Mostly frozen

Along with the rest of the US, we've enjoyed unseasonably cold weather for the past several days. It didn't get above freezing for almost three days, which is pretty much unheard of for this part of the world. We had rolling blackouts (which fortunately bypassed our house altogether), and a lot of friends and co-workers had frozen pipes. Apparently double-wrapping our pipes and putting heat lamps on the most vulnerable ones was the right thing to do, since we didn't have any trouble whatsoever. We were REALLY lucky this time around.

The critters fared similarly well. Artemis and Maddy had a heat lamp on their sleeping blanket, which they made judicious use of. Anie had her bed, which I double-blanketed and made sure it was out of the wind. Reddums got his extra Polarfleece blanket, and Saga had his Rambo (which is quite warm). The boys got free-choice hay (instead of in haynets, which they have to work for) for extra calories. The most annoying part of the whole thing, frankly, was having to break ice and tote hot water out to the water trough and critter water bucket several times a day. When it's 18 degrees out with a wind chill in the single digits, water doesn't stay liquid for long! And yes, I will be getting a heated bucket for critter water and a trough heater for the boys - as soon as those items are in stock again in this part of the world.

The last day of the freeze, we had about an inch of snow! It was really beautiful to wake up to a winter wonderland - snow just seems to absorb all the sounds so it was very peaceful first thing in the morning. The hubby and I had the day off since the University was closed, so we made the most of it, sitting in front of the fire and working (yeah, I know. Day off. Whatever.). I did get some pictures of the critters in the snow, so here you go!

Driveway, looking toward the street.

Elias considers that if he were a Malamute in Alaska, this would be his view every day. (And then he went back inside and curled up in his bed in a poor, cold little dogball. Woe!)

Back pasture looking east toward the greenbelt.

Back pasture looking north-northwest.

Apparently Saga's Rambo is warm enough that the snow doesn't melt on it!

Front pasture looking southeast.

Kinda pretty...

Snow day. Because you always need a video of the horses making snow angels in the snow!

Reddums with his ALFALFAAAAAA!

Saga noms his breakfast too.

Of course, the snow only lasted until about noon since it warmed up pretty quickly. We do still have a few small patches in the shady spots, but for the most part, it disappeared as quickly as it arrived. No complaints from us, though - shoveling snow is not fun!