How sheep are built to handle the weather with ease

As I've said earlier, sheep are truly built to handle the elements with ease. The other day I put out some nice bedding hay for them. I figured they would appreciate a nice dry spot to bed down out of the snow. 

I was wrong. I drove past the pasture at night. I could see in the headlight the forms of sleeping sheep. Were they on the hay I had carefully spread out for their bedding? Nope. they were out in the middle of the pasture. Bedded down in the snow. 

In the morning, I could see all the little indentations where the sheep had been laying. The snow was not even melted! They conserve their heat so well behind all that wool that they don't even melt the snow directly under them. No wonder they didn't care for my bedding. It didn't make any difference. 

When it is very windy, they do like a windbreak. You can see in the picture the line of bales that I placed to give them a spot out of the wind for the nasty weather today. I will see if they even make use of it. 

The key to this insane ability to handle the cold is in that deep, oiled wool. And the little furnace inside where their hay gets digested. Digesting all that fiber creates a lot of heat. They are warmed from the inside out. And I sit there in layers, shivering, trying to get these pictures.