Melting Snow Makes Mud

The storm dumped about 2 feet of snow here in two days. Then the temperature climbed, and all that snow melted!  When I went out to feed my Fjord Horse I discovered his stall floor is imperceptibly lower than the ground outside the stall.  It was low enough that his stall was partially flooded.  I decided I needed to dig a trench to drain the water.  Digging the trench in the stall was easy enough.  But, continuing the trench outside was nearly impossible, because although the snow was melting, the ground was frozen.  But, after two hours of work I completed the trench, drained the stall, and filled in the floor with additional dirt to raise the level. I finished by putting fresh bedding down. So, once again Haldor has a dry stall to shelter in. 

The snow, melting all at once, also turned my guinea fowls' pen into a swamp.  The weight of the snow caused the tarp roof to sag.  The melting snow was soaking through the tarp and soaking the pen.  I certainly could not leave my twenty-five two month old guinea fowl in there. I decided to put them in with my five hens who have a 4’x8x6’ pen in the barn. The chickens immediately hated the alien invaders and started pecking them! I caught the chickens and put them out of the pen. They strutted around the outside of the pen using fowl language (hee hee!) to express their anger. I quickly built a brush pile in one end of the pen for the young guinea fowl to hide in. Then I put the chickens back in. All is quiet now. Phew! 

Not much time for art today!