Because the Alternative is Unthinkable: December 2010

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Hosed

I hope everyone had a really nice Christmas. I felt very lucky this year – I have a job, I’m relatively healthy and I got to spend the holiday with my family and friends. It was perfect.

It’s funny how priorities change as we get older

On a not-so-wonderful note - last year my snowblower died. When I took it in to get it fixed, I was told that it would basically cost as much to get it fixed as it would to buy a brand new one. I opted not to get it fixed. Instead I went for a cheaper solution – I decided to get a blade for my tractor, which not only saved me a lot of money, but it also gives me more use out my tractor than just brush-hogging. It is working out great for clearing out my driveway - once I figured out a good pattern. Plus I’m practically able to make a five-lane highway out to the chicken coop – no shoveling or lifting involved! There was a bit of a learning curve to get the blade at the right height where I wasn’t tearing up all the gravel in the driveway, but still removing as much snow as possible – but I think I have it figured out.
In theory, I had the perfect plan.

In reality, something always goes wrong for me.

The power-steering hose broke, so until I fix it, I have to hope that we don’t have any significant snowfall. I was hoping it would have warmed up a bit this weekend – I don’t have a garage, so I have to wait for the weather to cooperate before I can work on it. My fingers are crossed that I will get the tractor fixed before the next big snowfall – I really don’t want to have to shovel if I can help it…

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Much

There has much been going on around here the past few weeks – I wish I could say it’s all good, but it seems for every one thing that goes right, two go wrong. Oh well, what can you do?

I’m not even close to being ready for Christmas, but I think I should be set by Friday if everything goes smoothly for me this week… I hope.

Instead of trying to put everything into one post, I’m going to break it up into pieces. So to start…

…as I alluded on Wednesday – I have acquired a few more chickens. Five more to be exact. I now have a Black Star, three Rhode Island Reds and a Polish chicken added to the clan.

I’ve never had to integrate chicken ‘families’ before and I have to say, it is an interesting process. My biggest worry was that there would be an all-out war between them. As it turns out, they pretty much don’t want anything to do with each other. It’s been over a week now since they’ve arrived and a couple are beginning to mingle – but only a little bit.

The Newcomers are definitely a bunch of wimps when it comes to the snow. My gals are practically trying to break down the door to get out when they see me – despite their hesitancy when the snow first came, they have no problem now going out in it to explore. But even before they discovered the joys of snow, they would still play out in their pen - the new Ladies don’t even want to leave the coop. I guess they didn’t at their old place, either. I’m starting to see a couple of them venture out now and again, but for the most part, they like to stay inside. Wimps.

The one I really feel bad for is the Polish chicken. Her name is Polska. She had a friend named Polski, but she was killed by a fox Anyway, she gets soooo picked on by her old coop-mates. She arrived missing a lot of feathers and doesn’t look very pretty from the backside. She is very skittish around the other hens – and understandably so. I’m hoping in her new environment and with some potentially new allies, she will be able to recover from her injuries and calm down a bit. I can’t do much while I’m at work, but I’ve been trying to monitor the situation as much as I can while I’m at home…