Winter is definitely a beautiful inconvenience....I have found it (being from Chicago and now living in the country) especially hard on a farm....But, the good part is that you have to go out into it....no choice...all your animals are waiting for food, water and a pat on the head. I can't go to bed at night until I've made sure that everyone's tummy is full, they've had a drink and they are able to lie down out of the wind and snow in some clean hay....so, you get dressed really warm and go out into the cold night. Once you're out there...you're really glad that you ventured out....the animals are all so happy to see you. I wonder if they recognize me sometimes with just my eyes showing, but apparently they do...or they just love anyone that is going to give them corn and oats and fluff up their hay. Anyway, I find myself spending more time out there than I had originally planned, and I always feel so good when I turn out the lights and say goodnight...sleep tight... to them all. We check very often at this time of year because sometimes lambs are born early and we don't want them to freeze so we either move mom and baby into a special stall with heat lights or we actually bring the babies in if mom is not wanting to feed - our moms are all great, but we do go and get babies from another farm that don't pay as much attention as we do...so, I bottle feed the lambs and they live in my bathroom and then in a whelping pen in our indoor kennel for our dogs. Some days it's really tough...equipment breakdowns, frozen water, etc. but, most of the time my husband gets it all to work and we go out and work in the barn together and laugh a lot.....and then we come into the house frozen and tired and snuggle up in front of a fire and fall asleep having more sweet stories to tell about our life on the farm....
Winter is definitely a beautiful inconvenience....I have found it (being from Chicago and now living in the country) especially hard on a farm....But, the good part is that you have to go out into it....no choice...all your animals are waiting for food, water and a pat on the head. I can't go to bed at night until I've made sure that everyone's tummy is full, they've had a drink and they are able to lie down out of the wind and snow in some clean hay....so, you get dressed really warm and go out into the cold night. Once you're out there...you're really glad that you ventured out....the animals are all so happy to see you. I wonder if they recognize me sometimes with just my eyes showing, but apparently they do...or they just love anyone that is going to give them corn and oats and fluff up their hay. Anyway, I find myself spending more time out there than I had originally planned, and I always feel so good when I turn out the lights and say goodnight...sleep tight... to them all. We check very often at this time of year because sometimes lambs are born early and we don't want them to freeze so we either move mom and baby into a special stall with heat lights or we actually bring the babies in if mom is not wanting to feed - our moms are all great, but we do go and get babies from another farm that don't pay as much attention as we do...so, I bottle feed the lambs and they live in my bathroom and then in a whelping pen in our indoor kennel for our dogs. Some days it's really tough...equipment breakdowns, frozen water, etc. but, most of the time my husband gets it all to work and we go out and work in the barn together and laugh a lot.....and then we come into the house frozen and tired and snuggle up in front of a fire and fall asleep having more sweet stories to tell about our life on the farm....
