Merry Chickmas!

What, again?!

Yup.  Today the chickens once again refused to come out into the snow, so we helped a couple of them learn about new things.

Not that we blame them.  It's been COLD!  And all that pesky, crunchy, white stuff they dislike so.

It had really come down last night.

But the little lighted trees looked pretty!

This morning we dutifully tore paper, I got some cool stuff!  My new shirt, oddly enough, exactly follows how our chicken count went when we first got chickens.  Chicken math!

And a new cool sign for The Great Wall Of Chicken in my dining room!

I love how he's throwing a little 'peace' sign.  I also got a frame for my 'Day Of The Triffids' movie poster, it will hang in the den and be awesome.

Time to visit the chickens!  The snow and ice were hanging off the coop and run in weird and wonderful ways.

...and even somewhat menacingly. We were calling this one Ice Slug.

None of the chickens were going to come out, so we designated Tingle as Today's Volunteer, yay!
  We set her down in the snow, kerplop...

...and she just stood there.  Staring politely into space and waiting for the humans to pick her up again.

Finally she realized it wasn't gonna happen, and set off *carefully*, snowplowing through the snow.

She actually didn't go back into the coop right away and instead decided to explore a bit.

The other chickens simply stared at her like she was nuts for walking through the cold, treacherous white stuff.

Uhhh...Tingle, bad place to stand, hon.

She stood and looked at us cluelessly while we yelled, 'Look UP!  Move!  Don't stand under that thing!'

Luckily it never did plop on her little chicken head.

But just in case we knocked the excess snow off so we didn't have to rescue anyone from an avalanche and dig them out.

But what is chicken-thigh-deep snow without a banty tossed unceremoniously into it?

Skillet was SOOO NOT AMUSED.  Indignant, thy name is snowchicken.

 Stop laughing, you awful humans, you.  As soon as I wade out of here I'm gonna peck you so hard.

When we brought Pompadour out, she made a nice fluffybutt imprint in the snow.  Kinda the Cochin brand of snow angel, I guess.  Cam came running out to sympathize with her...

..and escort her right back into the coop.

Jimmy, on the other hand, was happy with being out.  Anything the humans do is A-OK with Jimmy!

After that it was time to decorate the hens for the holidays!

Cluckadorkle was feeling her Brahma side that day and being dour.

Tingle didn't care!

Although she was curious to see if it contained any food.  You can never be too careful.

Skillet was still not amused.

Jimmy, still good-naturedly playing along.

Even Pompadour thawed out a little and went with it.

But only up to a point.

Chicken Death Glare.  OK, I got it, enough was enough.

Let It Snow! Like You Have Any Choice...

Just in time for Christmas, we got about a foot of snow today.

Needless to say, the chickens are unhappy and camped in the coop, refusing to come out.  But the sparrows did, and attacked the food block out front (which is quickly disappearing).

Poor little feathered snowplows were chest-deep in snow.  Not that they minded, because FOOD.

The were joined by the Dark-Eyed Junco on the right, who glared at me for taking a picture when he was trying to eat.

Later, after they'd left, I went out and shoveled off the walk (and my car), the stuff is still coming down but ya gotta try and keep pace with it.

But it's pretty with the Christmas decorations!  The Lavender Twist Redbud showing off it's best 'Charlie Brown Tree' form.

Snow on the little plastic ornaments...

And on the spiky light-ball things hanging off the corner of the house.

It's lovely powdery snow, perfect for skiing...or snowball fights...hmm...

But It's A STICKY Snow!

 Last night we had what can only be described as a 'sticky' snow.  We'd had freezing fog earlier so this stuff stuck to every available surface.

And there was plenty of it, too!

It even stuck in weird ways to a spare birdcage out back.

It was light and powdery and with no wind, piled up beautifully.

  

 I really liked the pattern it made in the chain link fencing!

By morning it was done snowing.

We had our very own garden hose Loch Ness Monster.

The Curly Willow looked neat in the snow.

 
And--you'll be glad to know that Pele, The Feather-Free Chicken, has finally deigned to grow feathers, thank God.

Dodging A Bullet...

...or a handfull of ball bearings, take your pick.

The Jeep had developed a weird squeaky-rattle that yesterday got dramatically worse...just in time for  another winter storm moving in.  Husband checked it out and determined that a pulley that was holding the freakin' serpentine belt was at fault, so he ordered a new one.

As luck would have it, the part came in today, so he zipped down to the auto parts store and got it.  He was able to change it out between the 'heavy rain' part of the storm and the 'heavy snowfall' part.

Here's what he found!  The thing normally has a plastic cover, the ball bearings aren't even supposed to be visible.

I especially like how the center part is kinda leeeaaning over (it's supposed to be straight!).

God knows where the missing ball bearings went, we no doubt sprinkled them down the highway as we drove.

Yay for catching things like this before they explode and cause a major issue and spread your serpentine belt all over the car!

*Whew*