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)”
Another adorable shot of Boo and Marmalade. You could make an entire book out of those shots! Stay warm and have a great day.
We Americans aren’t rude enough, we actually have a vocabulary that seems even ruder, if that’s possible. Here in Chicago, we say “Don’t let the door hit your ass on your way out!” we like to cut to the chase so there’s no confusion. But I’m still laughing about your reaction, Celi, to “fanny”.
And is there anyone funnier than a pig with a filthy mouth?
I’m so happy that TonTon knows he is still top dog with heavy responsibilities. He must feel very proud.
Yes i do like clear rudeness! No confusion.. c
I love walking along with you each day and evening as you go about your farm…you make my day! Hugs 🙂
How does it feel to know that the whole fellowship goes with you at night to tuck everyone in? You are so not alone. Long suffering Boo…..what a good doggie he is. So full of life that Marmalade is….typical kitty. Does he wait for you to round a corner and ambush you or hide under the bed and attack? Can’t wait to see Sheila as a mother.
That marmalade Cat is the King of ambushers, he will ambush my leg, attach himself to it and allow himself to be walk about, claws in my pants!, (this will not work in the summer!).. c
enchanting; boo and marmalade are magic
The animals need so much care in this cold season, and they are getting it! The Daily View looks so bleak, and I had to laugh at your phrase, ‘a pinnacle of sublime sameness.’
It is a lovely time of day. I think mine is when everyone is up and ready to start the day. All noisy and full of talk ready for an adventure…I start each day that way…ready for an adventure.
Good afternoon, Celi!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
I do think the ‘fanny’ thing has taken notice away from that lovely description of settling the population down for the night.
Having said which, I am glad you cleared up what is really meant in that country by ‘fell on her fanny’. I had envisaged some rather elaborate contortions …
Oh well, besides learning some more American English [the footwear is still thongs to me, thanks!!] I thoroughly enjoyed the evening walk ~ happen to think your ‘clown suit’ not only suitable but quite elegant . . . can see why you enjoy the ‘ni-ni’ trip also. But the post was beloved again for the Boo-Marmalde photo: that cat could not have gotten closer to Boo had it tried 🙂 ! Talk about a virtual contortionist!!!
OMG, how cute is kitty and the doggie!
Poor Boo, he thinks he’s created a monster–a foot on his muzzle and chewing on his ear, too. Hopefully, Marmalade is playing gently.
Apart, or as well as the fanny discussion, ( I’ve always loved the name for a girl !)This is just beautiful Celi… just loved the energy of the snug barn filled with warm contented creatures all living and let live… XXX
I love that pig! 🙂
I love your eloquent description of your favorite time of day and how the creatures all get tucked in by their benevolent human. Wonder if you could get Sheila’s IQ checked. I think she may be a pig genius.