A Frigid Time to be Difficult

Everyone around here is very motivated in the homework department lately as I may have suggested that if the boys finish up their current units in math, language arts, and science then we can forego homework during our upcoming visit to the cottage.  Liam and Seamus have never worked so hard!

We got so much done this morning that we were free to spend this afternoon doing wintry activities.  The boys decorated gingerbread cookies.  I use the term "decorated" loosely here and more like a synonym of "gobbled up the icing for".

We made homemade farm fresh egg and goat milk eggnog.  Ian and I thought that it was much too sweet but the boys deemed it perfect.

We did animal chores.  Well, we tried to anyway - Charlie and the sheep were not in a behaving mood today.  We are training up some neighbours and friends of the farm this week to help us out with animal chores in the event that we want to stay overnight at the cottage.  Charlie usually chooses these training sessions to be particularly difficult.  Par for the course, she decided that she absolutely was not going to go in the barn at bed time.  Instead, she chose to poop in her grain bucket and then stand outside in the field.  No joke.  It is freezing outside. Absolutely frigid.  And dark!

We finally got the sheep in after a few rounds of musical chairs (musical barn?) but I eventually sent the farm helper trainees on their way since Charlie refused to cooperate and we were all turning into icicles.  I went out by myself a half hour later to try again and this time succeeded in getting Charlie to go into the barn but now Abbott (who had come out when I opened the door) refused to go back in.  I left him outside this time and went back inside to run my freezing fingers under hot water.

Another hour later and four buckets of grain in (in the pitch black now and somehow even colder out!), Liam and I finally managed to get all of our supremely uncooperative animals stuffed into their barn at the same time.  OMG.  The animals sure do pick the darnedest times to be difficult.  I sincerely hope that they do not give my farm helpers this much trouble or this will be the last time anyone is willing to help us out with chores!  Maybe I should be making everyone some eggnog now to build up extra goodwill in advance?