Long nights, deep fog, and rain in the chicken coop.

The longest night of winter has just recently passed, and we're looking forward to seeing just a bit less of this sort of scene as beautiful as it can be. We definitely prefer getting home when we can get by without the lights being on for a while, and that just isn't the case at the moment. It would be the case even without working far too much which is the norm right now unfortunately. We've had some very strange weather out here lately as well for this time of year. First there was the snow and more snow, and that was fairly normal. The Thursday post of the conquest of snow was fun because it is nice to feel like we have the snow under control for the first time. Note to mother nature, that isn't a challenge!

Quick Hit: Snow, plenty of it.

Yeah, that's about it for today. Between work and snow I'm out of energy for posting. Sorry I didn't even try on Tuesday. The rush is about to end, and I may be able to post Tuesday, there'll definitely be a post on next Thursday.

The good part about snowblowers, speed of clearing. The bad part is how covered in snow you get. Especially with loose snow like we've had it gets everywhere. I've gotten better at aiming the throw at least, so I get covered less!

Stay warm folks.

Quick hit: Big kits, shy kits, and snowy wood

It's another short post since I'm working too many hours. Some of Sunshine's kits are coming out to explore from time to time, but are very skittish due to lack of handling. Otherwise they're growing well.

Something drew the attention of Twilight and all of her kits when I was out there this morning. Not sure what it was, but they were all focused on it. They're getting big, I think it's about time to butcher them all out when I have a couple hours. Probably next week. Some nice big kits though. Halley and Comet's kits are also getting big, though as usual not quite As big as Twilight's kits. Interesting note though is that the kit we fostered over to Twilight you can see in the top left is the same size as Twilight's kits despite being from Halley and Comet.

 The price of unfinished tasks is upon us as snow has covered the wood piles. It means bringing wood in sooner to dry it in front of the fire rather than being able to just have it out there and get what we need. Ahhh well. Next year there will be a wood shelter. It's been nice coming home from work to a fire warmed house though, it is much nicer than coming home to my mandated 55 - 60. But, we're managing our wood pile well so we should have plenty for the rest of the winter at least. Well, as long as we don't get a mini ice age going here which isn't in the predictions. So, that's all for now. I'll try to have some substance for you next time, maybe talking about fatigue, cold, and pain management, and how it relates to homesteading.

Quick hit: Ice, bunnies, and an eggstacy of eggs

It's cold, icy, and I'm working way too much so this is going to be a very short post without too much to say. The young kits are doing well, and while their mom Sunshine doesn't like me bothering them too much she's gotten used to it. They aren't as friendly as kits as I'd like, but a large part of that can be attributed to the fact that I haven't had time to handle them, and it was too cold to do weight checks. In the future I'm going to really try to push for handling if there aren't weight checks, but that means figuring out a way to keep kits warm and healthy when being handled when it's REALLY cold.

Oddly enough it's been warmer lately than it was earlier in the winter and fall. The difference is and why the work on the new hutch has stalled is the snow, and more importantly ice all over the place. 3" of snow, no problem, a good solid 1" of ice Is however a problem. Combine that with a really insane work schedule lately and I just haven't been able to get anything done. Barring being bad at sleep I think I've spent about 10 hours at home awake this week, and 7 of that is morning wake up, and farm chores.

On the other hand, we do have some really pleasant things happening. In particular Dora, the smallest of our chickens has gone on an egg laying binge. We were just thrilled to have Some eggs before she knocked off for the winter, but she's just gone and laid 6 eggs in the first 7 days of egg laying. This time I cheated and took the photo of the eggs against a white background so you can see how blue they are without me actually enhancing the photo at all! You can also see why I'm not working on the hutch since that's the bottom wire.

Sorry for the short post today, this is going to be my 4th, 14 hour work day in a row. I'll try to have a solid quality post Thursday, but no promises.

A quick check in, an interesting coloration, and weather considerations.

Sunshine's babies are moving around a bit, though mostly they as you can see below huddle in the hay and fur and stay warm which is sort of their job in life right now. That said, the kit Above is sort of a mystery. As you can see it's already developed the silverish ticking that we see on the crosses between Umbra and any Creme, but it's FAR early, and much more pronounced than the norm.

All sorts of new!

So many new things I wasn't sure what to start with so I defaulted to baby rabbits, even if it is blurry. Sunshine's litter is all alive and well, and have opened their eyes! I missed my favorite day of them with eyes half open. It's been a busy few days since the last post before Thanksgiving thus all of the new!