The Big Ice Storm - Part 1

Our weather warmed up from a nighttime low of minus 24 F but then it began to snow - and snow and snow. Then the snow turned to freezing rain and the cows begged to come indoors. I let them in, thinking it would be temporary:

The poor cows were covered with icicles and hungry, so instead of cleaning the barn, I left them indoors and began carrying armloads of hay to them, which they gobbled greedily:

They stayed indoors for two days, casually dining on dry, unfrozen hay which I'd stored in the barn to be used as bedding. As for what the barn floor looked like after two days of continuous cow poop and pee, I'll leave that to your imagination:

The apple tree branches were covered with ice:

I pushed the cows out of the barn after the freezing rain stopped. They weren't happy about it at first:

They crunched through the snow, investigating the icicle covered branches of the Box Elder tree:

Rosella walked over to the east side of the tree and looked confused:

I'd moved the hay bale feeder the previous day and now it too was covered with a half inch of ice, and icicles hung from every horizontal bar:

I walked back around to the other side of the barn, snapping another photo of the icy apple trees, which had accumulated even more ice:

The Rugosa Rose branches and hips were covered with ice which looked like crystal. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: