Cold and colder, back and forth...

...want to warm up, we'd better head NORTH??? 
Have you ever had one of those days? You know the kind I mean: the ones that *cough* build character. It would seem I have decided (albeit unconsciously) to have an entire week of them. My character must be running a tad low. Living in south Alabama (as

in 13 miles from the Florida line) winters are cold, but nowhere near as cold as where I grew up (Pennsylvania).  This week, however, we have been matching record temps left and right which has caused quite a bit of trouble around here.... but I'm getting ahead of myself.
The first photo shows how my week began. As you can see, the T-Post between the Moo Crew and The Girls was mysteriously flattened and the fence wire broken up sometime during the night.  The only piece of evidence was a tiny tuft of red hair stuck to the post (and although all four of our red-headed miscreants were questioned, nobody was talking). 

 The temperatures (which I kinda thought were cold enough in the standard upper twenties/lower thirties) dropped further and froze just about everything. Of course the bright spot in this is that my new camera captured this tiny frozen trickle rather well, don't you think? (neat-O ;o)  While we started the week turning on the water in the afternoons (when the sun had thawed out the lines) to fill up the water trough for the girls, by Tuesday it had gotten so cold that the water wouldn't flow even at high noon.  Time for the bucket brigade to kick in (and wasn't that just the most fun? Not :oP

I have to admit it's extremely depressing (not to mention bizarre) to be watching the weather and see that not only Boston but Oregon (where my brother lives) were 10-20 degrees warmer than it was here in South Alabama... 
By midweek, the temps were in the teens at night and 30's during the day. I finally got the chance to dash to the barber shop for a haircut - I've been trying to find time to go since November. I know I said barber not salon, but it's only $10 for a haircut there (I fed all my beauty money to the horses, you see). Did I finally get my hair cut? Nope; can you believe they were frozen too??
Thursday came the predictions of snow and sleet on top of the cold. Now don't get me wrong, I like snow (just not here). Do you have any idea what happens in the south when it snows? Let me tell you, it is not a pretty sight (idiots abound). We've had schools and businesses close down, space heater fires, pipes bursting (thankfully not ours) and all manner of issues arise - along with much of the country - during this crazy snap.  Reason being that we are simply not equipped to deal with this kind of cold weather: It was eleven degrees yesterday morning with the wind chill, which is pretty doggone cold anywhere. The fact that temperatures have not been this cold in 15-20 years have caught nearly everyone ill prepared. Heck, I know I'm wishing I still had my Yankee Winter Wardrobe. Speaking of which...

Ratty, I've decided to include this part just for you after reading your matter-of-fact post about dressing appropriately for the great outdoors in the winter:

If you've never been there, please visit Ratty's blog (after you finish this post, of course :o)  It's  "The Everyday Adventurer", and it's terrific! 
And now (you hope) it's time for my grand finale. If you read last week's post, you know I went off the deep end and splurged on a new camera. I am happy to report that I absolutely LOVE it. 
I've had a grand time taking pictures this week, and (even cooler) shooting some video clips, which I've never done before. I played with it a bit, put some together, and added some music; hope you like it!

The Morning Warmup from Jen on Vimeo.

The bobble with the camera towards the end was compliments of Taya, who decided to give my sleeve, which was attached to the arm holding the camera, a nice big happy slurp (she loves me, what can I say?? :o) I'd love to hear what you think about Cinnamon and Max "squaring off" over the stump; I thought that was a hoot (looked like they'd rehearsed it).
Thanks for stopping by!