Our last big snow completely melted away but this was a photo of the greenhouse. We cannot start seeds in it. I pot in it because it's rather toasty on a day when the sunshines but without power and our cold nights, it does not stay warm enough. We have a shelving unit in the kitchen by the window that works well for starting seeds. With any luck, I can hopefully move all the flats into the greenhouse mid-March. At the rate we're going though, maybe mid-July! 

My favorite tree on the property- a Cottonwood. (and the chicken coop and pig's shelter in the background)

The sow is living in one of the loafing sheds with her piglets. In this cold, they must have a heat lamp and this is the only loafing shed that has electricity. It allows us much closer one on one contact with them though.

We're gearing up for another big cold storm this weekend. I am very weary of it. I am weary of the snow and I am especially weary of the cold, this one promises to pack windchill's well below negative with potential for record setting lows. Imagine that, our coldest recorded low was -24 in 2011. WE WERE HERE FOR THAT! Only the tiniest tips of green grass are starting to emerge. Normally I would feel we're on the upswing to spring but with that huge ice storm in April last year and snow in May, it's hard to be excited.

We have a couple does due today. It's going to be an exponentially long weekend making sure everyone is as warm as possible, new kids will have to be brought in to keep ears from freezing. Our youngest are 10 days old, they should be OK but anyone born in it would, at the very least, have frostbitten ears though it's very likely they would freeze to death if born with windchills that low.
Then there's still milking and now bottle feeding. We lost one of our older does Wednesday. To what I don't know but with this warm again cold again weather, it's very likely it was fast moving pneumonia and there was little I could do. She left 2 kids behind. I have sold off the buck kid and now have the doe kid. That, coupled with 2 piglets who are lagging behind, and I am bottling a few animals around here. The dogs are separated currently and the only way to do that successfully is to keep one in the garage and the other out in the barnyard. They switch places every 12 hours and neither one is very happy. They miss each other but Snow needs a break from pregnancy and a trail separation is the only form of 100% positive birth control.

 I don't like bucketing warm water but sometimes it's necessary. So, there's my weekend plans- surviving. The cold and snow is exhausting. I don't like to complain but few who have to get out in it don't get it. I could get rid of all of the animals for sure, that would leave me little to complain about, I guess. But, that would also take away much joy too, that's what you call a catch 22...a conundrum.

It's 3 AM. I am out to do a barn check. The wind is howling but this isn't near the worst of it. This cold is manageable. Tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night will be a different story. Jeremiah is leaving early to pick up the trailer from the shop this morning. He's done some modifications to it and the alternator was kaput. We're having friends over for a soup supper tonight. I'll be running the oven part of today for bread. I'm cooking a ham tomorrow.