Changes in the weather

Yesterday the temperature dropped by tens of degrees in a matter of hours. This morning all the water troughs were frozen solid. There is nothing more pathetic than a big white duck sitting on a frozen block of ice that the day before was a baby pool full of water. It was pathetic not in the attempt, but in the length of time - Ping sat, waiting for some sort of magical transformation of ice to water to occur, close to 10 minutes before he slid off in frustration.

It was 8 degrees here this morning. The water line to the coop was frozen. I had to carry buckets from the house to the coop and back five times. I've broken the ice for the birds and goats twice today. It's a good thing I got to use my executive powers and call a snow day today.

I'm sure that every teacher that enters administration experiences a shock of pleasure the first time she gets to cancel school due to weather. It is the ultimate power to posess the code needed to put your school's name on that cancellation list scrolling across the bottom of the television screen during the local morning news. What child wouldn't sell their soul for that code? Well, it's stuck to the side of my fridge kiddies, and I'm not sharing!

The down side of posessing that power is getting up at 5 a.m., checking to see if the public schools are cancelled, calling teachers to check the weather, calling the board chair to make sure you have the cancellation policy correct, and then knowing that some parent will still show up to an empty building at 8 a.m. and wonder what the hell is going on.

Did I mention that we only had about 1/2 an inch of snow?