"Red Sun in the Morning..."

I have learned that a beautiful winter sunrise...

is often the harbinger of nasty weather.

Remember that old saying?

"Red sun in the morning, sailors take warning.

Red sun at night, sailors delight."

Yesterday's pinks and purples proved that true.

By mid afternoon, freezing rain had arrived...

sending all of our critters into their shelters.

The barn roos chose the relative dryness of the barn's overhang.

The horses stayed under cover as long as there was hay to entice them.

(They never have enough sense to come in out of the weather.)

The donkey girls are not keen on wet weather,

 and only ventured out to beg for their pellet feed at dinnertime....

their soft "heeee-heeeeeheeehe" barely audible.

In the mornings, their braying is quite loud, 

"HAWWWW HAWWWWW HAWWW",  they cry, afraid that I won't hear them!

Don't worry girls, even the neighbors hear your morning alarm.

Moll Flanders sat in the doorway of the barn and sighed....

no rainy adventures for her!

Even the goats refused to come outside for their dinner...

The ladies in waiting are still just that....waiting.

Only MaryAnn ventured out in the rain to get her daily "fountain" drink.

Animals, like humans, love traditions.

The rest of the week is to be relatively rainy.

It's great for building up the water table,

but, oh....the mud!
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Addendum (written several hours after the above):

It is with the heaviest of hearts that I tell you the following.
We lost our dear One Eyed Myrtle last evening during the birthing of her twin bucklings.
Dr. Becky feels that her uterine artery ruptured,
causing a massive hemorrhage.
Sadly, her bucklings died also.
Myrtle was one of Dr. Becky's favorites.

I took this photo just a few short hours before her passing.
She was resting comfortably at this point.

Her passing was sudden and quick, so we know she did not suffer at all.
Myrtle had always been such a good mama...
oh so gentle and attentive.
We will miss her terribly.

This is the very hardest part of farm life...
and yet it is most definitely a part of it.
The circle of life...so extraordinarily beautiful and amazing.
We love our critters deeply... always knowing that our time with them is brief.
Knowing that doesn't make it any easier, though...