Christmas Eve... and all is well

Apologies for being away for so long.  It's been a winter wonderland that's for sure, and we're still without water... that makes day 9.  And it seems to have thrown the proverbial 'wrench in the gears'... :-)   But it is Christmas Eve and I figured it was about time to post. The routine up here has remained about the same for the past week or so... keeping the animals watered & warm... bathing has been reduced to bird baths by the wood burning stove... and leaving the dirty dishes outside in the snow to keep the mice dieting.  It's all good... but it'll be nice to have running water again  :-)  The past couple of days, the temperature has gone up above freezing and that takes the edge off... probably not enough to get too excited about the pipes unfreezing though. I'll just have to take that one day at a time I guess.  Other than that... here's the latest...

As you can see... we've got snow. Although so has the rest of the northern part of the country. I have to step back once in a while and really look around... sometimes I get caught up in the "tending to thing's" that I forget to appreciate how beautiful everything really is, and how different my life has become as of late.

The routine trips to the pond still happen every 2 days. Making 2-3 runs for the animals water and 1 for me. This is the little river that feeds the pond... and thank goodness we have that! Life would be very different and much more difficult if we didn't have our own water supply. 

Then I go check on the cows. I brought down yet another bail of old hay to spread around and 'freshen up' their beds... Like I mentioned in a previous post... they poop everywhere. I'm pretty sure they don't get up in the middle of the night to poop outside the 'house' either... so the new hay covers up a lot and just plain ole increases insulation. Of course, here they are eating it while I was laying it out for them... but they don't eat enough to make it a wasted effort.

This was a great shot, though the quality of the pic isn't... I was going to bed down the barn when I looked through the window. The geese were 'hanging out' with Apache (the friendliest) the sheep. It was like a scene from the movie 'Babe'... Quackmire was actually was sticking his little beak through the fence and 'touching' Apache's nose. I didn't want to disrupt the moment so I took the pic through the window... hence the poor quality. But it was truly, a very special moment.

At the pond the other day, was a wild goose. His right wing wasn't 100% and we figured he or she had lost their way in the weather. We laid out some food and straw for bedding a couple of times, in hopes that he or she would eat & rest up. He/she stayed for a few days and then was gone... I'm hoping he/she used the break in the weather to make a run for it...

Today Irish was running around loose. He's a great explorer and unfortunately his propensity for chasing down passing motorcycles usually keeps him on the porch or in the yard. But today he was free to roam all over... and he came by to check on me. He's always moving so it's hard to get a good pic of him...

And although the pic doesn't show it... he's really the size of a small horse. At under a year old, he's still a pup... but he can take you down with no problem if he wanted to. Wait until he fills in... then look out ;-)

Curiosity sated... he ambles off for new adventures... What a world they must experience with that keen sense of smell...

That's what life's been like for the past week +... putting the snow chains on & off/on & off, driving safely, going for food, running for water, getting firewood, staying warm, checking on the menagerie... and repeat. Never a dull moment... And not that one has to 'remind' oneself just how much more inconvenient it could be, to be grateful in any way... it does help to serve as a test... just a little lesson in life... to check on your 'fiber'  ;-)