Shelburne Farms- 1/23

Shelburne Farms

Shelburne Farms in January.

We visited Shelburne Farms on a very cold day with temperatures under -10* F. The sun was out when we arrived around 1:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday the 23rd of January. The location was on the eastern edge of Lake Champlain and consists of 1400 acres of mostly farmland with some forest dispersed among the land. There were two major locations that we shot at, the first being around the large farm barn and the second at the “ice castle” on the edge of the lake. When we began shooting at the barn the sun was falling behind the hills. Two of the main subjects of our shots were the goats that lived in a small paddock. 

One of the goats at Shelburne Farms

Their names remained a mystery but they seemed to be constantly eating to stay warm in the frigid weather. Beyond the goat paddock was the pigmy goat enclosure and the donkey enclosure. The animals mostly stayed inside their enclosures except when the goats were fed. Following the encounters with the animals we drove about a mile onto the farm to the edge of Lake Champlain where the sun was sinking lower in the sky. The waves were lapping upon the shore and subsequently were freezing in layers. The ice was probably a foot thick and extended from the lake to the wall beyond it. The wall itself appeared to be covered in either hoar frost or advection frost, which left the ice crystals in feathery formations.

Frost on the wall beside Lake Champlain

 The lake itself was steaming due to the air being so much colder than the water. The land around the lake was covered in snow on either side and a sharp wind rushed through the surrounding area.

The growing ice crust on the edge of Lake Champlain.