The Victoria’s Chicken Catalog

 

At the request of Ed from Thoughts from the Road Blog that I do more frequent posts that include my chickens, I have come up with some chicken eye candy for him (and everyone) to enjoy. I introduce to you for your viewing pleasure:

The Victoria’s Chicken Catalog

Why is it that only tall, skinny, half-naked beauties get all the attention?

These buxom, feather bottomed, curvaceous beaked hens can rock the runway and look sexy, too!

  

 

Just look at the curves on this beautiful lady! And she knows how to wear a little sparkle and bling, too!

These pretty ladies spend hours making sure every last feather, fluff and curl are just perfect…and they love to show it all off!

Doesn’t this girl look beautiful in her soft, fluffy angora sweater?

 

This gorgeous lady is quite exotic looking.

 

Hey, it’s Twins!

 

Oh my! And Triplets, too!

 

And a whole flock of Bathing Beauties!

 

This diva sure knows how to show off her sexy bed head.

 

And yes, blondes really do have more fun!

 

This older lady still looks lovely in all of her sparkle and bling!

 

This hot babe is sleek, dark and sexy! 

 

This fun chick is showing off her gorgeous wavy locks with a few flippy, flirty accents.

 

Sometimes the ladies like to leave a little something to the imagination.

 

This diva sure knows how to show off her Bette Davis bedroom eyes. “Hey there Sexy!”

And a fluffy, swishy, puffy bottom says it all….sexy!

 

I hope you enjoyed our very first edition of Victoria’s Chicken Catalog!

And So It Continues………..

 

 

                                                  To Snow…

But we did manage to get two beautiful days without any white stuff falling from the sky. And then the snow started falling yet again.

(Photo taken of our paddocks and barn, at noon on Thursday)

(The lower paddock feeding/watering station is working out well and is very convenient for me)

(Though I do feel bad that they get snowed on while eating. Perhaps I can get a lean-to shelter built for them down there next summer, because I think this feeding/watering station is going to be a traditional winter situation)

 

But 2 days was not enough time for me to fix the chicken coop netting and fencing.

(Thankfully I’ve not seen any hawks around. And the chickens only seem to mind that their cozy foot-warming straw carpet is getting covered up by cold snow again)

(But my girls did come out to say hello to me and ask for treats)

(The wild birds are enjoying the two feeding stations beside our our house and providing us with amusing entertainment. photos taken from my bedroom window at 9am on Thursday before I refilled the bird feeders) 

(There’s a bird house feeder underneath that snow laden branch, with a hanging wooden platform below it, that isn’t hanging anymore, due to the heavy snow weight of that branch)

And 2 days was not enough time for me to fix the leaky roof or finish my Christmas shopping, or put up Christmas lights on the trees that line our driveway.

(I did manage to put some lit greenery around our front door)

 

But I need to keep things simple (and safe) for myself with Ranchman John not here to help. I sure do miss my holiday outside lights, but traipsing around in 2 foot deep snow trying to wrap electric lights on trees doesn’t sound very safe. My kidlets and animals need me and I won’t be much help if I end up with a broken leg.

(And Apache would miss her lunchtime carrot)

 

Speaking of our driveway, someone in a black pickup truck with a snowplow on the front came through our neighborhood on Tuesday after our big snow storm blizzard and cleared our mile long main road out to the county road.

(Photo taken from our garage looking down our driveway towards our neighborhood. You can’t see where the road was cleared anymore because the new snow has filled it in. It was nice while it lasted, if only for two days. sigh.)

I’ve never seen this truck before so I have no idea who they are, but I wish I could thank them. They did end up pushing about a 2 foot mini mountain of snow in front of the entrance to our driveway, but it was easy to motor over in my truck. Having the roadway out to the county road cleared was a real blessing. It’s nice to know there are such kind and generous folks still out there.

(Our house. Photo taken from the end of our driveway)

 

(Jen in our driveway. Photo taken at noon on Thursday)

This new snow storm is predicted to dump another 8”-12” of snow on us. Looks like we’ll definitely be having a White Christmas!

(Jen wanted to show you all one of the icicles hanging off of our house. This is one of the reasons our roof is leaking. The canales that drain water from our southwestern pueblo-style flat roof are blocked by ice)

But on good note, with this new snowstorm, the kidlets and I have plenty of time to enjoy our holiday baking, which includes peanut butter kiss cookies, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate covered pretzels (for the neighbors’ gifts). I can already feel my pants getting tighter.

Last night was really wonderful because my dear friend Suzanne invited us all over for the afternoon/evening. Jen had a Musik lesson with her friend, C, Suz’s daughter, while I washed several loads of laundry (yeah, our washing machine is still dead), and Jax and Jem hung out and filmed home movies with their buddy, C, Suz’s son. Then we all watched the movie TANGLED (I love Maximus!) and enjoyed a Spaghetti dinner. I was so appreciative to be able to wash our dirty clothes close to home while spending time with friends, instead of having to drive down into the city of Albuquerque to hang out for hours in a laundromat.  It was a really nice evening and a break from all of the work here at home, and I even managed to do a little bit of Christmas/Grocery shopping afterwards. Perfect timing with this new snow storm that arrived this morning.

(Jen in our backyard)

On another positive note, I found out that my photo of Matt and Prince from the Hearts for Horses event was used for an article in one of our local newspapers, called The Edgewood Independent. In fact the article is on the front page of the newspaper!

Check it out!:  The Independent 

Dobbie: “Would you hurry up with the photo-taking, please? I’m getting cold down here.”

Yep. It looks like we’ll be having a very White Christmas here at the Laughing Orca Ranch!

Wordless Wednesday ~ The Day After

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just Another Snow Day

 

My day started on Saturday with lots of bundling up with layers of warm clothing as I headed out the door, with Zuni, our German Shepherd and Dobbie, my Chiweenie. I filled a water bottle with hot water for Apache’s warm breakfast mash. And we trudged up the hill, through the snow, to the barn, to feed and water the goats, llamas and horse. Mustang Sally is a fair weather Chihuahua and chose to stay back inside the warm house. I don’t blame her.

And Dobbie would like to stay in the house, too, but she won’t let me go anywhere out of her sight, so she patiently waits for me to bundle her up in a warm coat and then out we go.

“Hurry up, Mom. I’m cold!”

When we get up to the barn, everyone is waiting for us….or rather, for me to feed them.

Zuni can be such a spaz when it comes to snow. She loves it.

Apache is glad when I finally gather up Zuni and get her secured in her paddock behind the barn. “Hurry up. I’m hungry!”

I let Apache out of her stall so she can run around and roll in the snow for a few minutes and then she comes back to me, snorting and blowing, for breakfast.

“Ok, Mom. I got the Ya Ya’s out. Now I’m ready to eat. Bring it on.”

I get the llamas, goats and horse fed and watered and then head back down the hill to the house. “Are we done now, Mom?”

“No Dobbie. I still have to take care of the chickens”

“Bummer. Brrrr”

I clear a section for the chickens so I could spread out some scratch for them, and then pour some hot water into their frozen water bucket to melt the ice. The chickens are so happy to see me and the day is starting to warm up a little, so I decide to have a seat on my Adirondack chair and hang out in their coop for a little while.

Watching them peck and scratch while they eat their cracked corn and millet is very relaxing.

Their cooing and clucking is very calming.

Paul Revere kept an eye on me.

What’s up with that wild spikey do?

We have two other Blue Wyandottes, that are both hens, and one is the dark blue/black like Paul Revere, but the other one is a lovely silvery grey color. So pretty!

These Blue Wyandottes are huge! They are even bigger than our Silver laced Cochins.

Makes me wonder what breeds of chickens Privett’s Hatchery bred to get this rare color of Wyandotte.

I love the black and gold markings on my Golden laced Wyandotte.

I started off with 5 Golden laced Wyandotte chicks, and now I’m wishing that I didn’t sell 4 of them, leaving me with just this one beautiful hen.

These girls eyed me up as soon as I sat down in my chair.

Don’t they sort of look like Charlie’s Angels?

 

They made it clear they wanted to come over and visit.

But I was sitting in an area of the coop that I hadn’t cleared of snow yet.

They had to get brave enough to climb over the snow drift and head over to me.

Which they did.

And were soon hopping up into my lap for some cuddling.

                                               I love my chickens.

But soon it began snowing again and the temperature dropped and it was time to go inside to warm up.

The day before I had made a crock pot of Green Chile Pinto Bean Stew, so I had a tasty bowl of that for breakfast. Everyone knows stew is always better the next day. And it was.

I followed it up with a Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bar that I had made the night before.

Mmmmm!

A great way to spend a snow day, don’t you agree?