Sunny Days

After slogging through the ice and snow for a couple of weeks, our present conditions seem like a walk in the park.  

This January is proving to be milder than most- a nice and well-deserved change after all we have been through for the past year!

Sunny, blue-skied days are definite spirit lifters.  All of us enjoy being out in the fresh air.  The horses have been spending their mornings in the front pasture, foraging for any blades of grass they can find, but supplemented with mounds of hay placed here and there.   

Even the donkeys are back out in the pasture, however, they prefer to cherry-pick the little bits of hay left behind in the horses' dry lot.  Chloe is doing great... she takes everything in her stride.

 Yesterday, the equines were out in the pasture before the sun rose above the horizon.  The sky was magnificent.  They spent the morning happily wandering the acreage.  As a result, it was necessary for us to do a manure clean-up yesterday afternoon.  Knowing we were going to be in the pasture, Hubbs opened the gate for the pigs to join us.

They have not spent any time out in the pasture because of the amount of snow they had to climb through to reach the pasture.  Finally, most of the snow is gone.  The pigs were hesitant to venture out of their yard (creatures of habit) so, Hubbs enticed them with a few graham crackers. 

 As soon as the crackers were gone, they ventured through the gate.

We met up a few minutes later while cleaning the pasture.

True to form, MaryAnn immediately laid down and requested a belly rub.

It's her favorite thing.  How can I resist that sweet piggy smile!

The sheep, on the other hand, had no interesting the front pasture, but found the grass in the pig yard to be far superior to that of their own yard.

The chickens and runner ducks are once again on lock-down.  Sadly, we lost a runner duck to a hawk a few days ago.  We do as much as we can to ward off predators - playing radios at all of the bird houses  has helped.  Hawks, however, are impossible to deter - except by locking the birds in their yards, where a wire roof protects them from these predators from the skies.

Everyone looks better in the sunshine!!