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Had a lovely visit from my donkey kindred spirits – Elsie and Al. Thank you for the delicious asparagus and green pea soup. Made a delicious dinner! Good to come in to some warm soup tonight. No wind – but still awfully cold. We were at -20’C when I came in. We’ve got a warm up and a snowstorm headed our way this weekend. The jennies are going to miss the soft fluffy snow in the woods. They can easily make their own trails. The current forecast is for snow, then freezing rain, then more snow…That all makes the snow very hard and crusty … hard on their fetlocks (ankles).
I always wonder what I should do about plowing in that situation. If I plow the snow just before the rain the ice coats the paddocks and the hillside as a base… And then it seems to stay ALL winter. I think the ideal will be to plow some snow away and let more build up before the rain. Then let some snow build up on top of that. Perhaps then I will be able to move it out like a snow ‘Oreo’. Either way – looks like Sunday will be a plowing day.
The Guineas are a bit off their game … or as Ede says ‘my game’. We had a system. I’d come in just before dark, ring the bell, shake their seed bottle and then sit down. They’d shilly-shally their way over to shyly peck at their treat. We had begun on the ledge of the top nesting boxes and worked our way down to the floor – just beside their feeder. In fact a few days ago Chip ate while sitting on my boot tip. The last two days have been total confusion – get the pun? Perhaps the floor is too cold after I swoosh in the coop door. Or maybe they’ve eaten enough by then. They have had two days where they ate the millet after I left. What I do know is it isn’t a system now. Hmmm… I think perhaps I’ll stop bringing in the millet for a few days and then resume. Lots of time before spring and my hope that we’ll have a routine that will bring them into the coop each night.
The Meadow View 