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Snuggled on the sofa
Dec. 6th, 2009 10:41 amWoke up this morning to a house in the 40s and 4 very chilly dogs. Poor hubby went outside in 33F cold to gather the eggs and check on the waterers. Kevin kindly refilled the wood stack on the back porch with the seasoned wood pile out next to the workshop. Me? I slept in until presented with a steaming cup of hot coffee, courtesy of our new coffee maker. We tend to suffer through small coffee makers until someone takes pity on us and buys us a larger one.
The dogs have figured out the woodstove is a potential source of heat. All 4 of them were lying in front of it, begging for heat. Quite a sight. Once the firestove had been going for awhile, they stretched out lounging about, happy as larks.
Last night was a bit surreal. I came home from two home visits with a few of the other Grange officers to find Betty in the kitchen. Typically, we don't allow the chickens in the house. And certainly not on the kitchen counter. Seems once the boys caught her, they plopped her in the sink with food and a water bowl, then went off to do other things. Still confuddled about that one!
Poor Gracie, as I type, has been heading outside to check on her flock then coming back in to thaw out. She is incredibly dedicated, her greatest joy is hanging out in the chicken coop with the little chickies. They love running under her, bouncing around and giving her the occasional stink eye while she wags her tail at them. She's always right there with a helpful nose to get them back under the heat lamp or onto a perch, I have no idea what they think of her but she's a great chicken mommy. Speaking of which, the Rhodies are content to have her herd them about. Betty may be more problematic, she tends to run under a shed to get away from the dogs. We'll try to get her accustomed to Gracie, all faith in our Border Collie to do so. The trick is teaching her to put them away in their coop, not in the duck pen.
Off to the Bookstore in a bit. There's a brand new Storey's Guide to Chickens out this month, the last publishing run was in 1995 - the research into chicken health and genetics has changed greatly in that time frame, so I'm really curious about this new version.
The dogs have figured out the woodstove is a potential source of heat. All 4 of them were lying in front of it, begging for heat. Quite a sight. Once the firestove had been going for awhile, they stretched out lounging about, happy as larks.
Last night was a bit surreal. I came home from two home visits with a few of the other Grange officers to find Betty in the kitchen. Typically, we don't allow the chickens in the house. And certainly not on the kitchen counter. Seems once the boys caught her, they plopped her in the sink with food and a water bowl, then went off to do other things. Still confuddled about that one!
Poor Gracie, as I type, has been heading outside to check on her flock then coming back in to thaw out. She is incredibly dedicated, her greatest joy is hanging out in the chicken coop with the little chickies. They love running under her, bouncing around and giving her the occasional stink eye while she wags her tail at them. She's always right there with a helpful nose to get them back under the heat lamp or onto a perch, I have no idea what they think of her but she's a great chicken mommy. Speaking of which, the Rhodies are content to have her herd them about. Betty may be more problematic, she tends to run under a shed to get away from the dogs. We'll try to get her accustomed to Gracie, all faith in our Border Collie to do so. The trick is teaching her to put them away in their coop, not in the duck pen.
Off to the Bookstore in a bit. There's a brand new Storey's Guide to Chickens out this month, the last publishing run was in 1995 - the research into chicken health and genetics has changed greatly in that time frame, so I'm really curious about this new version.
