The cold outside today wouldn’t be so intolerable if it weren’t windy. This morning, I actually had to wear my sunglasses to go bring food and water to the horses and chickens. The wind was brisk then, and my eyeballs were having none of that freezing business. They teared up so much I could hardly see. Sunglasses, not that I needed them for sunlight, at least blocked the wind from hitting them.

Now that it’s not so windy, the sun is filtering through the overcast skies and it doesn’t feel as bad. The icicles are dropping with clinks and thumps off of the roof. The high today might get to freezing, but the sun is melting the ice’s grip on the metal roof whether or not it reaches the mark. Random snowflakes blow by, as I look out the window at the assortment of birds at the feeder.

A Great Day to Paint

I worked on my old shed painting a little more today. The distant hills needed some shadows to add a little definition to the trees. The trees themselves won’t get any details, but the shadows help to show the irregularity in what looks uniform at first glance.

That tree reaching into the sunset is actually the top of a cedar tree that will be more in the foreground. I didn’t need to go on and paint it in there, but I wanted to, anyway. The rest of the tree will come later. The rest of my canvas has a thin layer of wet oil on it still from when I added the green shadows. That has to dry before I can start working on filling in that space.

You can see all of my progress on the page dedicated to this painting.

Tomorrow is my day to work at the office, but it’ll get to a summery 44*F, at least. And then Tuesday the fun begins. We’re expecting 5 – 8″ of snow, and up to 35 mph wind gusts. A scheduled closing might get rescheduled to later. Sounds like a good day to stay indoors again!

Wet Water for Chickens

I’ve been working on a solution to keep the water for the chickens thawed. I tried a heated dog bowl, but either the bowl is not working, or it’s not made for close to zero degree temps. The water was frozen solid in when I tried it a week or so ago.

This time I took out the heated bucket. A bucket is too deep to be a good waterer for chickens, though. So, I filled the bucket with rocks and water, then placed a shallower pan on the top so that the water is touching the pan bottom underneath.

Maybe with the bucket of rocks and water heating above freezing below it, the water in the pan will stay thawed. If not, then the chickens will have to just drink when I feed them in the mornings while the new water I’ll put in there is still wet. If it doesn’t work, I’ll try covering half of the entire bucket and pan assembly to see if that helps it retain enough heat.

Staying out of the Wind

A windy cold day is a good day to stay inside. Even Shasta agrees. She’s hanging out in her windbreak stall, just waiting for supper to arrive.

Oh, and by the way, the insulation job on our tank for the horses is working splendidly! The line in will likely freeze once temps get close to zero, but I should have enough in it to last a few days. We don’t normally stay that cold more than a few days at a time, thankfully.