Hooves on Ice
I don’t know if we are doing this right. I’d love some advice!! By, Sunday afternoon, our snow turned to snow under ice as freezing rain covered the homestead. Literally, everything was / is covered in a sheet of ice.
While the goats don’t seem to mind rain or snow, ice is a different story. Our goats are Spanish Heritage Meat Goats…they are large, about 100 – 120 pounds. Imagine being a goat….walking around in life on high heels….their hooves remind me of heels. What a weird design hooves are….anyway…..here you are, walking around on an icy surface in heels. It would be a bit precarious, at best. Remember, Bambi??
Call it experience, intelligence, or instinct……the goats do not venture out of their barn when they sense the ground is slippery and icy. As the ice became a bit more brittle later in the day, they did eventually venture out. I feel badly for them because they just stood around getting really wet from the rain that pooled on top of the icy covered snow. I have to wonder if we should have done something different for them. Should we have closed them in for the day? Is it okay that they just stand out there and get thoroughly wet?
They do have a thick, winter coat on….it does repel water and snow away from their skin, but will it eventually get saturated?
Will they be chilled throughout the night? Any suggestions or shareable insight out there?? I hope they were comfortable through the night.
The goats’ bedding is dry and very thick
The chickens seem to have more sense. On days like yesterday, they stay in their house, or on their covered porch. Ice and snow are not their things, and they know it. Unfortunately, I did not build their chicken cabana, as in winters past this year. I blame it on a certain puppy.
Sometime in the very early hours of Monday morning, snow started to fall again. These were big, chunky, fat flakes….they were the type that would land on the dog….and stay on the dog…haha!
Quickly, our footprints were filled in by the fluff, and quickly the new fallen snow started turning into slush within the well defined grooves of tire tracks…..
…..and footprints.
As of Monday afternoon, the pond was still frozen, there was copious amounts of snow still to melt, and beautiful pictures yet to be taken. It is so strange to be covered in frozen for this long….imagine doing this for a three, four, or even five month stretch. Guess what?? There is more snow in the forecast tonight, and tomorrow. Am I dreaming of spring….not yet. I think I would like to take in the beauty of it all for just awhile longer.
Thank you for visiting our frozen homestead today. May you have a wonderful, tenth of January.
Your friend from Oregon,
Tami
Build Me a Dream 