The Beauty Of Ice - Part 1

Winter really arrived in January. I went out one day to give the cows a new bale of hay and found about 6" of snow with 1/4" of ice on top of it - and a rapidly growing lake of cold water on top of that. The falling rain was freezing rapidly and we were to drop to near 0 degrees that night, with a low of minus 23 two nights later:

The scene outside my door was kind of pretty, but treacherous:

The hay bales were covered with ice:

The apple tree branches were covered with ice:

The fence wires and gate were covered with ice too, but the poor cattle had to endure the cold rain. For that matter, I had to endure it also, but at least I got to go back inside the warm house when I had finished my work:

The fence posts and fencing were icy and those fuzzy, red clumps you see consisted of cow hair. The girls had been scratching their itches on that fence post:

Each Goldenrod plant was coated in ice:

This plant looked awfully familiar, and I thought it was in the mint family, so I looked it up when I got back inside the house. I think it was Mentha arvensis, or Wild Mint, and it too had a clear coating of ice:

The Box Elder seemed to have a crystal coating:

And all my Tall Garden Phlox:

I wasn't sure, but I thought this fine textured plant was Bedstraw. I was traipsing around in the water, ice and snow while I took photos and there are more to show you, so I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: