This weather is hard on the animals, it isn’t that they are cold – these are desert and mountain animals, they are hardy and built for harsh weather. They are pinned in the barn with no place to go – the snow is piled up all around them. The ice rains keep coming, and that is weather they dislike.

They have shelter and we are feeding the donkeys in the barn, giving them second cut hay, and also some grain for energy. We have also put fallen branches from trees into the barn so they have something to nibble on other than the barn itself.

Our chicken wire is holding up, no more holes in the walls. Tonight will be harsh, tomorrow a little warmer, Wednesday closer to normal. Not being able to move about or graze, even on stubbles, is hard on them. Grazing is natural to them, and they do get restless, even bored.

I also know they can handle this weather. donkeys and sheep have lived out in the elements forever. I am feeling this kind of cold acutely, it is draining and even depressing at times. Today is a Siberian kind of day.

I think acting class is on, I’ll be eager to get there. I remember reading the old farm journals that inspired the Farm Journal. Storms like this were killers, there was no way to get hay to the animals, many of whom died of starvation, and sometimes, the farmers and their families starved to death also. There were no First Responders when my farm was built, I remind myself of that before I complain.