Looks like another long week….
This is the main path up to the chicken yard and to get to the sheep and goats. Sweets is watching me take the picture. There was a lot of melting overnight as the path was completely clear of ice (daily battle chipping it back) when I went in the for the evening. Since the temperature was right at freezing the amount of melting was surprising. Since we won’t be above freezing again until the weekend it will be a dangerous haul up that hill all week with water and hay for the animals.
Lost an Ameraunca hen overnight. Brought her into the garage in a cardboard box last night so that she could die warm and peacefully. She had been suffering with some kind of cancer for over a year so it was not an unexpected passing. Over the weekend it was nearly 50 degrees so the chickens got to go out in their big yard in the afternoons and they were delighted to check out all the fresh snow. It is so much fun to watch them as they are so easily pleased! Same with the goats. While doing my “Michelango act” of chopping ice out of the gutters, I also watched the goats run around and around the path I had dug for them which has a huge snow pile in the center (it looks like an off center racetrack). They were having a grand time, racing one way and then the other. I have been feeling sad for them since it is impossible to do any real cleanup in their areas due to all the ice and snow and there is no pasture for them to go out into, but they were taking it in stride and were having great fun too. They are great role models for making the best of what ever life offers! I do the best I can for all my animals but so often realize that there is a limit to what can be done, and a great many situations just have to be endured by all living creatures.