Wisconsin winters are supposed to be cold. One of the reasons we live here is because we want seasons and we think drifts of snow are pretty. But this past week has been just ridiculous.

Last night was the second in a row that dipped below our window thermometer’s absolute bottom of negative 30. My kids haven’t had a full day of school for 3 days. This morning our on-demand hot water heater was on the blink because it couldn’t draw enough propane from the tank outside (we got it moving by shining halogen lights on the regulator). But we’ve got plenty of wood stacked on the front porch (thank you, teenage sons!) and gathered around the living room woodstove we are perfectly cozy. Miraculously, all the animals are doing just fine, from the black ducks tucked into their doghouses in the back garden to little Shiver, the tiny month-old lamb snuggled up by her mother in the stone calving barn. When we got out from under our covers at 8:30 this morning, Pigabella was already out of her hut running back and forth in the snowy paddock and Howie, our Great Pyrr polar bear, was sitting outside of his house waiting to be unchained so he could hustle up to his daily guardpost on the wooded hillside next door. Last night we tried to bring him in the house with our little cowdog, Sunny, who always comes in when it’s below zero. Not only did Howie refuse our kind offer to let him lumber around the kitchen, he ran off to his house like he’d escaped incarceration.

I’m sure the animals all think we’re pretty lazy for sleeping in on these frigid days. They really do stand anxiously facing the front door of the house waiting for us to emerge each morning! Today I didn’t head out until noon. Though we indulge ourselves with a late start on chores until the sun warms things up a bit, we do lots of work before these cold snaps to give our animals the best care possible when they hit. First and foremost, extra food is essential. Most of our animals are ruminants and their multiple stomachs actually serve as heaters for their bodies as they digest hay. So they get bales to munch free-choice. Second, animals require lots of lukewarm water when the temperature is extremely cold because otherwise they’ll use too much energy to thaw snow or icy water. We have electric heaters in all of our water troughs.

Finally, they need housing that is dry and blocks the wind. Our chickens are locked into their house for the coldest months of the winter, but the rest of the animals are free to come and go. Generally, goats like to stick to their shelters in winter, but the cows, sheep and horses don’t spend much time in them at all unless it’s windy. Most often, the cows lay around on the hay they’ve tossed out of their bale in the middle of the pasture. The horses stand in their corral and eat all day. And the sheep curl up in the snow out on a sunny hill in their pasture. But none of our animals live in any sort of proper barn. They share various three-sided structures, all of which face away from the predominant North winds. When it’s really cold, we add fluffy hay to the floors which gives everyone some extra insulation should they want it. It constantly amazes us that they rarely do.

As for us, we’re pretty serious about our boots and long johns and face masks and liners in our gloves. We smear petroleum jelly on our exposed noses when we traipse out for the half hour we spend on morning and evening chores these subzero days. Tomorrow it will be a balmy 24 degrees and we’ll spend more time outside restocking the feeders and watering troughs in anticipation of the next blast. Maybe I’ll take some pictures of how peaceful and gorgeous the farm is in the grip of winter. And I’ll thank God again that we’ve all made it through another low point.