BRRRRR!

It's darn cold out here tonight - perhaps not by northern or prairie standards, but minus ten celsius is darn cold for the great wet coast. The water lines to the barn, freshly insulated and boxed in this fall, have finally frozen up so I'm back to hauling warm water from the house two or three times a day. Pigs are big water consumers, and it doesn't help that they are also sloppy ones - Scotch routinely shoves his chin on the edge of the bowl to spill it all over the floor as it flows into his mouth.

I picked up 50 pounds of carrots today and 40 more pounds of apples, so they had a great pre-dinner treat this afternoon, outside in the snow and bright sunshine even if the sun provided no warmth.

Now they are all buried deeply in the straw under their blankets. I have never figured out how they manage to take piled-up, twisted-up, shredded-up blankets and get all twelve of them neatly covered with every inch of piggy skin hidden from view. I swear Martin the alpaca must be tippy-toeing into the barn and nicely spreading the blankets over them once they are nestled in straw.

Tonight they didn't even move when I walked through the straw to close the barn door for the night - now that tells me it is really cold, because those piglets never miss a chance to talk me into giving them just a little more to eat before bed!

Belle had her first real visit to the groomer's today. She had briefly seen Sam when she first came into rescue, to get her much overgrown nails clipped. Today she had the full monty - nails, ears, bath, trim, brush - I wouldn't be surprised if she even had a massage! Sam at Markeyda's Dog Grooming in Langley is just awesome and a great supporter of the rescue community.