Wintry cold set in over the past two days. Yesterday, Paul fired up the outdoor wood boiler for the first time this season – a week later than last year. The wood boiler is not something you crank on just to warm things up. Once it’s running it goes ’till spring pumping 525 gallons of water through the radiant heat tubes in the floor to keep us warm.

The cold snap has brought other changes to the farm.

The ducks had quite the surprise when they launched into the pond this morning.

A frozen pond hampered their normal splash and swim. The ducks floundered, frantically trying to make sense of this new state of affairs.

They circled in the frozen pond, nibbling at the ice cubes.

Hannah came to the rescue and worker her way around the pond breaking the ice to allow the ducks full pond access.

I suspect the ducks are hoping for a warming trend. Since tomorrow’s forecast calls for 1-3 inches of snow, they’ll have to wait a few days.