Blizzard of 2015

Well, it turned out that the blizzard at Glen Hill Farm was lovely! I was getting really nervous beforehand because of the media calling it "historic" and all that nonsense. Why do they do that? It's really kind of mean. Honestly, I was most afraid that we'd lose power. In our old neighborhood, we lost power once (that Halloween storm a few years ago) for about 4 days, and that was pretty miserable. It was literally colder inside my house than it was outside, we lost all our food, blah, blah, blah. So I was dreading a similar experience. But we were pleasantly surprised that we kept our power the whole time this storm! Woohoo! I love a snow storm when we have power! I cooked a bunch of yummy food while Jonathan broke in the brand new plow for our tractor, and the kids and dogs played in the snow. The chickens chose to stay in their coop, and they seemed perfectly happy in there since I occasionally scattered chicken scratch all around to keep them busy. Two thumbs up for the Blizzard of 2015!

I can tell that Spring is on its way because the hens are starting to lay more eggs! Yay!
Even Penelope and Daffodil have started laying again. (Dark brown egg & green egg).
Penelope hadn't laid an egg since Halloween! 

Okay, this was taken during the storm BEFORE the blizzard.
A giant branch from our big pine tree came crashing down onto our ramp leading into the barn.
I was in the the chicken coop when it happened, and I have to tell you, it scared the living daylights out of me.
I walk up and down that ramp about 20 times a day. It easily could have squashed me if my timing was off.
And we recently had the trees pruned, so I wasn't expecting this! Yikes!

I do love winter. So pretty.
Maybe it's just a little too long. Cut off a month or two and it would be perfect.

This was the chickens' view of the storm from inside their coop.

Ryan heading off to play in the snow.

We have a loooong driveway to plow.
Nice work, Jonathan!

Jessie keeping warm

Cooper keeping warm

The downside to having a male dog living with us.
Cooper needs to mark every snowbank he finds in our yard, ruining my beautiful white snow. Blech :(
In case you weren't sure, this is Cooper's house. At least according to Cooper. See how he has marked it as HIS?
Don't eat the yellow snow.
Ben & Ryan came inside and said that they built a snowman.
I said, "Look again, you actually made a peeing post for Cooper." Yup, Cooper peed all over it. Lovely.
Girl dogs rule. They pee down, only when they need to pee. None of this marking craziness! :)

Snow buddies 

Jessie loves the snow!

Jonathan snow-blowing out some of the chicken run.
In a chicken hat, of course.

Traffic jam on the chicken coop steps due to mealworms.

Penelope sat on my foot, so I gave her a ride.
She liked it.  

Once I laid down some hay and sprinkled the mealworms in it, the girls ventured out for a bit today.
They definitely prefer walking on the hay, not the snow.

Here's a video of the dogs playing in the snow so you can see how much snow we got over here. Keep in mind it wasn't done snowing yet. The snow was so light and fluffy! Click on link here: Jessie & Cooper enjoying the blizzard 2015

Another video to share... While checking in on the hens during the blizzard, I happened to catch Daffodil laying an egg. Click on link here: Daffodil Laying An Egg

In other farm news, I discovered that the sink in the barn had a crack in it. Since I use it everyday, that is not a good thing. But I bought some epoxy thinking that I might be able to just fill in the crack? Success! This morning I mixed up the epoxy, filled in the cracks and voila! This afternoon, I have a leak-free sink. Keeping my fingers crossed that this solution lasts a while.

Also, update: Happy to report that Cooper's sore on his shoulder has totally healed. Phew! One less trip to the vet for the most-expensive-free-dog-ever is always a good thing. :)

Fire & Ice

FIRE & ICE

Fire & Ice

FIRE

This might sound a little strange, but Jonathan has always wanted to light our Christmas tree on fire after the holidays. So this year, since we have the room to do it "safely", he finally got the chance. While I watched from inside with the dogs, phone in my hand ready to call 911, my tallest child (my husband) set our tree afire. My (actual) kids were out with Daddy, of course, but they were smart enough to be standing back holding fire extinguishers, instead of being up close with their cameras like Jonathan. Now, I expected the tree to burn somewhat easily, but I was not expecting the blazing inferno that ensued. Take a look for yourself. (Click on the link: 2015 lighting of the Christmas Tree!!) Now since he named the video "2015 lighting of the Christmas Tree!!", that tells me that he clearly is planning to do this in 2016, 2017, etc. Pray for us. I think this experience just may inspire me to go buy a lovely non-flammable fake tree for next year.


ICE

Brrrr. It's getting cold out there! Really cold. So, chickens are not big fans of snow. And I can't say I blame them. I happen to like snow myself, but that's because I have boots and hats and mittens. Believe it or not, my chickens do not have boots. (yet? maybe I should invent that?) And I'm sure walking on cold, wet snow does not feel very good to their bony little feet. Only one of our chickens seemed to like the snow: Buttercup, our big fluffy Buff Orpington. She was walking all around, leaving her tiny little tracks everywhere. It was very cute actually. Eventually, Minerva Louise joined her in the snow, but that was it. The rest of the ladies weren't coming out that day. They spent the whole day in their coop, peeking out the door. Actually, I shoveled a small path and threw down some chicken scratch and then they all ran out. But as soon as the treats were gone, the rest of them ran back inside.

Buttercup and her cute little tracks.
Clearly, she's an artist.

Minerva Louise ventured out a bit, too.
Can you see the rest of the hens at the door watching?

Gertrude looking out, wondering why on earth anyone would step in that cold, white stuff? Brrrr.

I was worried about the chickens being cold with the temperatures going so low at night, as we do not heat their coop at all. So the other night I went out to the coop to see how they were doing. Happy to report that they were just fine. When they are sleeping on the roosts, they completely cover up their feet with their feathers. When I felt their feet, they were really warm! I was also worried about Minerva Louise's comb getting frostbitten because she has the biggest comb (the red crest on the chickens' heads) of all the chickens, but her comb felt nice and warm, too. So, so far so good.
Tonight though, where the temps are going to dip below zero, I just may put up their heat lamp from their chick days to help them get through the bitter temps.

Here they are at night on their roosts.
This picture is taken from below, see how you can't see their feet at all?
They are tucked under all their feathers, staying nice and warm.

Cooper and Jessie enjoyed the snow. They had fun stepping on the thin ice in the riding ring. Cooper is a little sensitive to noise, so the crackling sounds made him jump most times, but he seemed to be having fun. I love that my tough looking dog is the real wimp, and my wimpy looking dog is the brave one. Too funny. He also tried to eat some of it. Mmmm, sandy ice. Sounds delicious! Here's the link to see them play: Dogs Playing with Ice.

My Flamingo chickens. When the hens finally came out into the snow this morning, I caught them standing like flamingos, (or are they doing tricky tree yoga poses?), trying to keep at least one foot warm. Good for them. Smart chickies.

One-footed Buttercup

One-footed Daffodil.
She's finally done molting!
Looking good, Daffodil!

UPDATE:

Speaking of Daffodil, she's still the odd man out. :( The picture below is of all the chickens sleeping at night on their nice, long roosts with room for everyone on the top roost. But oh, there's Daffodil on the roost below everyone else. Sigh.

Don't tell anyone, but some nights when I go out to check on them, I'll actually move Daffodil up onto the top roost. I'm hoping that if they wake up with Daffodil on the top roost maybe they'll think she's one of them now and be nicer to her. And maybe it will give Daffodil more confidence in herself. Yes, I'm totally over thinking this and must stop. :)

ANOTHER UPDATE:
By the way, I figured out what kind of birds nest Jessie brought me the other day. It seems to have been an Oriole's nest! Pretty cool! I had seen a few orioles in our yard this summer and they are beautiful. Hope they build a new nest this year.