Weird weather

The weird weather in the south continues. The locals keep apologising to us; “It’s not normally this wet/cold”. It was VERY wet last year.

This winter has started off VERY cold and yesterday we had 2″ of snow. Oh my. Did that cause chaos or what? Atlantans are just not used to snow and ice. They don’t have this infrastructure to cope with such events like the northern states. If you add in the inability to drive in such conditions you will understand that the roads were not a place to be yesterday! There were bangs, bashes, slips and slides. Some were stuck on the road for 6hrs going nowhere. There were kids stuck on school buses and lots slept overnight at school. I stayed at home in the warm in between feeding and (warm) watering the animals. There was only limited poop scooping as it was frozen.

As always, the chickens were total amusement. As it began snowing, they were out and about on their normal circuit of the property. As the grass got covered they made their way to the barn to gaze out in bewilderment. Come the end of the day, when they would normally go back to the coop, they simply refused to cross the snow to get in. They needed persuading 🙂

It's too darn cold .... we're not coming out!
It’s too darn cold …. we’re not coming out!

This morning I cleared a path to their normal feeding area. They ventured out for a few minutes and then, one by one, retreated to the coop. I let them have breakfast in bed today. Poor things.

The alpacas are quite a sensible bunch as they came straight in when it started to snow. This morning they are out and about in the sunshine.

Camera shy herd
Camera shy herd
Sadie always thinks I have food
Sadie always thinks I have food

Our barn cats, Big Cat and Knee High, live outdoors and are coping with the weather well. Big Cat has lots of fur and Knee High stays in the cat igloo with the heating mat on full! Big Cat is braver and was out exploring the territory this morning.

Big Cat looking for "snow mice"
Big Cat looking for “snow mice”

Meanwhile the pampered pooches, Cagney and Lacey were loving a run around in the white stuff that they’ve not seen in over a year.

Chase me, chase me.
Chase me, chase me.