The Canadians Come to Phoenix in January

It's been down right frigid around my neck of the woods. I'm tired of the lows being -9F and the highs in the teens. Brrrrrr. I know, you're thinking that it can't be that cold in Arizona, but our animals have the frozen muzzles to prove it. It's hard to sleep at night knowing the livestock are shivering out in the cold while we are cozied up by the wood stove. The good news is, we're going to have a heat wave this week and it will be back above freezing by Friday.

We moved a load of cows over the mountain to pastures with electricity and a stock tank heater, and then headed down to Phoenix to visit our Canadian family.  They brought the cold weather with them, and even Phoenix was unseasonably chilly with highs around 48 degrees.  The Canadians wore shorts during their visit. They also talked about going swimming. There's some sort of crazy in the Canadian water.

Anyway, we decided to go to the zoo for the day.  Let me tell you about the zoo in Phoenix.  If you go in the summer, the animals are all panting of heat stroke, hidden under a tree, or in the air conditioning and you can't find any of them in their "habitat". It's like playing Where's Waldo with every. single. animal.

As it turns out, January is also a bad month to go.  All of the animals were under heat lamps and not in their "habitat" because it was too cold.  Even the Orangutans were huddled under blankets in the corner.

"Look kids, do you see that lump under the blanket in the corner of the exhibit? That's the male Orangutan!" Here, look at the picture on the wall and imagine it under the blanket."


My sister-in-law and niece also joined us for the day.

My niece liked the animals, and did her best to keep up with her cousins.  In the end, she fell asleep dreaming of the monkeys.

Speaking of monkeys, I thought these little guys below were so cute and cuddly that I wanted to take one home, and call it George, and make it mine forever.....

until the zookeeper told us that they give themselves "frequent urine baths".  Then I changed my mind.

We DID, get to throw carrots to the elephant, and that was totally cool!

Like a lizard on a cold day, we should all find a good sunny spot to warm up in.

So that was our day in a nutshell. We rarely get to see my Canadian family, so it was an extra special treat.  They're back home to their frozen world, and we're back home to ours.  And we're all trying to stay warm in this wicked cold season.



Staying toasty by the fire,

Nell