March On The Farm

I woke up this morning to 8 inches of snow that fell last night. We ate breakfast, and then I went out to the barn to do chores and see how the animals had fared. The wind was blowing hard from the north, picking up falling snow and snow from the barn’s roof, swirling it around in a near- blizzard effect. This is quite a change from the Sunny mid 40s and 50s that we had last week. 

I got to the barn and gratefully shut the door on the biting wind and the 3 foot drifts in the white world beyond. But I was not expecting what I found inside the barn.

Half of my rabbit colony and the two cages adjacent were covered in snow. A gap under one of the stall room doors the size of a tissue box, and the strong winds blowing all night were the culprits. So, I spent the next half hour rescuing the rabbits from their snow-filled cages, shoveling snow away from the colony, and patching up the gap under the door. Then I fed them, watered them, gave them hay and bedded them down. I also threw a small square bale into a hay net for the sheep and brought it out to them since I figured that they wouldn’t go out to the pasture today. 

They had also had it rough and I had to dig out the gate simply to access the corral. The lane that I would usually bring them out to the field through was drifted as high as the fence for 30 feet. I gave the sheep hay and water, and I know they’ll be fine, because they’re hardy sheep.

I plowed the driveway with our walk-behind snowblower and then came in for hot cocoa by the fire.