Ten Below Zero

Sounds like a movie, but no, it's here, on my farm. I knew it would be cold, but this is cold. Lambs seem to be fine. The flock is hungrier than ever. Half of my salary is going for hay now. The clerk at the feed store says there's a hay scare on now, with local people running out. Most local hay was shipped south to those people who were victims of the drought last summer. I got my new ram and two beautiful BFL ewes from Kathy Davidson in Pa. Her 80 acres dried up and she had to downsize. No shortage of water here in Brookfield. The guy I'm buying from has another month's worth of hay for me, then I can have his last year's first cut. The sheep won't be happy with that. March and April, then maybe some green grass on the ground in May. They have had snow in May here. What a week - is it really Friday? Seems like I say that a lot. The one class I taught for the teacher who was out was more like an episode of the Jerry Springer Show. When I left school I stopped at the repair shop to tell them my truck still does not have any heat, and did they know what it was like to get in a truck that's been sitting cold all night in ten below zero, and drive 25 miles? They "fixed" it on Wednesday, and it had heat the rest of that day, but that was it. I am not amused, and neither are my fingers and toes. The spicket in the barn froze, and Matt accidentally broke it while trying to thaw it with a blow torch. Now we have to carry water from the milk room in jerry cans. It takes quite a few trips. Warmer weather coming next week.