aawww – see you tuck in Sheila at night too. It may be different than the way mommy tucks me into my toddler bed but it’s along the same lines. We are so privileged to have such wonderful and loving people in our lives. Love ya! XOXO – Bacon
P.S. Give my girl Sheila and hog and snout kiss for me when she wakes.
Boo – a wonderful expression of parental long-suffering. Love it!
We had a bit if son last night, but that just means it’s not horrifically cold. Have a great day.
your life always sounds so peaceful but I know that is not the case..you make it sound so idyllic, the world is at peace, the animals all cosily tucked in at night so all is right, all is well….
This is what makes it such a pleasure to read your post, it really does brighten my day.
Here is Bulgaria the weather has been far too mild for this time of year. usually there is cold, ver much cold, and thick snow…but so far… only a dump way back in November.Since then no rain or snow just frost which does not fill up the lakes and rivers. We have been told that change is on the way..by the end of January the temperatures will plummet and we shall have snow.
So on Monday we shall proceed to stock up on food for the dogs and food for people, make sure that gas bottles are filled and get ready to buckle down the hatches and wait for the winter.
Gee Celi, that was just beautiful. I love how you create the sights, smells and sounds of night settling in the barn so that we feel like we’re right there! It is a comforting thought to know you’ve closed everyone up for shelter and safekeeping for the night.
Boo’s face has a definite ‘rescue me’ kind of look about it! The fanny thing always makes me smile, especially if our American guests use it and the eyebrows of elderly British guests raise up to their hairline!
Christine
Know what you mean about the frozen brick. I have a brick that keeps the hens gate open to their run during the day. Many times I go down at night to close the gate and kick the brick out of the way to find it has frozen solid to the mud under it and nearly broken my foot!
My good friend bought me a lot of venison yesterday. At the moment I am slow cooking the cubes that soaked in red wine all night in a cast iron casserole in the oven. Added lots of garlic, green peppers crushed, lemon peel an thyme. Smells wonderful in my kitchen!! He gave me a few roasts too – need to look up best way to cook those, any ideas?
I have absolutely no ideas at all. I very seldom eat venison. Though many people do out here. We should ask Mad Dog, he has some wonderful game recipes.. c
I do love the image of Marmalade mauling the long-suffering Boo. The fanny bit cracked me up. No puns intended, of course. I learned the second meaning to the word when I was in college, and ever after, the term “fanny pack” has cracked me right up. Again, no puns here.