Totes freezing out there. Sub zero. The lake will be frozen. Take care not to walk on it folks. That water is deep and the ice may not yet be as thick as it needs to be.
We had a high number of fox visits yesterday from, I do believe, two different foxes. Times were 11:49, 20:39, 22:44, 00:04, 07:46. The new one, which came at 11:49 whilst I was in the shed but didn’t notice at the time, has a white chest and looks to be a bit slimmer than the regular one. I ran a comparison AI analysis and on balance I think they are defo two different animals. I don’t have the same chest pic of both of them but I believe I’m right. The analysis also suggested that the regular fox is a vixen from the way it marks its territory. The area around the lake is rapidly becoming a fox superhighway.
THG has gone running. It’s her 99th park run. She was worried that it might be called off due to sub zero temperatures but no it is still on. I shall be going to watch her 100th next week.
I am currently producing a model of the farming year in our family farm Maesnonni in Llanllwni at the beginning of the 1730s. You might think this is a little unusual but it is what it is. It is an interesting and challenging detective story. Because of this my mind often turns to what they would be doing in Maesnonni at this time of year, especially with the freezing temperatures we are currently experiencing.
They didn’t have central heating and double glazing I assure you. In fact they would have had a large fireplace in the kitchen with not very good insulation albeit 29 inch thick walls. Actually I’m not sure about the walls as that is the thickness of the “new” farmhouse built in 1804. The older one would not have been as salubrious. It might even have been modeled on the old Welsh longhouse with family accommodation at one end and the livestock at the other.
With 31 cattle probably not., They would have been housed separately. We don’t really live in a real world. They would have been tucked under multiple blankets, breath freezing. I wonder how they used to light candles and fires. I can’t imagine they kept something burning all the time. Flints maybe?
Last night was nearly a full moon here. A few stars to be seen but not many really due to the light pollution around us. 1730s Llanllwni would have been pitch black but the light on a starry night would probably have represented good illumination.