Friday, January 31, 2014

And... Winter is BAAAACCCCKKKK

Well, somehow, despite the 40 degree days, winter has come back to us. 
We are facing a week of temps at night below zero... and I am going to make the ducks as comfortable as I can outside. 

They have a duck house... they have a fort under the little henhouse... a tarped pen, and a deep bed of straw and hay.  They are clearly miserable inside. 


We laid in 8 bags of feed yesterday, preparing for a week when I know the starlings are going to try to 
eat us out of house and home! 

I'll be hauling a lot of water, too, methinks. 

The henspa chickens came over to see what I was doing. 


I drove over to the henspa to unload there... and Ferdy the big rooster came in to 
see what I was up to.  He went back in the corner to investigate... he has never done this before! 
One of the hens has been coming across the top, where there is an opening in the wire... and laying there, off and on. 


He looked pretty embarassed when he came out! 


He posed very professionally for me at the top of the stairs when he went out. 

You see I drove the bags over to henspa with the car... and then schlepped them up the stairs in 
buckets.  I have to admit I was pretty worn out when finished. 


The Farm Asistant was snitching some of the chicken's treats... but I caught her. 


I put the water in the fortex on the deck this morning, and within maybe five minutes, it was down and inch and a half! 

Then, this afternoon, I had to go to the doctor... and when I got home, there was only slush in the bottom. 
That's how thirsty all the birds were on this cold day. 

And speaking of the birds....





Fill 'er up!





Stay warm and be careful out there, everyone!  

You can see we have a wintery mix today, and expect much more tomorrow. 





9 comments:

  1. It makes us feel sooo cold to know your temperatures are dropping again!
    Your chicken photos are all sooo beautiful,, but we feel sad for you,,, your working so hard.
    If we were there- we would be helping you!
    love
    tweedles

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  2. Oh this is not good news, not good at all! We made it up to thirty degrees today, it felt great! I'm going to go back and look at your pretty birds and pretend I didn't read about the cold.

    I hope all went well for you at the doctor!

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  3. This winter season has tested many.

    At this time in my life and these temps I'm glad I have no milk cows.

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  4. We are some warmer here and out of the deep freeze and are to have a wintry mix here too. Hope the roads don't ice up. I won't go out if they do. I don't take any chances and don't want to slip on the ice myself. So I stay in. I know you don't get that choice with all the critters to attend to. I'm sure they are thankful for all you do.

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  5. i saw that kansas was getting snow. we hit 50 today. i sure hope we see more snow this winter!

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  6. We have ice on everything--thankfully not thick enough to break branches. Love the rooster on the deck! Your bluebirds are so pretty :)

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  7. Batten down the hatches and bundle up!! My dog has taken to stealing pelleted feed out of the bucket when I set it down to close gates. What's up with that ?

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  8. Mary Ann,

    It sounds like you have everything ready for your animals for this storm rolling in.
    Hunker down, be safe and stay warm.
    Were expecting 2 inches of snow tomorrow and a lot more on Tuesday.
    Spring.............hurry up and get here!!!

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  9. It was 14 on Tuesday and on Saturday it was almost 70!

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