It was -14 degrees when we went outside to do the farm chores this morning, it is one of those mornings where my heart goes out to the animals who must stand in such cold all day – we will support them with grain and warmed water but can’t do much else, even the manure is frozen too solid in the ground to shovel. I’ve not yet had a border collie at ease in such cold – they were not bred for it, their paws stiffen and sting, but Red seems to have been bred for anything, he does not notice the cold any more than he seems to notice the snow.

This is the only kind of weather that makes me wonder sometimes if life might be easier without animals to feed and worry about. The cats are in the house, more about that later. When the temperature falls this law, the composition of matter begins to change, I recall my first winter upstate when we got to -30 more than once, it alters one’s perception of the world. This kind of cold seems rare now, and perhaps because of that, we feel it acutely. It will be warming up after tomorrow.