A Little of This and a Little of That

 

By now I bet everyone has been dealt with or is starting to be affected by the recent Arctic Blast that has blown through much of the United States. It made it’s way through here this morning and afternoon filling our skies with blowing snow and single digit temps. For the first time this winter, after my gloves got wet from watering everyone in the barn, they stuck to every metal surface. The pipe railing even tried to steal the gloves off my hands. (Note: Tonight it has gotten down to 4 degrees! Brrr! I'm leaving some of my faucets dripping....just in case!)

And after being outside for an hour taking pictures, my thighs were completely numb and I had frost on my eyelashes. It took me several hours just to feel warm again, even with the space heater pointed at me while I was tucked under several quilts and a down blanket. Brrrrr!

I really miss summer. How ‘bout you?

A few days ago my twinlings had their best friend, C over to hang out for a few hours. C’s Dad dropped him off and then drove out to Moriarty to gas up his little airplane and take it up for a flight. I sometimes hear airplanes go over our house, and some are quite low, especially the military planes, but that day I heard a plane above our house that wasn’t just passing over. After a few minutes, I walked out on our loft balcony and looked up and realized that C’s Dad was circling our house and giving us a ‘wing-wave’. I thought that was pretty cool. I’m glad I grabbed my camera and managed to get a quick photo.

 

The other day, I happened to glance up in the big paddock and saw my mare napping. I’ve never been able to get close to her while she’s napping (yet), but I think my mare is so cute when she’s all curled up asleep on the ground that I can’t pass up an opportunity for a photo or two. She didn’t seem happy that I caught her sleeping. It’s as if she thought humans should never see her in such a vulnerable position, and especially not with a camera in hand.

 

 

As soon as she realized I saw her, she jumped up.

“See, what I have to put up with over here? I’m telling you. It’s an invasion of privacy!”

“Unless you’ve got carrots, apples or cookies for me, would you mind going back inside your People Barn and giving me some peace?”

And I haven’t done any recent updates on the chick trio. They are now 15 weeks old and it’s easy to tell which are roosters and which is a hen. Lucky me I ended up with my scale loaded heavier with roosters.

Good for them, they are turning out very good looking, thanks to their Dad’s good genes, so they shouldn’t be too difficult to find new homes for when the time comes.

My intention was never to have any roosters, but in the end I’m glad we ended up with Sid Vicious, the Golden-laced, bearded Polish and Mr. Cotton, the Japanese Silky. They are both coop eye candy, which is basically the only reason we keep them around.

But 4 roosters is a bit much for our 16 hens, though. It’s kind of sad, though, because the rooster chick with the Ameracauna fluffy cheeks has some gorgeous markings.

Whenever I go out to the coop, Suzie, one of our Silver-laced Wyandottes keeps an eye on me and usually follows me around. I think she just likes to have her picture taken.

The Welsumer pullets that I bought at the Poultry Swap back in August lay the most beautiful dark brown eggs and they are two of my favorite hens now. I love the way they are shaped and the coloring and patterns of their feathers, too.

I’m also glad I bought a Cuckoo Marans pullet in August, too. This gal is so pretty and lays the most unusual dark, muddy-green eggs.

She looks a lot like our barred rocks, but the bars of the barred rocks seem more bold.

Eating must be so exhausting for chickens.

ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Project 365 photo for today.

Blue Moon Sunrise over Laughing Orca Ranch.

         

Taken using my Canon PowerShot SX110 IS. Edited using Picnik. The sky was actually that bright pink, probably even brighter actually. The sun was rising up in the East in front of our house, and the Blue Moon was just beginning to sink down in the West behind our house. It took my breath away. How about you?