A Slow Week and Cold Weather

It’s been a slow week and I haven’t been feeling motivated to do much of anything as you can tell from lack of activity at The Barn.  Part of this has to do with the frigid temperatures outside.  I feel like the pigs just wanting to hibernate underneath some blankets until the chill subsides and being outside is more comfortable.  I’m ready for spring already.  Coincidentally, it is warmer today, though the wetness outside makes it feel cooler than it is.

Aside from that, not too much is noteworthy.

Well, I shouldn’t say that exactly: Thor, our Icelandic ram, has moved in with Kit and Kaboodle, our sheep, and their goat roommates.  Could we be expecting little Icelandic lambs in the spring?  It’s a possibility.  In addition, a cardinal seems to have made its nest in a shrub next to the house (perhaps for its exuding warmth).  I’m excited for all the photographic opportunities this will provide me.  This isn’t just any wild bird dressed in camouflage, it’s a wild bird dressed in daring red.  Cardinals have always seemed exotic to me even if they’re not due to that rare splash of color in the midst of greens and browns.  As you know though, this isn’t the first bird to have nested so close to home.  We’ve had a group of newborns hatched in that same shrub and at another time in an old boot.  Yes, an old boot.

And then there are things that may be, but have not yet come to pass (thinking of that line from the elf queen in Lord of the Rings):  rabbit hutches, gravel where wet dirt once lurked, and a sturdy, state-of-the-art garden fence (unlike the non-sturdy, non-state-of-the-art garden fence that was consistently trampled or breached by a determined band of  marauding farm animals in seasons past; we’ll see how that goes).

So yes, there are things in motion here at Piscataway Acres, but they move slower in the winter.