Themometer malfunction?

First thing this morning I looked at the themometer and it read -16 C. I thought, Dang, the weather broke our thermometer! I called to my man, "Can you check the other one? This one says minus 16!" and he ran to the window to check. He said, "No way" and ran outside to see what the car says. All three agreed it was -16 out. I said "I've never been in this cold before! Help me put Baasha's other blanket on!"

As fast as possible, my man ripped the one blanket off, and I threw the new one on in the same split second. So Baasha wouldn't freeze solid in that moment, we worked together to get both blankets snugly around him. Baasha was fine, but I only saw a few hoofprints in snow outside his stall. The hoofprints didn't go further than a few yards from the stalldoor. (BTW, -16 C is 3 F)

Too cold for Baasha

We were visiting with him and Baasha finally ventured out into the pristine snow. He got about 20 feet from his stall before very carefully turning around and going back inside his stall. Then he made me laugh, he tossed his head in several indignant circles. Clearly he was frustrated that it is "impossible" outside!






Mr Plow
My man and I woke up suddenly last night to a new noise for us. A snowplow was going by slowly in the middle of the night, and the scraping of that blade on our street was a novel noise for us. I saw flashing yellow lights as it spread salt and I said, "It's a snowplow!!" Later it came back but this time we just woke up, but we didn't jump out of bed. The snow crews work great here, even though we live on a tiny little street. (I got my second strand of blue lights in the mail this week and hung them above the stall. The blue looks so pretty in the snow!)



Accumulation

We have accumulation! I would say about three inches. Just enough to go squeak, squeak, squeak under your shoes, and make everything gorgeous.

My man and I swept our entire driveway. Not just for us, but we were expecting a hay delivery and wanted it to be easy for him. Wow, my man looks great sweeping. He is so graceful in everything he does, even this.








We have hay

And yet, our hay delivery arrived. This time 28 little bales delivered in of those tiny European trailers. I love that we don't have to pay, hehe, he gets to grow hay in our field, and we get our bales. First I gave Carsten some candy cane cookies I'd made, which I have to make again.









Christmas Cooking Aside
They taste like shortbread. Using beet juice as red food coloring works!













(Who knows if they have food coloring in Germany?) Anyway, I'd never had candy cane cookies and I think they are festive, and now that I have had all this trial and error, I can do them pretty well! Go to my expat buddy Sonya's site to learn how to make them!



My man stacked all the hay, counting bale by bale. I love how in Germany, your hay farmer does it all - he fertilizes the field, grows the hay, bales it, and then brings hay and actually fills your loft in very orderly stacks. All very old fashioned, they throw each bale by hand up there. I cannot throw a bale. I had to heft them up against the ladder for my man to reach.

We had two left out in the snow, because I'd discovered mold on those two. Made for a nice photo, I think: ) I must have used the flash cuz the snow is all sparkly in this pic. They look so neglected and sad, I mean, who leaves hay out in the snow!?! (The hay guy took them back.)








And then the sun came out. Happy day to be out early enough to see it break across the snowy ground.












Baasha spied reindeer flying. I mean the horses across the street.












He chews a carrot thoughtfully and feels that things simply cannot get worse.












This is from yesterday, when Baasha was brave enough to try to eat through the snow. Poor boy! Only a few minutes and then he was back inside.









This is how it looks now, nighttime on Finally Farm: )