Baby, It's Cold Outside!!!

Yesterday the "high" was in the negative numbers which is great if you are a polar bear in Alaska BUT if you are a chicken or a goat living in New Richmond, OH . . . it's not so great!!  And today is not going to be much different.

My husband and I spent most of Sunday afternoon preparing the barns for the "deep freeze" of 2014 by putting up insulation in every possible opening or crack we could find in both the chicken and goat barns.  Several heat lamps were hung from the rafters.   Like Noah's Ark, everyone was herded into their respective barns and boarded up for the next two days.  Don't worry, I went out several times yesterday (and will do the same today) to make sure they had enough food and would let them out to get water if they wanted.

The chickens did want to go out, the goats looked out the open barn door and quickly retreated back into the barn (no way are we going out there!!!).  I did force a couple out last night and took them to the water trough.  Some did drink.

Days like this make working with livestock "challenging."  Fortunately, we have a big enough barn to house all our goats and chickens.  I don't know what the other farmers do with hundreds of cattle, goats, horses or pigs.  Just hope for the best I guess.  But, so far all our efforts to keep our animals safe and warm seem to be working - Thank you, God!!