Thursday, November 30, 2006, 20:12

A Big Fat Zero

All right. So who turned down the thermostat outside and forgot to turn it up again?

After at least a week of temperatures in the 40s and sometimes upper 50s, I could hardly believe my eyes when I looked at the thermometer this morning as Pixie wandered around in the bushes, looking for a place to go potty.

The thermometer said it was 1 whole degree above zero. (I am tempted to say it stood right at zero, but really, I think it was 1 degree above.)

When I went back inside, the weather forecaster on television informed me that the windchill was BELOW zero by 11 degrees.

11 degrees below zero.

No wonder I felt like the skin on my face was freezing as I stood out in the yard.

After all of the rain the other day, it almost impossible to walk around out in the horse pastures. The mud that was soft and gooey the other day has frozen into ridges and mounds that make it painful for the horses to walk, especially after getting their feet trimmed. It's not so easy for me, either!

Last night I took fresh buckets out to the horses with warm water so they would have water to drink. Their buckets from the evening feeding were already frozen. I had to bring in frozen buckets again this morning, too.

To tell you the truth, if it's this cold, we'd be better off with snow on the ground to protect plants and their roots. But we don't have any snow. And none is forecasted in the immediate future.

I can tell you one thing -- abrupt changes in temperature like this are hard on a person. One day it's balmy and the next day it is below zero. If this was in January, we'd probably think a windchill of 11 degrees below zero felt warm. But in contrast to the 50s of a few days ago, I feel as if I will never been warm again. (I will, though; next summer when it's 106 degrees in the shade. I MUST remember that!)

Snowflake -- Good heavens but little Snowflake is growing up fast! Two days ago, on Tuesday, on her five-week birthday, she used the litter box for the very first time! And she's been spending a lot of time out and about in the house, too. She has discovered the bedroom. And my office. And the bathroom. Sometimes when I can't find her, I look in the bathroom, and there she is, curled up on a couple pair of my socks. I WAS going to put the socks in the laundry, but I guess not. Not until Snowflake has decided she isn't going use them for napping anymore.

Snowflake spends most of the day out in the house. When she gets hungry, she comes to find me, and then I warm up a little formula for her. She is very interested in licking dry kitten chow softened with formula, but she hasn't really eaten much of it yet. She is also interested in licking dry kitten chow. She is not ONE BIT interested in canned kitty food. I shouldn't be suprised. Her momma doesn't like canned kitty food, either. Every once in a while, I take canned food down to the barn as a treat for the barn cats. Little Sister sniffs it and then goes after the dry food. Snowflake does the same thing. Sniffs the canned food and decides she'd rather do something else rather than try to eat it.

This morning, while I was working on newspaper articles, Pixie curled up under the desk by my feet. Snowflake toddled over to Pixie, who jumped up to get out of the way. Pixie jumping up scared Snowflake, and oh, my goodness, did she hiss. You should have seen her tail, too. It looked like a bottle brush! Pixie likes Snowflake, but the kitten has a tendency to try to bite Pixie's nose or her ears, so when she sees Snowflake coming, she gets out of the way.

Where the Green Grass Grows -- My copies of Where the Green Grass Grows ought to be arriving by Wednesday of next week (or maybe before). If you want to order a copy (or copies) from me, you can find the book order form here. Otherwise, you can order from Booklocker here.


LeAnn R. Ralph