Winter is Certainly Here

We woke up this morning to frost on the inside of the windows.  I'm confident we only got the predicted -5 degrees Celsius overnight and we're still not a patch on Lake Pukaki's -20 from yesterday.  That isn't much comfort however, especially as tonight -7 is predicted.

From MetService.com

As I'm sick with the flu, my darling Hubby has been starting work late and coming home early.  He's been out in the icy mornings getting Miss Nine off to the school bus and milking the cow before he goes to work.  He drags Miss Nine along with him in the evening to feed out the animals and get them settled for the night.

Next week, the homekill man is coming and there will be 8 less animals to worry about.  2 steers, 3 hoggets and 3 pigs are going into the freezer.  This will take some of the strain off the meagre feed resources after a drought-laden Summer and poor growing season.  We've already had to buy in more hay.  I'm a little cranky at how much more we paid for it as there are big chunks of wood throughout the bales - they're big enough that I'm putting them in the wood shed for firewood.

For some reason though, my hens have started to lay more.  They're all older birds so I don't expect an egg a day from them all, most moulted last month (with one changing colour as her new feathers came in) and it's been cold.  But somehow, my daily collection of eggs has doubled in the last week.  *Shrugs* I'm not complaining, I just find it a little odd.

Taken at 11am.

For now, we're keeping the fires burning, wearing thermals, feeding out the animals and I'm keeping an eye on the spots that don't thaw out at all during the day.