Snow Delights

Three little donkeys were de-lighted when I opened the pasture gate about three weeks ago.  It had been off limits for some time so we could have some confidence there would actually be a pasture in the spring.  But with the ground frozen and snow covering the grass, I thought it safe.

They apparently were tickled pink -- here's their little trudging trails

Frozen Poopsicles

The morning trek started out reasonably well.  Pretty chilly out (9 degrees), but I layered up and wasn't feeling any pain taking the hot slop out to the gang.  However, the real fun started when I tried to dump a wheelbarrow full of frozen manure.  I was smart enough to take the pitchfork along (even though its plastic) so it was a process of dump, loosen, dump, loosen, etc.   Finally I just said, enough, and left the rest of the frozen mass.  Phooey!

Then trudged back to clean up.  Watching the antics is always amusing and keeps my mind off the cold. Usually the girls gang up on Luigi and try to push him out of the way to grab the mealtime hay, but this morning he was pushing his weight around keeping the girls out of their feed dishes.  I intervened and gave him a little smack on the rear-end telling him not to be a bully.