Jan 1, 2013

Our new year started off cold but sunny. So good to have the sunshine, it was almost enough to negate the cold cold temperatures until working outside. We needed to move a round bale in for the weanlings and decided to move them today over to Raven's old paddock. The round bale feeder was positioned just so, the gate knocked off the frozen ground and swung open wide waiting and then waiting some more. After hearing a loud snap I knew it wasn't going to happen today. The frozen air caused the bale spear to snap off when Mark was trying to lift the bale. Tomorrow a new one must be purchased, there is no way to move a round bale without that spear. Diane called from Middle Grove to report all 30 horses were out grazing and loafing in the sunshine. She emailed the pictures below.

The picture below is Spark out ice fishing on the big lake at Middle Grove.

Makes me shiver just looking at the picture. Another new year tradition is a big pot some kind of soup, usually vegetable beef barley but today chicken and wild rice soup was on the menu. We enjoyed some for dinner, some taken over to mom's and the rest frozen for later. The rest of the day was spent reading and feeding the fire.