this morning so a veritable heat wave.

The water started running again inside the house just before 10 PM.  We were both so grateful.  I had given up hope because I knew the temperature was dropping again, but either the heater in the pump-house or the heater under the house finally worked.

I had been worrying about our older sheep and goats so last evening I broke down and set up heat lamps.  I hate them due to their potential for causing barn fires but if any of my beloved animals died and I hadn’t done everything I would feel terribly guilty.  So here are the lamps set up.

And later in the evening here are some of the animals underneath them.  So I felt better anyway.

Even though the temperatures are a little higher the length of this freeze means that the water containers are now frozen solid.

The deicer in the cow water container is working well but the level was starting to get low.  So I added some snow for it to melt.

As I was doing this some birds flew over.  So beautiful.

The “freeze-proof” faucet by the barn is once again frozen.  But the pump-house faucet is working so Tom transported water from there to the barn to distribute to the animals by siphoning.  I thought it was ingenious.

Meanwhile Ryeleigh tore around, harassing the poor songbirds.

The younger sheep went out briefly so I could give special treats to the older sheep and goats.  They were eating snow again.  Unfortunately Hazelnut (one of the older sheep) went out with them.  When he came back in he was shivering.  None of the animals were shivering initially, but later he was and Jewel, our older blind sheep, was too.  She had been under the heat lamps and then stepped away to eat.  I am wondering if she got chilled in that amount of time.  Thankfully there were sunbeams in the barn again this morning so she warmed herself there.

Barnyard chores done, it was time to put out birdseed again.  I got to admir the icicles again.  But now they were getting dangerous so I had to take them down.  The front steps are quite icy too so Tom worked on clearing them.  I continue to work on keeping the hummingbird feeders unfrozen.  The Christmas lights are not quite enough so I have been using my hand warmers after I am done with them.  That seems to be working well.

We have some interesting icicles on our wind chimes now too.

While I was doing the bird seed, Tom was on the trailer roof.  The roof is now leaking where this large branch come down.  So Tom went up there to clear some of the branches and the snow to decrease the weight on it.  There is a hole in the tarp where the leak is but fortunately the new roof section appears undamaged.  The branch is still partially attached to the tree, and it is holding some of the weight still.  So this is going to be tricky figuring out how to get this branch safely off the roof.  But it will have to wait until the snow and ice are gone.

Tom took these videos of the dogs playing.  They are having so much fun in the snow.  It is fun to see.

Wish us luck with this ongoing freeze.  It is starting to feel like we are getting a handle on it though. (Possibly famous last words)