This winter is kicking our asses...and it's officially only three weeks old.
When snow comes early in the season and hangs around for weeks, winter kicks your ass.
When a second and then a third snow accumulates on top of the first, winter kicks your ass.
When the wind is so bitter that not even the hardiest cows want to leave the barn, winter kicks your ass.
When even your most dedicated volunteers disappear because, really, this weather is just too much, winter kicks your ass.
When you must plow for two hours, dig out gates from mounds of fresh snow, crack solid ice in 100-gallon water troughs just to begin the day, winter kicks your ass.
When what looks like driveway is really black ice and your feet fly from under you and you crash to your elbows, the grain buckets you were carrying flying like frisbees through the air, winter kicks your ass.
When the animals are cozy in their heated stalls but the heater in the only warm room for humans shuts down on a holiday when no one will repair it, winter kicks your ass.
When the old pig Policeman wants to do nothing other than snuggle under the hay in his heated stall, but you know he must get up and move those old, arthritic joints, and when he in frustration, whips around a little too far and suddenly pig head and human head collide for one painful, dizzying moment, winter kicks your ass.
When four people in a single day are desperate to place their animals because their homes and farms are in foreclosure, and when even though the LAST thing you want to do in these grueling conditions is take in more needy animals, you consider it because, indeed, that is your mission, winter kicks your ass.