Sore

Boy, am I out of shape.  I can’t remember the last time I was this sore (not counting when I ruptured a disk in my back)

Evidently it doesn’t matter that I took the time in October to make sure the generator and snowblower were primed and ready to go.  It doesn’t matter that we had a super mild winter so far and the first time I needed to bring out the snowblower wasn’t until the first week of January.  After getting two feet of snow.  It doesn’t matter that I loved my snowblower because I never had a problem starting it up.  Until today.  Ugh.

I literally spent all day shoveling – by hand – my driveway.  It took me over four-and-a-half hours to get the driveway cleared (I have a lot of driveway to clear), a path shoveled to the chicken coop, the pen cleared out (the wind was blowing from the wrong direction - normally snow doesn’t get in most of the pen), my trailer dug out and the snowblower loaded on the trailer to take to the shop.  Non-stop.  I am so grateful that the snow was light and fluffy for the most part.  Except for all the stuff by the street.   And for some reason, the stuff around the trailer was really compacted, too.  The hardest part was getting the snowblower up on the trailer.  By the time I was done, I was was too tired to do a Happy Dance.

I’m sure that it will be quite a while before I get the snowblower back – probably nine million other people had problems with their snowblower as well.  Let’s just hope the Snow Gods are kind to me until then. 

As for the chickens and how they are dealing with winter…

For the most part, they seem pretty content to stay inside the coop.  See how few footprints are in the snow?  I think they only come out to grab something to drink or a bite to eat.  When they see me coming, they will come out – looking for a treat.

I give them the option to go outside if they want – I leave the pen door open for them during the day.  Before all the snow fell, they wandered around yard in the cold, but with the snow it looks like they prefer to stay indoors.  But who knows – they might get more adventurous as time goes on.  My old chickens had no problem wandering the paths I cleared for them…

This probably sounds weird (I don’t care!), but I have taken pity on them and have been bringing them some warm vegetable soup during the really cold days.  They really love it, and a little something warm in their tummies can’t hurt anything 

Once the pen was shoveled out, all the Ladies did come out for a little bit… maybe I need to find chicken snow boots?