Some early morning excitement, the manure pile caught fire by the hay feeder just as a big balloon came sailing over the farm, panicking the sheep and the dogs and sending Frieda into a frenzy. Yesterday, we threw some ashes from the wood stove out in the pasture, they were two days old and seemed cold but they landed next to a pile of donkey manure –  used as fuel in some parts of the world – and last night, the pile ignited. I thought it was just the manure steaming in the cold until the plume grew thick and white, so we rushed out and damped it down – very lucky there was no strong wind and none of it made it’s way to the nearby barn.

As we came out, Frieda went crazy and the donkeys and sheep took off for the side pasture, spooked by the sound of the gas inflating the balloon, which came close enough for the kids inside to yell that we had nice dogs. Life on a farm takes all kinds of exciting twists and turns, the donkeys and sheep returned, we got the fire out, Frieda calmed down – I told her she chased the balloon away – things returned to what might be called normal.