A polite request and storing water

It started to snow this afternoon, just about the time I was walking up to the barn:

At least two residents of Critter Farm were not happy about it:

"Let us in...," Chester and Beau asked ever so nicely:

"Puhleeeeeeeze":

The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather outlook for our area, forecasting dropping temperatures and snowfall over multiple days. It sounds like it's going to be an interesting coming week.

Then I got "the look". You see "the look", right?:

Kai llama refused to make eye contact with me at all, concentrating her efforts instead on making her most disgusted expression:

This was the clincher, because I finally got the message and let them all into the barn.

Beginning tonight, northwest Oregon will start dipping below freezing again, which means I need to start "collecting" water up at the barn. I've learned that when the temperatures dip below 30, the water pipes in my barn freeze and I have to haul buckets of water up from the house. Until we investigate the possibility of a frost-proof hydrant up at the barn (thanks for the knowledgeable advice, Dana Kee at Moose Manor Farm!!), there is at least one thing I can do (when I have warning) that keeps me from having to manually carry very heavy containers of water up a really long hill...

I start filling buckets while the water is still flowing from the barn spigot:

...lots of buckets:

Fortunately, the middle storage room behind the barn is a perfect place to store these buckets of water, as this room has consistently stayed above freezing. At least so far:

So this time, in addition to my buckets, I added a few more containers:

And then, a few more buckets:

We should be good for a while, now, once the barn water freezes and all.

As I filled buckets, my son and his buddy did a straw run for me, so now I have plenty of straw to get us through the cold spell (thanks Aidan and Chris!!):

Then, being boys, they tried to tease the llama. She didn't fall for it, though. She is much too smart to fall for the old "carrot in the mouth" trick. Clever girl!:

When I finally left the barn, the snow flurry had subsided and the big animals were happily snacking on some of the fresh straw I'd put down in the paddock:

The donkey boys have even taught Kai to eat straw, too. This isn't something that she did before she started hanging with these guys:

It looks so peaceful here, doesn't it?
Let's hope this isn't the proverbial "calm before the storm". I'll keep you posted on that.
:-)