After a day and a half of snow, our property now looks like a postcard, or possibly the lid of a chocolate box. And it continues to snow. Tomorrow it is supposed to have stopped snowing and we in theory shall not see more snow this week; rain has been predicted for Thursday.

The animals are bearing up dutifully under the weather conditions. The geese are loud, squawking and abrasive - in short, not much

new there. The cats are dubious about this, although Nibs finds it delightful to follow a farmer down to taking trash to the curb and picking up mail, leaving adorable kitty footprints in the wake of human footprints - and sometimes not in the wake of them, either. We are blessed with such loving companions as walk on four feet that seldom can be matched by humans, with their complexities and melodramas. In Nibs' life, as in the lives of our other cats, the truest mystery and potential dramas are those of the hunt and

whether tonight's bedtime will involve a tin of cat food pate or not. Kitty pawprints leave a mark wherever they go.

At the evening feeding, a snowstorm blew in, making two sets of hands more helpful than one. However, all animals were fed and watered, without too much in the way of difficulty. Morning may paint an interesting picture of the snow continues as it was then, unabated.

Today it began to snow. The sheep are coping, if a bit sulkily, in their usual fashion of sheltering where they can and demanding hay and carrots. It has snowed on and off all day today, until the trees have a layer of frosting on them and the grass is patchily visible, but it's predominantly white and snowy. A good sort of day for staying indoors where possible, on the whole; certainly a good day for staying off the main roads and ducking the need to deal with snow and ice on downhill slopes.

Some of the ducks have decided they'd rather be on the porch than in the snow, although by and large it doesn't seem to bother the ducks much, and we've seen the ducks bedded down in a patch, letting snow pile up around them and eating snowflakes off their own backs. The barn cats when out and about and not looking for small vertebrates to crunch down upon have taken the opinion that the porch-sitting ducks have the right idea, and while they haven't cuddled up to one another, they've almost as good as done so. It made an amusing picture.

This week is America's Thanksgiving week; it seems likely we'll be largely if not entirely snowed in, although if tomorrow's prediction of 80% chance of snow is mistaken we might take the 4x4 truck into town to pick up some more vegetables for Thursday's dinner. Of course, if the weather does continue in this vein, company for dinner might not be an option. Time and Mother Nature will tell.

Today we went to the farm store for a load of hay, stocking up despite having enough still for a couple of days. The rationale behind this decision is that there may well be snow on the way; while it's unlikely if snow arrives we'll have a major snowstorm by Minnesota standards, even a modest amount of snow has been known to close the road leading to town as we are on quite a steep hill.

In addition to stocking up on hay, we also made a point of picking up a couple of bags of poultry feed and a large bag of 'farm style' dry cat kibble. The barn cats were delighted by this, and Peter in particular began eating spilled bits before his bowl had even been filled. Once it was filled, he was face down in it most eagerly, ignoring what was left of their old brand of food.

We also ran by a local independent supermarket and picked up some essentials such as milk and bread and eggs, and also some ingredients for the coming holiday, most particularly a slightly over fourteen pound free-range organic turkey. With these in hand, we seem well set for what the weather may bring.

Cool and wet

Now that we are well into November, the weather has firmly taken a turn for the wet. The turf is constantly wet, so that thinner patches turn muddy. The appetites of the animals are all picking up as the weather (now barely touching 50 on any given day, frequently less) closes in. We have had frosts firm enough to make ice flowers bloom from molehills, but not every morning is frosty.

The sheep are settling in well, in their new accomodations, and their latest motivation is to beg for carrots, which we supply as supplementary snacks. Tlingit's ram lamb, still less than a year old, is growing rapidly. In due course he will be a fine flock sire, although his wool promises to be rather kempy.

We are stemming the tide of losses among our ducks, at the price of repeated raccoon hunts. This has the pleasant side effect of keeping the ravens fed.

We spoke to local people about the raccoons, and heard that while most people regard them as a pest, some people buy dog food in bulk quantities at the farm store to feed raccoons and possums. This is a trifle annoying, because while they have their cute aspects, they really are something of a menace on multiple grounds. The possums are actually an invasive pest which does the local ecology no small harm.

Our biggest project currently under way is to trim the trees on our northern border, and replace the fence there. It is a lot of hard work, but should be very rewarding once completed.

A farmer vacations

One farmer is far away, and the other holds down the fort.

Mother Nature puts her usual sense of mischief to work and the late autumnal weather has been delightfully mild, allowing the grass a little longer to recover. Given the rather deliberately heavy grazing done earlier in the season to get the brush and weeds under control, this is a good thing.

The weather has also been kind to the sheep, which is worthwhile since they've had a somewhat trying time of it. First we put up the new fence subdividing a paddock, then put Mitey and five ewes to the north of it and left Bolivar and the rest of the ewes and ram lambs to the south. One would think that the two rams would have enough to keep them busy, but they still find time to grumble at each other and try to dominate each other through the wire.



This does not work as well as one might think, and it has snags. Specifically, Mitey snagged himself on the wire by his horn, and stayed there for some time until a farmer came by to release him. Since his struggles had broken a strand of the thick steel, the farmer also spent some time splicing the broken spot on the fence.


The barn kitties are enjoying the weather as well, and find the chairs on the porch to be a comfortable roost when they are not plotting death and destruction. Slightly, despite his handicap, was eyeing a squirrel earlier today with murder in his eyes. Peter is more sedate, but Tink only joins him when her own hunts have exhausted her.