7th February

This week it was finally -20°C. That's actually much better because you don't have to constantly take off your jacket or look for your gloves. You don't even think about taking off your things and leaving them somewhere. But today it was also very windy and the wind was so cold that your face immediately froze. But it's really funny when you come inside and you notice how you can move your individual facial muscles again ;) This week, the sheep took a break from giving birth to babies. Now, only one sheep lambs at most every day, and some don't lamb at all. On Friday, we gave all the sheep a deworming treatment, and once you can catch the sheep, it can even be fun. Laurie has this big bottle that you can tie on your back and it's connected to a syringe with a tube (where the right amount comes out). It went well at the beginning and we were pretty fast, but then everything froze and we had to do it like you do with horses.

And I made a lot of ice cream again...this time maple ice cream (it tastes like maple syrup) and it tasted really good, so I had to make twice as much the next day and we ate it all again ;) And I also got to take hay bales off the stack and make those round metal things for the cows on the pasture all by myself for the first time with the tractor. (I don't know what they're called, but I happened to have a photo where they can be seen in the background).

The best part about feeding is that you see wild animals quite often. One day, while I was filling up the water, a moose jumped over the fence :) It wasn't further than 50 m away from me, but then the dogs came and chased it away. There are a lot of moose here, but usually the dogs chase them away before I can see them. They also had a moose cow and a calf that regularly came to steal hay, but they don't come anymore :(. And today while I was feeding the cows, I saw 2 coyotes chasing a deer (specifically a white-tailed doe). I've seen white-tailed does before. The last time I was driving a car and they jumped over the fence about 100 m in front of me on the right side, crossed the road, and then jumped over the fence on the left side. They can really jump high and the one today was quite confused because just as she escaped from the coyotes, she was chased by all our dogs.

I've never seen coyotes before, but I've heard them a few times. Sometimes all the dogs start barking at once (including the ones from the neighboring farms). Usually, it's because there are coyotes somewhere, but they're too far away to be heard by humans. And otherwise, you often see giant birds. They're bigger than the ones in Germany, but I'm not very familiar with birds. The only ones I recognized were owls and eagles. Once while I was driving a car, there was a giant eagle with a white head sitting on the side of the road - so I'm not sure, but theoretically, it could have been a bald eagle. Laurie also said that you can often see bears here in the spring, but they're hibernating now. I would love to send you a photo of the moose or deer, but they're always too fast.