Today we have at least 5-6″ of snow with about an inch of ice over it. The ice is so thick when you step on it it cracks into big chunks instead of crunching into a foot-shaped hole. Just getting to the barn was a struggle, we had to climb over the gates, and were half worn out from breaking through the ice on every step by the time we got there. The tops of all three hoop houses partially caved in from the weight and had to be cleared off.
This is entirely too thick a piece of ice for me.
The sheep couldn’t walk on it at all, the ice was too thick to force their way through horizontally, and the snow beneath was too deep to keep lifting their legs up over the top on every step. It took only a few minutes for them to start panicking and struggling back towards the barn, so they are having a barn day today.
The boys all getting along for once.
The girls not getting along so well (I see that new scrape on your horn stump Angel, please stop punching people) but mostly they’re only half heartedly squabbling over the hay. Which is on the ground in the stall, therefore delicious. Much better than hay in the rack outside where the ground tries to eat their legs!
The Shetlands in their private suite, an island of domestic tranquility as always. Duchess, looking at them through the stall wall, seems jealous. As though she isn’t a very high drama girl in her own right.
Poor Blue’s been going stir crazy stuck in the house. He liked the snow yesterday, but the ice today not so much. He was trying to get Echo to play-wrestle with him yesterday without much luck.
“What are you doing, whippersnapper?”
“Tag you’re it! Play with me!”
“Blue hit me with his foot! Why’d he do that?“
“Play with meee!”
He’s probably lucky Echo didn’t play wrestle, he would turn Blue into a Blue-pancake if he flopped down on him.
“Pet me, the whippersnapper’s being weird again and it’s stressing me out!”
“Oh yeah, that’s the spot…”
The only thing Blue likes less than being bored is someone petting Echo instead of him.
“Nonono no petting Echo! Only petting me! I’m the baby I get all the petting!“
Blue is maybe just a little spoiled.
Echo took a tumble off the retaining wall out back on his way to the basement last night, he always walks parallel to it down the hill but I think with everything being snowy and it starting to get dark he couldn’t see where the edge was. Fortunately aside from being a little sore he doesn’t seem to have injured himself. We put up some temporary fencing sections along the edge for now as a visual marker/safety rail.
“Zzzzz…”
It’s a good day to just sit around and snooze with your little brother, even if he is sometimes annoying. I’m certainly planning to spend as much of the day as possible on the couch with blankets and tea.