Snow Days

So far January has been cold, windy, and snowy. It's been several years since we've had an actual snow. It snowed a couple of weeks ago and then stayed cold so it never really went away and then this week it snowed another couple inches. I'm not really sure how many inches of snow we got because the wind is so brutal on the hill we're on. All of the snow in the back yard blew away while there are drifts against the basement retaining wall 10 feet high. With the cold temperatures and fierce wind, the thermometer says it feels like 0 degrees. One morning it felt like -2 degrees. 

My office view

One morning during this cold spell while I was working from my computer inside a comfortable 75 degree house, I noticed the cows were acting strange. They weren't eating their hay and they kept mooing and congregating in one area of the field before moving and congregating in another spot. Usually the cows are very content and quiet. When Mike came up the driveway, they all started bellowing and ran to the fence to get as close to the truck as possible. Something was definitely not right. I knew they couldn't be hungry because they had just been fed hay not long ago. It turned out that the valve in the water trough had frozen so they were thirsty. Mike took a jug of hot water out to try and thaw it. As he walked out to the trough, all of the cows filed in line behind him to try to be first to quench their thirst. 

Cows following Mike to the water trough.

Cows are actually quite easy animals to take care of as long as they have adequate food and water. In this case, they didn't have water and they voiced their concerns to let us know that something wasn't right. Just another day at the office for me (snapping a few photos from the porch) while Mike saved the day and solved the problem.