Today

It's January and it's snowing, again.  These icicles were hanging from everything today, and I admired them on my way to the coop to check on the girls.  Even when hanging off the dusty edge of the chicken coop, they were pretty.  One admires what one can in January, when there are no flowers to be seen and no blue sky for weeks.

I even admired my snowy work boots.  They are so useful in the snow and in the coop, both.  And they're warm.

I visited the ducks in their pen, sitting comfortably in the straw and hay on the run floor.  I re-purposed the used straw and hay from the chicken coop, cleaned out yesterday, to put on the run floors for the ducks and chickens to scratch and play in.  I don't let the coops get so dirty that the straw is too dirty to play in.  It seems to be appreciated.  I never cease to wonder that the ducks do not mind the cold.  Even when it was -6 the other morning, they all tumbled out of the duck house and made their merry way to their water bucket to swim.  Little Duck (Daisy) is not in this picture because she was too busy trying to eat my camera cord instead of posing nicely.

This is what passed for afternoon amusement in the chicken coop today.  That's a cabbage there, hanging from a chain.  I've found the best way to hang it up is to use a nail to stick into the cabbage, which I wrap a bit of wire around and then hook the wire to their chain which is hanging from a hook on the ceiling.  The chickens really enjoy having a cabbage.  They swarmed around when I hung it up.  Their feathers are looking much better after putting on the pinless peepers, as seen on a few of them here.  The only ones that still look awful are Matilda, in the front, and Rhoda, just in front of Matilda.  They look terrible, not because anyone is picking them, but because they are molting!  I'm not sure what possessed them to molt in the middle of January, but they are staying warm inside the coop.

 

And this is what waited for me inside after checking on the ladies.  I had a nice cup of tea and read the last of my issue of Mary Jane's Farm, which I picked up at the farm store with the chicken feed the other day.  I wish I had room for goats and a nice small barn.  Now, back to my tea and relaxation.  Enjoy your weekend, all.