At our farm, one small act of kindness that can always start the day for Maria and I on a Sunday morning is going outside in the bitter cold to do the morning chores while the other stays behind and dozes under our heated blankets, usually with a dog curled up nearby.

Sometimes she does this for me, this morning, she was in a deep sleep and was tired from a Saturday of work and chores. I saw the frost on the window and crept out of bed. It was sometime after 6 a.m.

When Maria is rested, you can’t stop her from hopping out of bed and rushing to feed the animals. When she doesn’t move or announce its time to get up, she is tired and needs more time to rest.

I got up, collected my socks and underwear,  took a heavy blue bathrobe off the hook and crept quietly with the dogs. I turned on the bedroom baseboard heater to warm the room up  a bit before I left.

The temperature downstairs was 57 degrees, I turned the oil heat on for a few minutes to take the edge off of the cold while the wood stoves warmed up.

I let the dogs out briefly – it was four degrees on the backyard thermometer. I filled the dog food bowls, let the dogs in. I put some logs on the fires in the stoves.

I fed the fish – two pinches – and then fed the barn cats down in the warm cellar, where they spend cold nights and snowy days – it is never cooler than 55 degrees down there.

I put Bud in his crate with a piece of rawhide, let Fate and Red out. But doesn’t need to go outside in weather that cold, except to tend to his business.

I put on a pair of tattered sleepers, put a wool cap on my head and tightened the robe on my bathrobe, so as not to frighten eagle-eyed passers by. I put a red cowl around my neck.  I put on my heavy Carrhart winter gloves, with thinsulate.

Jeans would have been smart, but I preferred the robe.

Red came to help. He lies by the gate while we do the chores now, or sits down near the sheep. Fate waits eagerly for the sheep to race around and around the sheep, doing nothing in particular of any importance, but loving it.

I went into the barn and got two fat leaves of hay, and went out into the pasture. Red walked ahead of me and lay down between the donkeys and the sheep, so as to keep the sheep in place.

The animals were hungry, I spread the hay in the feeders, and let Fate run a bit. There was a sharp arctic wind and the cold ran right up my legs, I reminded myself to move quickly and efficiently. This was frostbite weather with a strong wind.

I called the dogs off, went and opened the chicken coop, filled the chickens heated water bowl, filled the heated water bucket for the sheep and donkeys.

I can’t tell you how good it felt to think of Maria sleeping under the warm blanket, she works so hard on the farm, does so many chores, I do so little in comparison. It’s a gift to help her sleep late on a cold morning.

I came into the kitchen to thaw out my freezing face and toes, the dogs were happy to huddle near the fire. I put more logs into the wood stoves and put some hot water on for tea. The house had already warmed up – the stoves are quite wonderful – and I turned the oil heat off for the day. Even in that cold, the stoves keep the farmhouse warm.

I made a piece of toast for Maria and gave myself the morning insulin shot, took some heart medication pills and had a half a banana to put something in my stomach to keep the medication company. I gave each of the dogs something to chew on, I knew they would soon be by the fire.

I waited too long to eat some solid food – I always take it before the medication – and I got nauseous and then sick. It was over in a minute. I tolerate my medications well, but when I don’t think about them, I pay for it.

As I was heading up the stairs, Maria was coming down. She was on fire to try out her new Fuji Instant  Camera, the one the artists love to  use.

She took some photos, we had some tea, we went back upstairs to go to bed and sleep. There are few things more satisfying for me than to see Maria figure out how to make beautiful things with a new creative tool.

I was glad to get upstairs.

Maria had turned the heated blanket on for me, on my side of the bed,  a big act of great kindness, and we held one another in the warmth and both went back to sleep.

She was grateful to get some more rest. Me too.