Snow and Ice -- Cold and Gorgeous

Wow, we have had some intense weather this week. A major cold front came through Arizona. We got about 6" of snow and had lows in the teens and maybe even colder last night. It's absolutely beautiful, but it's difficult feeding the sheep in this weather, and the hens certainly don't like it.

Dierdre, our dog, doesn't care to be out when the snow is actually falling, although she bravely accompanies me to feed the sheep and to bring in firewood. Once the snow stopped, though, she's been having a blast. She keeps scooping up snow with her muzzle and tossing it in the air and then jumping around me to play. She wants to be outside in the snow, but she also wants to be with me (and I want to stay in the house where it's warm), so she's having difficulty deciding what to do. She keeps encouraging me to go out and play, and I keep prompting her to either stay in or to be satisfied being outside without me.

Brrrr!

My ears hurt! It's 32 degrees F with a wind chill of 23 degrees. Feeding the sheep was actually painful; that north wind is fierce. It's one of those days that I contemplate putting weights on the hens, so they don't blow away.

The sheep, of course, love it. What's a frigid wind when you have a nice wool fleece? Dierdre, our dog, thinks it's great, too. She kept stopping me every few feet on the way to the barn to play. Cold (really cold) weather seems to give her energy. I kept alternating between laughing at her and urging her to hurry up, so we could get out of the wind.

Well, I don't have to feed the sheep again until late this afternoon. The forecast says it may be 35 degrees by then (with a wind chill of 26 degrees). What a warming trend to look forward to....