Winter Storm Warning

Farei Infrequently 20260123

From the purple comforter of Tarma Shena

I've finished up my accounting work for the morning and was finishing the last of my coffee when "my brain said..."

Yes I was doing my job from my bed. Sitting propped up on my pillows with my comforter to cover my legs and cushion the laptop. The ability to self motivate and do a job without your boss hovering over your shoulder has nothing to do with location, you're not judging, you're jealous. Go do it somewhere else.

Anyway, between the media hyping up the current storm like it's the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. Vets, rescues, and AR groups all screaming about bringing pets inside and Farmers scrambling to "do more" for their animals, I got caught up in the "frantic" energy for a moment.

Fortunately for me, my brain occasionally steps in and says something useful, like Stop.

I saw a reel that talked about how while everyone hunkers down to wait out a storm farmers are out in it doing chores and taking care of animals.

Why?

It really got me thinking this morning because we do things differently here. I give my animals several days worth of hay before a storm. I make sure they had water. Then I let them bed down and wait it out.

Because that's what animals do.

Doing chores on the same schedule just pulls everyone out of their warm beds to come nibble at food they don't really want so they can go back and start warming it up again from square one.

Not only that, but I would like to think that the way I take care of my animals EVERY DAY means that one storm, one cold snap, or one weekend is not going to tip the scale and cause an extinction event.

Are there exceptions? Yes, of course there are.

But farming is about good animal stewardship and maybe that elderly individual should have gone to freezer camp instead of being forced to struggle though another winter because you couldn't bear to part with her.

My animals know exactly what to do when bad weather hits. Me running around like a lunatic only interrupts them and gets in their way.

I've tried to do it, every farmer has gone out there with a bucket of warm water, it's what they tell us we HAVE to do.... all the animals jump up and come to see what you have... water, they look at you like you're a lunatic.. you brought us water?...... NOBODY GETS A DRINK.

So no, I'm not scrambling to provide more more more more more more, like the media would have me do.

I'm not crying about frozen water, howling winds, and feet of snow.

If you need me, I'll be bedded down waiting it out, just like the smart animals do.