On Monday, the construction crew got the joists up on the roof, but today they had to quit due to the snow. Ken’s been up top clearing snow off to try and keep it safe for when they have time to work on it.
Our fencing crew couldn’t make it up the hill, so the gates didn’t get hung yet. Most of the rest of the fence is done enough to survive winter. It’s a good thing – over 100 elk came down yesterday and were on the property just north of us, eyeing the orchard through the new fence.
Our sheep love the snow. Nice, warm wool coats mean they don’t feel the cold, and as you can see, they are well-insulated. They do tend to eat more during cold weather.
We feed out about 650 pounds of hay, or 10 bales, to the sheep each day. It’s actually not an even 650 pounds each day – instead, we fill feeders when they’re empty. Some days, we put out a lot more; some days, we don’t put out any. Today, we fed 13 bales of hay to the sheep and 4 to the horses. Tomorrow, we’ll only need to fill one feeder where the for-sale and sold sheep are.
When it snows, we don’t have to worry about water for the sheep. They can get all the water they need from fresh, clean, fluffy snow. That saves us a lot of time. Sheep love their snow cones!