(Friends, all my photos are free, none are watermarked or copyrighted. They are a gift I offer the world in exchange for my good life, for your unwavering support for good. Feel free to print them out, use them for computer screens,  put them in a folder, meditate on them, as some people do,  and enjoy them during the dark and cold days. No charge.)

Today, winter showed its teeth, bringing soaking rain, mud, snow, and ice. I felt terrible for the animals; they had such an easy, warm summer and fall, lush green grass, endless grazing.

But since they don’t know they are suffering, I can keep some perspective. They have perfect lives.

The donkeys and sheep were hungry this afternoon, no more grazing for a while. We dumped a ton of gravel in the pole barn a couple of weeks ago (with the help of our Amish neighbors), and the ground in there is dry, soft and suitable for sleeping and lying down.

And just in the nick of time. The cold tends to run right through to Spring once the bad weather starts up here.

I put on my new boots and ventured out with the Leica to help Maria with the feeding. The shoes are a godsend. I spread some hay but couldn’t resist taking photos. The Leica is 100 percent waterproof.

I’m not.

I love border collies. The colder, wetter, messier, smellier, and muddier it is, the happy they are.

Look at the sparkle in Fate’s eyes as the temperature drops, the pasture turns to muck, and she’s covered in freezing snow and ice up to her haunches.

She could not be happier. I made Zinnia sit outside the pasture gate, imagine all that mud on her white fur.

Donkeys and sheep are desert animals; they know how to deal with cold weather and warm weather. Of the two, they prefer cold. The donkeys seem impervious to the weather, except for icy rain. They don’t like that.

The sheep have thick coats by now, and I wonder if they even notice the snow. They do miss grazing and get anxious and hungry. I am glad they have a roomy, dry, and daily- groomed pole barn to sleep in and watch the snow.

Stay warm, stay dry, be hopeful.