Winter

Front yard after shoveling for the 4th day in a row

After glorying in our upper 60's weather while it seemed the rest of the country endured storm after storm, we finally got ours.  It hasn't been a lot, but it has been regular.  I haven't ridden my bike to work in over a week as the snow has never quite left the roads.

Chris shoveling paths so I could reach the rabbit hutchs

Chris and I shovel the cars out at night, then I finish my car before leaving for work at O'Dark-thirty.  He does the walks and the rest of the driveway before I get home.

Our water feature, barely recognizable 

The rabbits in the upper yard are covered with old comforter overnight, lifted to let the sun in during the day.  The lower yard rabbits in the chicken yard are protected, but in the shade.

Rustabelle and one of her young

Rustabelle's litter in the hutch

All seem to be doing fine.

But Chris and I - we are so over it.

Winter has arrived

(vintage filter used by mistake)

Summary of February so far

The weather app assures me that we are going to get a taste of what is like in New England.  An inch an hour the local news outlet predicts.  It is snowing now light but steady.  

Inside the house it is warm and smells like the sandwich bread I just took out of the oven.  French Bread is raising to eat with dinner.  

The garden is started. Onions and a little lettuce in the greenhouse window.  

Tomatoes under lights.

Rustabelle's litter are eating feed and hay and have discovered the water bottles.  She is an unusual mother for a rabbit, checking on her young regularly from birth.  Most does ignore their litter except for the twice daily feeding.

Chris says he has been hearing foxes at night after I am asleep.  The once frightening sounds are now a comfort.  The fox population was infested with mange a year ago and the rodent (wild rabbit, mice and rat) grew as the disease decimated the population.  We sold off all of our chickens last summer because of it.  But with the return of the predator, I am hopeful.

Good thing too, since I picked up the first batch of day old chicks in Elizabeth yesterday.

(Color is bad with the heat lamp)

2 of each Mottled Java, Dark Brahma, Araucana & Buckeye.  They are living in the unused shower in the basement.  They will move to the small chicken coop when they feather out in about 4 weeks, just in time for the next batch to arrive.