The Big Ice Storm - Part 2

The ice storm had made wild food hard to find and my bird feeders became even more popular than usual. I began taking pictures of the tamer birds, like this Chickadee:

And this Chickadee with a Goldfinch right behind him on the ice covered branches of the lilac:

Two Goldfinches:

One Goldfinch:

This Chickadee took off just as I snapped the photo. But I'd delayed getting doing the chores long enough, so I put my camera in my coat pocket and headed for the barn:

I cleaned the barn which, after two days of cows, was a filthy mess. I cleaned out three tractor buckets full of manure, urine and sodden bedding. Then I speared two big hay bales and dropped them inside the bale feeder. The Red Poll girls were happy then:

Jasmine smiled at me, grateful for all the new hay:

Rosella stuck her head beneath the upper bale to get at what she considered "the good stuff." I began breaking off icicles to keep them from poking the cows' heads and then I used the tractor to push down the upper bale to keep it from falling on Rosella's head:

With happy cows, I was free to move on to other chores:

I checked back later and found the cows had temporarily eaten their fill and were chewing their cuds:

All was well after two days of hardship: