10 F.

Funny how ten degrees doesn't seem too cold when you get used to it. I could still chip the top layer of ice off the kitty water bucket on the stoop this morning. I gave up and went to bed after chores last night - 9:30. I slept 8 hours - a marathon for me. Don't know what is wrong with me wanting to lie down and sleep all the time. Yes, I do. I'm so depressed about how my farm is going...and it's all about 1) hay 2) hay and 3) hay and 4) getting the fiber off the animals when it should come off. Issue #4 should be better this spring since I have some good BOCE boys who are always desperate for work. I made a deal with Mr. Simmonds to pick up his hay off the field next summer so that will be a big help. This was the year that everything was going to be different. That didn't happen...no comment. I know, I know, people are losing homes, jobs and fortunes all over the place. I'm depressed for them, too. I saw a blurb on Iceland last night, about how the three national banks collapsed and the country is in such a bad fix that the traditionally stoic Icelanders are protesting and getting militant - wailing and crying, banging on the doors of officials. Educated people who can't find jobs anywhere doing anything. All they have are fish, Icelandic horses (rich people are having them shipped to them all over the world) and geothermal technology but those industries don't help everybody. Compare them to upstate New York, where people are used to being poor and just deal with it. Reminds me of the Great Depression when bankers were jumping out of windows but the poor just kept on planting their corn and raising a pig or two - like me! Mia is coming today and we are heading out tomorrow, if we can get back to NJ with all this snow. She is walking sunshine and brings sweetness and joy with her wherever she goes. She bought me a ticket to CA - if the plane can get off the ground. Better bring lots of knitting. A teacher in school ordered two doggie coats so I will knit them on the plane then pop them in an envelope and mail them. Hope they get under the tree in time. One is for a Yorkie - how adorable!! Went out into the barn early to check for Lilly's lamb. No lamb. OH, Lilly, how can you do this to me?