I just got back from doing the morning feed and it’s just 5 am. It’s pitch black out there and minus 2 degrees F (-20 C). I went out earlier than usual because this level of cold just worried me. It is SOOO cold. It seems counter-intuitive that a warm blooded animal could be okay sleeping out there. I KNOW they are okay but it just FEELS so not okay….I had to go check them. It also feels like the water out there could simply not be flowing and un-frozen.
So, I bundled up with my felted wool fisherman knit (I recommend this – buy a fisheman knit at the used clothing store that is way way too big and then wash it in hot water so it felts down. So warm!) , my sorels, down jacket, hood, hat and mittens. I got my lantern and crunched my way to the barn. I had closed up all the doors except their stall doors so there wouldn’t be cross drafts in the barn. Of course I find them comfortably sleeping in their clean shavings, relaxed and happy, little icicles hanging off of their noses.
I put the bale of hay on the sled and rode it down into the pasture in the bitter blackness. Yup, the water is still flowing! Amazing. How can that be? 
I am all prepared for it to freeze with my hyrant in the barn, an unfrozen hose in the house and a water tank heater but if it is flowing in this, my hunch is that I won’t have to use my contraptions. Having fresh flowing water for them is such a wonderful and labor saving benefit. There is something comforting and satisfying about the earth simply providing for them.
I didn’t take pictures this morning because it was just too cold to take my mittens off. These pictures are from the ice storm the day before Christmas and the snow storm on Christmas. But the cold and dark out there with thousands of spots of light in the sky was exquisate. What a way to start the day.