Holy Sheep! It's cold!

I look out my kitchen window and cringe at the mercury dropping. It is a whopping -37 this morning and then I go to my living room window and look out at my poor sheep and alpacas who are suffering in these bitter temperatures. Hubby went out a few days ago and built the alpacas a windbreak with square bails of hail. They seem to quite like it. But they are cold. They are very cold. Even with those wonderfully warm blankets of wool covering their bodies they must still suffer from the cold. We feed them twice a day but sometimes food doesn't make you warm. The sheep are not interested in the barn at all which is what I figured. It will come in handy down the road in spring when we are lambing.

I'm sure humankind was not meant for these kind of temperatures. Like lizards we should know our place and stay in warmer climates. I could definitely relate to a lizard on a rock in some tropical locale with my back roasting in the sun. Open my lips and stick out my tongue and grab a bite as it flies by. Nourishment, warmth and relaxation all combine to make the perfect life. I'm sure my alpacas were trying to tell me the same thing this morning as I fed them their daily quota of clover.

I wonder if it is these extreme cold temperatures which we have to endure each year that makes spinners and weavers so in love with their woolies. I can't imagine how spinners and weavers in the southern climes can manage to justify their fixation on fleece when they don't have cold temps to use as an excuse. "Darling I need to knit myself a new alpaca bikini." just doesn't sound as good as, "Dear, think how lovely that alpaca hat with the ear flaps will feel when the temperature dips to -40 next winter."

I also want to know if Murphy came to visit your house this festive season too. I mean the kids have been off from school for two weeks and I am wondering why the week they finished school the temperatures dipped below -20 and stayed there the whole time they have been off from school. Monday the schedule gets back to normal and the kids will be back in school. I just checked the forecast and the temperatures are supposed to start rising again... back up to minus single digits. So the poor teachers are going to get wired kids that have not been out through the door for two weeks and have had lots of Christmas chocolate. Murphy is certainly not their best friend either.

The one thing I can safely say is.... thank God the days are getting longer. Hopefully January will pass quickly and the temps will come around to something a little happier.

By the way.... what do you think of the blue and yellow of my blog for these frigid days of winter?

Happy hibernating to all..... I'm off to work on my alpaca sox to keep my toesies warm.