Re-configuring the troops for the Polar Vortex

If you are in this part of the country then you know the Polar Vortex is back. Most of this winter has been pretty mild but the snow and cold have come roaring back. It isn't going well here. The barnyard troops are really taking a beating. Having to deal with warm-then-cold weather is tough on everyone.

I'm fighting my Polar Vortex vexation with tiny pies. 

The other day during chores we left the goat gate open thinking that Debbie and Nibbles would just shove their heads in the food trough. Nope. They made a break for it - much to the delight of the dogs. Where on earth were they headed?

The Turkey House. Can you believe it?

See? They are little. Yay!

Remember last year all of the goats were cooped up in the Turkey House which is better protected from the wind and safer to hand a heat light? Deb and Nibs remembered those luxurious digs and ran straight over there. They were sorely disappointed to find out that it is stuffed full of meat chickens.

We dragged them back to the Goat House but we got the message.

Despite all of our reservations we hung a heat lamp in the Goat House... but that still didn't do the trick. So it looks like yours truly will be out there shuffling the troops around.

I also made some fresh bread.  It's been a carb free for all.

Re-configuring for this kind of cold ends up being like one of those puzzles. We can't put the goats in the garage and they cant double up with the clucks. So I have to move the meats into the garage, but first I have to build a pen. Then I need to shuttle the creepy meats one by one into the garage, double straw the Turkey House, rehang all kinds of heat lamps, THEN move the goats over... and hope everyone doesn't die and we don't burn the garage and the Turkey House to the ground.

Of course we are kicking ourselves because we SHOULD have butchered a bunch of the meats on Saturday when it was nice and warm. Ugh.

Everyone just needs to live until Monday when our temperatures will moderate. Next weekend it will be 45*.  Until then I'm suiting up for arctic exploration and meat hauling. No one is happy.

But I'm fueled by an 'all meat, all carbs' binge that has included fresh bread, lasagna made from scratch, and tiny pies. It's part of my strategy for staying warm in a cold house.... lots and lots of baking. Is the house really cold? Nope. But I still don't like the furnace and all these Nordi-style dogs don't like it either. Kai and Zander love the cold weather and they would rather be outside in the snow. So we compromise and I bake all day and they hang out in the cooler parts of the house and wish I would just let them go outside and sit in the snow. Dogs. *sigh*

Happy Friday everyone - are you surviving the cold? Are you ready? Is the Vortex vexing you? I'm vexed.