Hello Again!

Hello!  

I left you last week with wintry photos of snow on the ground... pondering whether or not we would have a white Christmas.

We, in fact, did not have a white Christmas, but, instead received torrential rains (causing some local flooding)

 followed by the deepest, deep freeze.  

Luckily, strong, gusty winds dried up the roads, but the remainder of the land around us froze into a solid sheet of ice.  Temperatures plummeted down to 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-18 Celsius) with wind chill bringing the "real feel" down to the -20's F.  It was crazy cold. 

 At one point over the weekend I realized that if this was how our winters were on a regular basis, I could not sustain this life on the farm.  That kind of bone-chilling cold is so hard to work in - it just beats you down.  Fighting that kind of cold is exhausting.  Amazingly, the animals seemed  to tolerate it.  I spent some time on Friday, before the mercury plummeted, towel-drying the horses from the previous day's rain. 

 I gave them lots of extra hay and opened the pasture gate so that they could graze at will. 

 Brown fat and adequate hay (fuel for their heat pumps!) assure that the horses will weather the cold.  Of course, there's also their furry winter coats.  And these guys are really good at growing winter coats!

The pigs stayed indoors under their heat lamp during the coldest days.  Faith, our now lone sheepy girl, joined them in their house.  The three of them weathered the cold without problems.

We kept the birds inside their houses on the coldest days and they made it through as well.  However, on those particular days, the eggs that they laid, froze and cracked open in their nesting boxes.

The donkeys also had liberal hay feeding, and huddled together in their shed, beneath the radiant heat of their heat lamp.

We all survived.  Thankfully, that weather has moved out and the next several days are to be unseasonably warm... (with highs in the 40's and 50's).  Typically, the first week of January is the coldest part of our winter.  Not this year.

You may have noticed that I took a couple extra days off for Christmas.  We had a lovely holiday and were able to spend time with family and friends.

Monday, Hubbs and I headed to NYC with the girls, Maggie and Macy, [think of them as adopted granddaughters].  

We dressed as warmly as possible for a frigid day in the city.

On the way to the theater district, we treated ourselves to a walk past Macy's windows.

So magical!

We braved the cold city to see a performance of The Music Man with Hugh Jackman.  It was wonderful... such a good show and such a great showman!

We enjoyed a couple of good meals while we were there and returned home on the same day... late.

Yesterday, with highs back into the 30's, we returned to the peace of normal farm life. And although the holidays are filled with fun, it's so peaceful to return to the ebb and flow of daily life.

We caught up with pasture cleaning - freeing horse manure from the ground's icy clutches.

We opened up the pasture so that the pigs and sheep could graze again, and they happily came out to meet us right away.

MaryAnn, the busybody of the three, spent her time saying hello to everyone - horses, donkeys, dogs, humans.  Meanwhile, Faith and Ginger palled around nibbling on dry, brown pasture grass. 

 The weather of the past week has turned all of our grassy areas brown now.  There is no longer any green on the farm.  We'll have to wait for Spring's arrival to once again enjoy the color green!

Last week I showed you the beginning of our lion's mane mushroom.  This is how big it has gotten!

It's the size of a head of cauliflower.  Once the "fur" on the surface grows to ¼ inch, we will harvest it and another will grow in its place.  In fact, we should get 3 to 4 harvests from this box.  I'll let you know how I use this beauty.