What a Difference in a Year

A year ago today, we lost this little girl: 

Hannah, seen here napping with her Daddy, had had an eye removed on January 2nd, and did not recover from the surgery.  She finally quit eating, and we made a decision to let her cross the bridge on the afternoon of the 24th.  I still miss her, and miss her presence on my right side when I sit on the couch in the evenings.  What a wonderful little girl she was, and always wanted to be by her Mama. 

We miss you, Hannah Jean, but know you wait for us. 

A month ago today, we lost this little one on the left: 

How we miss her sweet little face.  Gertie Lou waits for us, too. 

Abby has NOT slept in that bed even one time since we lost Gert. 

There was another bluebird Kaffee Klatsch going on on the deck this morning, in the very cold January day. 

If I can get a good picture tomorrow, what I thought was a female woodpecker is a northern Flicker (thanks again, Jill!) and it is coming daily.  I'll try to get a better picture of it. 

This guy was back in the pasture early this morning...while...

This guy came very early last night. 

Here was our dawn today, and you can see the Spehars are all ready up and at 'em in their woodshop, their light is on.  It goes on about 6 AM daily. 

There were three hens already laying when I got to the henspa.  I do it last, as they have a water heater, and I don't have to worry about getting them a warm drink first thing.  We still have the two Porcelain D'Uccles living on top of the nest box, and in the rafters, and we do put a waterer up for them during the day... draining it at night.  I know that if they were very thirsty, they would come down and drink, so I go there last.  We do not put water out in the yard of the henspa... I don't want to draw the little birds there, and there is a space where they can get under the covering.  I do sometimes throw some corn out there, for the girls to scratch.  

The big henhouse, and the little, both have their waterers drained when the birds go in.  We used to deal with frozen waterers in the morning, and now I just have to carry the warm water out and pour it in.  They are always glad to get some warm water in the morning.

We used to have heaters for the waterers in there, but our electric load is now very precarious, and we need to get the lines re-run because of the mice.  It's all I can do to run the warming light to the little henhouse. 

We also put warm water in the outdoor fortexes.  I looked over there while I was doing the henspa, and probably 300 starlings were already there.  They drained the fortexes, but they have to drink, too.  At least they aren't invading us like the last five years, I have not seen more than ten or so inside. 

I refilled the fortexes with warm water three times during the day. 

Here's our good Lil on sitting point at the fence... she was listening to a dog barking in the distance.  A minute later, I let her in the pasture for a run. 

This one was in the pasture, too... but being naughty.  See the pipe coming out of the tree?  There is an old cistern there.  Keith and I filled it with a lot of cement blocks, cat litter and other stuff, but it is still dangerous.  I am going to build a little fence around this corner as soon as it is warmer with some t-poles and fencing we have left, to keep Abs and Lil away from it.  I had already called her twice when she finally looked at me. 

She followed me out, and next thing I knew, was in the henhouse with me as I emptied the waterers.  

She can open the door with her paw and head, and I was emptying the waterers and almost fell over her.  She was giving the pug stink eye, and on Pug Point, to Buffy, the Polish hen, who was trying to sleep in that lower nest box.  We trimmed Buffy's beak yesterday, but I have a feeling that she is not seeing very well.  I'm going to pick her up and take a look tomorrow.  I almost had to pick Abby up and carry her out with me, she was so intent.  She didn't move for almost a minute. 

Thanks to all of you for your comments about the ponies last night.  We did get the fencing bid today, and it's very affordable.  We are going to schedule it for two weeks from now.  Thanks to Terry, at Moondance Ranch for some special advice about which she wrote me privately. 

I also talked to my friend, and all the ponies are at her home place, and in a big pen with automatic water and hay... so easily catchable, unlike the 80 acre pasture they spend summers in.  Whew. 

I'm also considering this one: 

Yes, that's Rosie, one of the two Hackney mares that was here for a week last summer.  She was such a beauty.  She has been broken to saddle and trained to drive. 

Sorry for the heavy load of pictures, I just realized there was more going on on this cold day than I thought!