Melting ice

We've managed a few days in a row of above freezing temperature with some sunshine even. It's been really helping to melt some of the ice that has been the bane of our existence for two months. The other day I was down at the creek and couldn't help but take a few minutes to sit on the hillside and soak up the warm sun. 

On Tuesday we tried to get out and into the village to pick up some fresh vegetables and eggs, but our road was an icy mess. It had warmed up, thawed a bit, and refroze and was like a skating rink. Even our F350 dual wheel truck couldn't find anything to grip onto.

It's impossible to sand our entire mile long lane by hand, although we do have several sand piles beside our biggest hills, to sand those in the winter, when needed, but this year, it's not just our hills that are icy, the entire road was impassable. So we gave in. We took the plow off the tractor, which is usually a good way to guarantee we'll get buried in snow.. and we put the bucket on and the box scraper. It has several sharp ripper blades that Kevin dragged along the road to break up some of the ice. 

dragging the box scraper on the ice

some of the ground up ice on the road

smashing up a lot of the ice helped the sunshine get through and also gave us traction for the tires right away

on the way home, I noticed the wild turkeys roosting above our turtle pond

Max always grabs his ball to play when it's time to put the animals to bed in the evening, it's our time to play a little catch

this picture blurred, but it was too silly not to share

oh come on, chase me, you know you want to!

 what's going on? why aren't we inside where it's warm?

Mini Nut, Basswood and the turkeys waiting for bed

Beatrice thought there might be grain left in the scoop

there must have been something good in there...

mmmm.... 

where is the rest of it?

can we go inside now?

Both Snickerdoodle and Scarface (my toms) were strutting around today

I was surprised this morning to see that "someone" laid an egg!

It was you!

This evening it remained warm. The weather forecast is calling for snow but so far we've seen no sign of it. It felt like spring tonight and up at the barn, everyone was happy, playful, and it was warm enough you didn't even really need a coat.

The ice along the road by goat yard really melted a lot today since Kevin smashed it up. It's still pretty slippery in some spots but it's slowly going away. Hopefully it will either continue to melt, or we'll get a little snow to cover it up and we'll be done with the ice, at least for a while. I'd be happy to not have any more ice to deal with this winter, if anything, I'll take snow. 

The little dogs came out and poked around for a while in the warm air. They've been enjoying the warmer temperatures and have been spending a little more time exploring and playing outside.

We spent an afternoon splitting up some more firewood to fill our wood box up and when we get another nice day we'll head out into the bush to fell a few more trees to replenish our supplies. We are out of the danger zone now however, if the cold comes or snow, we have a reserve, and either way, winter can't last too much longer. We just really need to haul some more wood in for maple syrup time, to keep the evaporator running when the sap starts running.

My farrier came today and the horses have nicely trimmed hooves once again. He managed the road alright so we ventured out in the afternoon to restock with supplies so we won't have to worry about having to leave the farm again for a while.

 So basically, our feet are trimmed, we've got lots of food, and firewood, and we can rest easy without a care in the world.... at least for tonight.