Dayum its cold out there!

Wow -- this "cold snap" is ridiculous! I know that most of the country is in a deep arctic freeze right now, and its not any different here. We have had daytime highs of about 10, and last night I saw -7 when I went to bed, and my local news reported the next town over from me at -13F, actual temperature, plus windchills, of course. We had frozen pipes this morning, because we ran two woodstoves last night to keep warm, and the furnace apparently didn't run, so no heat got in the basement. Luckily, opening up the doors to the basement, which froze the rest of the house, was enough to get the water going again. !

I was in a bit of a panic about getting water to the animals, and soaking Whinneys haycubes. We now have an electric/oil radiator running in the basement so the pipes don't freeze again, AND water dripping in two faucets, AND letting the furnace run (but keeping the woodstove going so that we don't go broke!) So of course, forget doing anything productive outside other than trying to get chores done without freezing. The horses are all handling the weather fine. Lakota is finally fluffed up and April is about half fluffed. Neither are showing any effects of the cold, other than choosing to nap in the sun. Whinney is toasty warm in her super thick blanket, and very grateful for her warm mush. Jen seems to be doing just fine, she is wearing her blanket and is warm underneath, and not acting cold or hungry at all.

Speaking of hungry, I just LOVE the Nibble Nets! They have actually left hay behind even on their normal rations with the cold, and are not acting hungry at all. They just pick away and keep warm and full, without me feeding twice as much hay and having them still go hours and hours without hay by just tossing it out.

The goats are not real happy about this weather. I'm getting a little concerned about Momma goat. She seems to be getting a little thin, so I've increased her grain, and am watching and making sure Baby goat doesn't steel it. Baby goat is overly fat. Momma goat is old, but still. They refuse to go in the shed, and if I do lock them in, they just head-butt the door until they bust it open and break out anyway. So I've been feeding their hay in the low corner next to the shed, its sheltered between the hillside and wall of the shed there, and they seem to like that spot, and sleep in the hay and chew their cud. Hubby is going to have a cow when it all melts and he has a fit about stuff against the back of the shed or it will rot out. Oh well, just need to shovel it out in spring!

The ducks are not happy, but so far all are still alive. They spend a lot of time alternating standing on one foot while warming up the other one, with their heads tucked under a wing. I feel bad for them, but there really isn't anything I can do. They have been living under the truck cap, and I put plywood around the bottom on one side for a windbreak, and the other side is against the woodpile. They could go inside the hay shed, but they won't go in there anymore, they prefer this spot.

The barn cats seem to be faring well, also. They spend most of their time in the loft, snuggled up in the hay, and only come out for breakfast and dinner. They are all FAT, and I actually checked Daisy's belly, she looks pregnant but I was told she was spayed.

No photos, its too cold for the camera, even my electric fence charger stopped working last night, but worked again this morning once the sun got on it. Its 3F right now at 8 pm, keeping fingers crossed that everything is as it should be in the morning.