This was yesterday morning. It was cold, but sunny and no wind, so...perfect! Today it's "warm", windy and rainy and the blue skies and white snow have been replaced by...you guessed it...more mud.
While this looks like a rather boring picture, there's more to the story. If you look closely (sorry it's so dark), Frankie is laying down sleeping in his stall. Right near the front, overlooking his hillside. Altogether now...aww...isn't he cute :-). Let me back up a bit.
When the temps drop into the single digits, I don't even try to start the old ATV that pulls the small manure spreader. The manure freezes as well, so even if you could go out and spread it on the fields, the frozen chunks stick together, hit the tines and fly out, usually aimed at the back of your head.
I'd turned Frankie out 24/7 so he could keep moving around all night and stay warmer. I still fed him in his stall though and was keeping an eye on it. If it got too messy, I could always pile it up and then spread it after it warmed up. I was happy to see it was staying clean, thinking he was just pooping outside.
Yesterday morning, as I walked past all the open stalls to carry his hay down to the end of the barn so he could eat next to his sheep friends, I just happened to glance into Hank's stall, the middle one. It was completely buried in poop. Frankie had using Hank's stall as his litter box, keeping his own stall nice and tidy.
Poor Hank...but I've got to give Frankie credit for using his head...to be a bit of a butt ;-D
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