We have been in denial, as the fall has been so gloriously warm. Winter has arrived, the day the guys did and we barely got the trailer unloaded, sheep sorted, for me to take 8 lambs two hours away before the processor closed. I took the snowy shortcut through Javier’s country, which was already white. (BTW, Javier called a few days ago! He got another cell phone, and is about 2.5 hours away. His birthday is Dec. 2nd and he invited us to go to his trailer and he will cook for us. Directions to his trailer will be interesting.)

The next morning, the man made it about 3.5 hours before wrecking the truck. The last time he came, upon taking Non to school, he pulls up with a dead deer in the back of my car. It’s hard to switch from city driving to these roads. Poor thing, but at least it got eaten by our dogs instead of staying on the side of the road.

We had to go get the excavator at a neighbor’s house who was borrowing it, I had to stop traffic on the snowy curve downhill so someone did not slam into him while he had to load it on the road. When we got home and pulled down the driveway, the trailer with the excavator was too heavy and pulled us sideways and almost over the dropoff into the metal barn, but our ancient manure spreader held fast as we slammed into it. All is well. He says he was planning to put a flat bed on it anyway.

Our ducks were having fun in the snow, and soon three drakes will go into the freezer. It is cruel and unusual punishment for one lady duck to have to be around four amorous men ducks.

Our first set of twins is almost two weeks old and we have a few more to lamb. She has had enough of the snow for now and is bringing the lambs in.

This is our mineral feeder for the free choice mineral system.

She wants to get back into her pen.

For now they are fine here, but we do not have electricity to the barn or the water tank heater anymore. The other night I came home from feeding the cows down the valley and as I walked near the water tank, the electrical outlet burst into flames! I ran inside, not knowing what to do about an electrical fire, and the guys came out and turned off the breaker and put it out. Hopefully today they can splice on a new electrical box.

As of yesterday we had almost a foot of snow, but for the next week we should not get more snow. We got stuck in the truck, trying to get the horse home from the other place, and we finally got her out of there. The cows have even more snow down the valley, and they will come home today.

The sheep all got locked up together in the old barn last night, thankfully, as the thermometer this morning says -21 (F). Our pipes are frozen, and I’m glad the guys are here for a couple more days.

Tomorrow 10 more lambs have to be sorted and taken to Montrose, and it should be a warmer day, but even still it is so beautiful!