Clear, cold, and cozy

The creek looks even more beautiful in the winter.  I love seeing it in the summer, too, but often there's an irrigation pump in it, and it's not as calendar-picture pretty.  Much more useful, but it doesn't make me run for my camera!

The scene of the new barn is different too.  The curtains are all the way up, and they're all the way down.  The garage doors are shut. 

You can see the silhouette of a warm calf through the curtains:

Since today started at 15 degrees and warmed all the way up to 22 degrees, it's nice to have a modifiable barn.

But more changes are afoot. Tomorrow we're moving some of the older calves to the barn closer to our house. It's still protected and warm, but they also get a taste of what it's like to be outside.

And tomorrow it's supposed to be 40 degrees! After today, that'll seem almost like spring.

You can tell it's autumn

The sky is bright blue, the corn is getting ready, and the air is crisp. There was a light frost on the ground this morning. It was 35 degrees when I got up, but it warmed up to almost 60 this afternoon. All in all, a perfect fall day.



What goes with fall? Closing the curtains. This is what the barn looks like with them closed, to keep in the calves' body heat.



I'd say the curtains are going to stay closed for the season, but it's supposed to be in the 70s later this week. Good thing they're easy to move!

Curtains for you

Our barn has curtains. They're made of plastic, and they roll manually with a crank. They're two separate curtains, so you can open them from the bottom up or the top down.

This way, it can be wide open in the summer for optimum ventilation, and closed up tight in the winter to make it warmer. The semi-transparent plastic allows the sun to shine through so it's still bright year-round.

These are common in lots of new barns, but if you didn't know what they were, you might think the barn was unfinished - since plastic on a house indicates it's still under construction.

But these curtains are here to stay! And since it's Fourth of July weekend coming up, hopefully they'll be wide open ... I love a holiday weekend of good weather. Also, that way, the calves might be able to glimpse a little of the fireworks.