An unwelcome guest

Snow.

Well not yet.  The forecast for the over night low has been fluctuating between 32° and 38°F.  The meteorologists have agreed on 70% chance of precipitation, but not on what form.

Prepare for the worst, right?

We picked all tomatoes that looked 1/2 way ripe.  All the green bell peppers.  A dozen medium sized Trombetta Squash.  All the cucumbers.

The popcorn is not ready, nor is the Golden Bantam sweet corn.  Nothing we can do about that.  If we lose those crops it will be silage for the hens.  The pole beans are going to seed, but they will have the same fate if they are not fully formed.

But the purple tomatillos (I am dying to make purple salsa with them and the similarly colored bell peppers) and the chilies.  The other non bell peppers.  The melons.  These we covered.

Savers yielded us 7 flat sheets to make tents of sorts for these plants.  Also the cucumbers and a volunteer winter squash (a hubbard type I think) that sprouted in the Blue Jade corn patch.

But still I am thrilled with this year's garden.  Chris and I have have been more serious about growing than any other year.  Even if the bush beans I planted as part of a fall garden die, this is the first year we have planted a fall garden (also carrots, turnips, cabbage and spinach which may do fine)

Our pantry will be filled with homemade pasta sauce and tomato soup.  Applesauce and apple rings.  Apple cider.  There is tomato paste in the freezer along with bell peppers and corn.  And we have pickles of cucumber, bean and cauliflower.

In fact, I will use the last of my canning jars this weekend.

Winter arrangements

I woke up this morning with a feeling of expectation.  A glance out the window showed more snow, a surprise since new snow rarely falls on old around here. 

Luna is due.  If she hasn't kindled already, she would by the end of this weekend.   While drinking my first coffee, I checked the water forecast.  Below zero first of the week, necessitating a move for Luna and her future litter.   The adults could handle things with extra straw and wind protection, but the hairless kits would be vulnerable. 

Out into the snow I went and discovered the kits had already arrived.  5 white & 2 black.  

So into the downstairs bathroom she would go.  A small cage to hold food and water and a small rug is all that was needed to turn the guest bath into a micro barn for the next week or so.  By then the kits would have grown a fur coat and the weather should be in the double digits again.

 

 

Window starts

Using a SAD lamp for happy plants.

Continued cold

The snow is still here.  As are the single digit temperatures.  This may seem normal, but here it is not.  Snow usually lasts 1 day on the roads and sidewalks, and is all but gone within 2 - the temps having returned to the 40's our higher by then.

I brought Gary the rooster inside this morning.  The cold has really affected his ability to walk, and he does not seem to be able to fluff out his feathers to keep as warm as the hens.  So he is ensconced under the table that holds our Christmas tree until it warms up a bit.  He wool probably get a bath before then as his grooming has also suffered.

Yeah, he's almost a pet.  To scrawny to eat, and more than a little pathetic.  But a great introduction to people who have never seen a chicken up close as he is so calm and friendly.

 

Update: Before the new year, Gary died quietly one night.   

cold snap musings

Last night and today were the longest consistent snowfall I have seen since we moved to Colorado.  It is also the first time 60 degree weather is not forecast for a day or two after said snow.  Instead I am preparing for -9 tonight.  The hens have all the shutters on their coop shut and their doorway is blocked.  The heat lamp will be on until the temps go back above freezing.  Extra straw is in the nest boxes and on the floor.  All the rabbit hutches, also filled with extra straw, are wrapped to some extent or another.  Yeti's wooden sides are on and a burlap bag is hanging over the doors.  Peppers and Luna both have floor rugs draped over the open sides of their abodes.  The 6 young rabbits have an unused comforter over their converted chicken tractor.  Indica changed all the water bottles before dinner, although they are already slushy.

I would love to convert the shop into a barn.  I imagine it often, especially when my fingers are sticking to the cold locks of each hutch.  The shop's 11x11 floor could easily house all our livestock, plus food and bedding.  Rabbit hutches would hang on the east wall.  2/3 outside and 1/3 inside with a "doggy door" to keep some of the cold out.  The worm bin would be below on the outside, removable trays on the inside.  Both a heat lamp and a fan would be hanging from the ceiling.  There would be nest boxes and roosts for the hens.  And running water.  There would be 3 small stalls.  One for feed and straw.  And 2 for a couple mini mancha does. 

The fact that we need the shop to be a shop hinders this fantasy of mine.

Why can't I just get giddy about a Coach purse like every other woman I know?

Predicting the weather

Regardless of the rain coming down, the weather report insists that it is partly sunny, with scattered thundershowers expected in the early evening.

I guess Roosevelt E Roosevelt (via Adrian Cronauer) said it best about reporting the weather "You got a window? Open it!"

Happy Riley

Mother Nature has a bizarre definition of spring.

Adapting to spring snow

 As I have said many times, the chickens do not like snow.  After waking the girls (unnecessarily) for school I had gone outside to find the hen yard empty.

With now 30 chickens in our coop that is truly maxed at 15, I needed at least the older flock to go outside.

By the house they have a tarp covered area that stays mostly clear - even with the wind blowing the snow around it is protected.  But it was also all the way across their yard.

I have 3 words.  Frosted Mini Wheats.  At the bottom of every box there is an inch or so of "leavings" that no one eats.  Sometimes I use it in apple crisp or a muffin recipe, but sometimes it gets lost in the back of the cupboard and found only after it is long stale.

But the hens enjoy it.

After spreading a couple sections of straw in their covered area I made a path with the crushed cereal.  As you can see, all the hens were enticed out.

Then I made an area for the pullets.

A folding card table, some more straw, and a waterproof table cloth is a little ghetto, but it works.  Because of their age the light is on 24/7 in the coop, but this should encourage them out a bit also.

It kinda reminds me of the annex for the Minneapolis flock.

They canceled school for this?

Thwarted

6+ inches of snow today - more to come on Tuesday.

I guess the hens will have to wait until Friday.  I am not processing in a snow storm.

Anticipating Spring

Saturday is the day, if I am not working, that I get to sleep in.  Hubby wakes up, lets the dog out and makes coffee - delivering it in my favorite mug with the most important news from CNN's website.

So at 8am (a decadent time of the morning for a wake up) he hands me a cup of Dazbog's Mocha Java (with cream and brown sugar in the sunflower mug he painted for me while we were dating) with the news that Phil the Groundhog has predicted spring.  I don't remember a time that he did not see his shadow and scurry back in his den.

But maybe I should plant tomatoes this week.

There is, of course, still snow on the ground.

Fresh livestock greens!

I found a local grocer that prefers to give its produce scraps to people with animals rather than throw them away.  I picked up a box this morning before work.  All the animals were thrilled to see something besides alfalfa - especially the ducks.  With the snow on the ground this is a veritable pot of gold for me - it is the end of the pay period and I need to wait another day to get a new bag of feed.  Although the hens love leftovers, like for us, fresh greens are better. 

New Morning Routine

It starts earlier.

I should have always been getting up around 5:30.  I have been meaning to, but it wasn't until the need to take a puppy out for a morning walk that I am actually doing it.  Reilly (Riley? we decided on a name but not a spelling yet) is 6 months old and need to go out IMMEDIATELY upon being let out of his crate in the morning.  So I bundle myself up (I do so hate being cold) and we walk before the sun is peaking over the edge of the horizon.

While the rest of the family sleeps.

While we are gone, though, the coffee pot is doing its job and we walk in to the house smelling of the dark roast Bob just sent us (Thanks Bob!)  I enjoy a cup before heading outside with a bucket of hot water for the livestock.  The poultry and the rabbit (much happier outside in his 2 story hutch than he was inside in the dog crate)  are enthusiastic about their newly thawed water this time of year.

On a side note:  I finally found a book that told me why the quail and ducks are not laying.  In no other book that I have read does it mention that these birds, like hens, need 14+ hours of light to produce eggs.  Since there is not power to the areas of the yard they live I will go without - and instead make a trade with our neighbor who also has ducks (and a light).  Hubby and I are not planning to keep the quail anyway.  We are down to 3 now, one male flew out yesterday while I was getting them fresh water.  The eggs are too small to more than a novelty and the meat - tho tasty, is a lot of work for a small amount.  I would rather have 2 more hens.  Or a dairy goat.

But back to my morning.  Reilly and I go back in the quiet house, and herein lies the reason I have wanted to get up and do the chores earlier.

A second cup of coffee in peace and quiet before the rest of the family gets up.

Priceless.

where have you been all my month?

Mom commented the other night while we Skyped that I haven't been posting lately.  It is not that nothing has been going on, but I have been loath to sit at the computer and log in.  Not sure why.


Anyway here is some photos to tell their own story - There are leaves to be raked outside and wood to be stacked.  Knitting projects to start and pasta sauce to be canned in addition to the regular chores before I go to work today.

This is not a nest box

Hard Cider in the works

More snow - gone now.

Corn maze at Denver Botanical Gardens

First snow

By the sun was up, half of it was already melted.

I am curious how the garden is doing up at the Ppatch (I won't have time until tomorrow to check it out) since both the summer squash and tomatoes were still producing the day before yesterday - despite nighttime temps in the 40's.

Oh and there is no longer evidence that there had been any snow at all.