Hen23's Journal~Goodbye

[Henrietta23]

LOL, my friend who lives near Ashville gets lots more snow days than we do up here! Guess it's an altitude thing.
We got out and did errands and got back just before it started to snow. I got lots of ingredients for my gift jars, spiced nuts, quick breads and cookies. I won't be bored if we're stuck here for a few days. The stores were quite busy but what slowed us down the most was all the teacher friends we ran into. Everyone was taking advantage of having the day off and getting out before the snow started! The chickens are not happy and the ducks look confused. At this point there's only a dusting on the ground. They have no idea what they're in for today!

 

[FarmerChick]

yea Asheville needs to close schools alot, my brother lives there also.

I even asked my SIL why so many days off and she said it isn't her area, it is the kids that live up the mountain roads, those roads are windy and icy....so it is those kids is where it gets dangerous for a bus. Makes sense I guess...LOL

Remember that NC has 2 snow plows we share all over the state, up North there is 50 snow plows for every county at least----we just don't have equipment....but then again we sure don't need it. Our problem is ice and ya know, you can't truly battle ice.

Yea, the stores....snow day so everyone hits the road and buys the old milk and bread. Down here say STORM and shelves are wiped clean...I mean really..HA HA---we might be iced in for 4 hours or something til the sun comes out..HA HA

 

[Farmfresh]

Hen - I think that is one of the best things about being a teacher!

We had a couple of those snow days recently. Nothing quite as nice a the phone ringing at 5:00 am (usually that would make me cranky, but snow days are SO different!) and hearing the blessed, automated voice of our glorious superintendent canceling school for the day! You dreamily go back to bed, snuggle deep in the warm covers and begin planning (in your sleep of course) all the projects that you can finish with an un-expected day off.

Of course reality sets in all too soon. You are awake chipping ice to get the chicken house door to open, hauling water for all the frozen animal vessels and splitting extra wood to warm up the house. By the time you get that done you are usually tired!

Still ... I wouldn't trade them!

 

[Henrietta23]

I especially love them when they occur (a. right before Christmas
(b. the day after DH gets paid and (c. when the storm doesn't start until hours after we've gotten up! I was so far behind on my Christmas shopping. I ran into several teacher friends while out. They were all getting caught up too. We're going to shovel out and finish up. At least I think we are. It's snowing again!
What I did NOT enjoy was spending half an hour on my knees trying to coax chickens out from under the coop. Half went in on their own with the ducks. The other half decided it wasn't worth walking on the cold white stuff for even 4 feet to go around and get in.

 

[Farmfresh]

My last batch of hens were weather warriors! They went out and dug through the snow for tasty bits and sunned themselves whenever possible.

This new batch of ladies are sissies for sure. They hop out only long enough to drink or eat some snow. They have a water container inside too, but they prefer the outside one. There is a cement block painted brown, that is their porch stairs. They were taking turns sitting on it or sitting in the doorway of the coop. Almost no prints in the snow. They don't want to step in it at all. I finally just gave them an extra concrete "porch block" so they don't have to take turns. Now they hop from block to block even reaching down from the block to eat the leftovers I gave them! Silly girls!

I relate to the "under the hen house problem", it seems animals always pick the worst times and worst weather to have those little problems.

 

[Henrietta23]

Eventually we'll surround the coop base with lattice or something so they can't get under it. For today I can just see one or two venturing out and then not coming back in again. I've always had hens who didn't mind the snow or just stayed in the coop. Silly girls! I'm about to bring them some warm oatmeal and scrambled eggs. My son left his snow saucer on the path to the coop last night. This morning it was covered in snow so I didn't see it. I step on it and slipped and broke two of the eggs I was carrying up to the house. Grrr....

 

[Farmfresh]

We cleaned out the refrigerator at school yesterday, so my hens had about 3 pounds of grated cheddar cheese that was a little green around the edges with supper yesterday and they are snacking on some freezer burnt buns today!

I love turning our waste into eggs!

 

[tfpets]

Im sorry to hear you slipped and broke your eggs! Silly boy for leaving that disk out there! Then again, I can slip and fall all by myself and not get to blame anyone but me!! My DH has video camera's on our pet area, and he's even seen me fall on nothing but flat ground playing with my pets....I call it "Gravitationally Challenged"...and its not just the "nothing thats wrong with me" its genetic...my sister fell and broke her elbow last year on flat ground!

Hope your weather stays tolerable!! Chickens are just silly, arent they? Whats wrong with a little cold feet? Brats.....makes you want to get a small dog or something to "herd" them out from under there? Mine hide under the coop too and lay on eggs...caused me to have 13 "mixed" chicks this year...and lots of little roosters to give away! (I cant do the right thing myself, yeah, I'm a wimp, so much for Self Sufficient! So exile me?)

Have a great day!

Tina/tfpets

 

[Henrietta23]

We're in between storms here. The chickens seemed content to be inside for the day. The ducks not so much. You know, my son desperately wants a West Highland White Terrier for Christmas. We told him maybe in the spring......

 

[Henrietta23]

Had a nice Christmas even though it meant traveling on Christmas Day which I hate. I just want to stay home.
Christmas Eve day we finished our shopping including an "emergency" trip into Hartford to the Italian bakery there. We got a call from FIL two nights earlier that he had been unable to find Torrone, the candy they ALWAYS have at Christmas. The store in Westchester Cty where they usually get it had closed down. COuld we try to find some out here?? HA! So off we went and spent over an hour in line waiting our turn. No way was I standing there all that time for one box of candy so we ended up with two boxes, a lb of store bought torrone to compare with the commercial stuff, some made with pistachios instead of the traditional almonds, 3 lbs of ameretto cookies and a panetone.
We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house (one town over), opening gifts and having dinner with them and my brother and his GF. Then we went to church. In the morning we did gifts from Santa and each other and had a yummy breakfast of French toast made from the pantetone from the Italian bakery. We then packed up and headed to NY to my in-laws for two nights. Overall it was a good time. There are always aggravations, but this year they were not aimed at me for a change. My SIL and her family were there from Iowa. BIL had just torn a ligament in his arm requiring surgery. The fact that he did this snow boarding meant he got lots of grief about it. The cast was driving him nuts and he got no sympathay what-so-ever. My niece is 14 and has recently gone from being a vegetarian to a vegan. Her father isn't thrilled about it but mostly everyone just accepts it. She still moped around almost all week with her nose in a book. She barely had a conversation with anyone. I couldn't even get more than two words out of her about her horses. My nephew is 16 and 6'1". My MIL doesn't believe in snacking so there wasn't a whole lot to eat between meals. And while we were there she only served two meals a day. The out of town in-laws all slept late so MIL served a late breakfast then a meal at 3:30-ish. When nephew started hanging around the kitchen looking for things to snack on she snapped at him. She also sniped at him constantly for mumbling, turning lights on so he could see to read while stretching out on the sofa instead of moving to the window, slouching, you name it. The child could do no right. And this kid has always been the apple of her eye. It was not fun to be around. She begged us to stay another day but looked very relieved when we said we had to be back for church Sunday morning.
Ugh, if you made it through all that..... it really wasn't as awful as some visits have been. It's just hard to see family aging and not quite accepting it. MIL complains constantly that FIL doesn't wear or won't turn on his hearing aids, when the fact of the matter is, she can't hear well anymore either! While they appreciated the trip we made to get the Italian candy FIL still had to comment that it was the soft kind not the hard kind and seemed to think we should have tried harder to find the kind he wanted (even though his teeth couldn't handle the hard kind if we had been able to get it!)
It was such a relief to get home! We've been cleaning and organizing since we're all off from school for a bit longer. My son has new toys that we need to find space for. He was disappointed that he didn't get a puppy even though we told him we'd asked Santa not to bring one yet. He did decide just yesterday after we'd been doing some breed research that the West Highland White Terrier he HAD to have might not be the best choice. He did get a book for kids about dogs and he's been looking through it with me. We were reading about breeds and Irish Setters have now caught his eye. They are supposed to be super playful and good with kids and other animals. I pulled out some old photos of my grandparents Irish Setters and he's now hooked. I really think it will be summer before we're ready to even look for a puppy so he'll probably change his mind 10 more times before then.
Tonight was a trip to UCONN for the hockey game. We went with his Cub Scout Pack. Way too late for the littler ones even though it's vacation. He crashed as soon as we got home. Hope he sleeps late tomorrow!