Birds and Weather Comments

            More photos from Fleur-Ange of our bird feeder activity:

            In all of the years that I have been living on this property with Fleur-Ange, I have not had such ice/snow conditions. We had an ice storm on top of snow, then a bit more snow, a 24 hour thaw, then a hard freeze. The result is a very icy snow cover that is very difficult to walk upon. Even my "icers",i.e. cleats that fit on the bottom of my boots, are not gripping the ice. Both the dog and I are doing a lot of sliding and both of us have fallen. Actually, the dog has had more falls than I. Neither of us have been hurt but the strain of careful walking is making my muscles sore.

            Below is a photo of the ice in front of the barn. I had to use a pick to dig some of the ice from under the door so I could get it open yesterday and had to use a pliers to open the frozen lock both on the outside door and even on the door in between the donkey's stall and the goat's stall as the wind had blown snow and mist across the stall to freeze the inside lock.

            Looking forward with anticipation for a thaw and the spring season too.