Closed for Busy-ness

The wind blew cold  and strong yesterday. So the big doors were closed, with boards running crosswise to secure them and stop them from flying inward. dsc_0491

The little pigs sleep right inside those doors and I don’t want them caught in a cross draft of cold wind blowing straight on them.

piglets

The wind was quite the surprise after a few weeks of calm warmer weather.

calves

With it below freezing again the hoses are at risk of freezing solid so after I filled all the water troughs the hoses had to be emptied of water and hung. This is great exercise for the arms. I hold the hoses above my head and pull them in, hand over hand,  to empty them. Then loop them over poles until next time.

Once everything was done that had to be done I went inside for the afternoon to make a chicken and roast onion pie.
steers
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There was even a little sprinkle of snow – not snow flakes though – these were like little polystyrene balls. They bounced to the ground. Affecting nothing at all. Just hanging out down there.

sheila

Sheila my Petal. I need to bring in more straw for her today. Her bed is looking small. I love seeing the dents in the straw surrounding her from where the calves lay for the night. She is like a queen with all her young handmaidens curled up at the edge of her skirts, and slightly below her – as befits their station.

I hope you have a lovely day.

Love celi

66 Comments on “Closed for Busy-ness

  1. A chicken and roast onion pie? What a treat — I’ve never heard of such. I hope you enjoyed it, and I’m going to try to replicate it!

  2. Yep, that Sheila is too, too much! And spoiled rotten as well!!! 🙂

  3. Your pig pictures have a lot of feel in them. I had to pull my shawl around me more tightly when I read your description of the wind.

  4. Boo, you sent that plastic snow to us with the cold. Little pellets bouncing off of surfaces and cold cold wind. Nobody wants to be out for long. I need to add another layer of straw down too and some scratch to get the chickens to scratch it in. Chicken and roasted onion pie sounds delicious. Please share instructions, the freezer is full of birds.

  5. Our local weatherman calls that type of parcipitation “graupel”. Listening to him talk about “graupel” on TV for some reason makes my boys snort with laughter. Since we have graupel here a lot, there’s a lot of snorting that goes on too. 🙂

  6. The great grandmother barn hovers over your little community day and night, heedless of wrinkles and scars and blotches. She could tell long stories about survival. Beautiful photograph! The bits of bright color couldn’t have been better placed by a painter. They belong, and have their own stories to tell.

  7. I bet those two Owls were grateful to be roosting in the barn 🙂 We are having huge storms and resulting power failures over the last couple of days, so my visits have been brief. Laura

  8. I had the oddest thought. What is there was a pink petal that was as big as Sheila….times 5 or six…that would be the biggest flower ever! ha It’s Friday. My brain is fuzzled. Have a great day!

  9. Ha! A pig in a boot! You must be right, that wins for sure. (re the instagram photo).
    A friendly reminder… yes, it’s colder and the wind has picked up, but no temperature for future reference, unless I missed it. Cooler here too, with temperature going to a high just barely over the freezing point until Sunday when it no longer rises above for at least the next week. But here we are nearing the end of January already and if winter does finally come we’ll have no excuse to complain, also it won’t last that long because March isn’t so far away now. Hope you have a lovely day too. ~ Mame 🙂

    • March is such a LONG month I always think – because it is March we feel it should be spring but anything can happen in march. Still February is a short month! And a busy one here so that is good! c

  10. Enter Miss Sheila, stage left, as Titania… preparing to sleep surrounded by Peaseblossom, Mustardseed, Cobweb, Moth and all the rest of her lovely handmaidens. But I think if you overhung her bed with eglantine and violets and wild thyme, she’d make pretty short work of them; a small midnight snack!

  11. I love your barn! It’s really windy here today. 42F, but the wind is steady around 20mph, so it doesn’t feel as nice. Glad you got those doors closed for the piggies. Roast onion pie sounds delicious!

  12. My girls call that type of snow “Dipping Dot Snow” because it looks like the freeze dried snow you can buy in malls, zoos, etc. 🙂

  13. Those owls were a surprise to me. Do they “come there often?”

  14. Exquisite turns of phrase Miss C. I so love reading your writing. Also am completely taken by the picture of hereford coat. Such lovely fur.

  15. Yep, that is graupel for sure! We tend to get that mostly in May and June when a cold front slips over a warm front. I’ve always called it “popcorn snow!”

  16. I love reading about the attention to detail that you put into every aspect of the farm and caring for the animals… it is inspiring and satisfying …reading your blog is reading about a life well -lived, and it’s very beautiful and very precious…love, valerie

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