So the kid picked herself out a holiday decoration...
We heartily approve, of course. Although if you squint just right, it looks as if Krampus is wearing a set of bunny ears.
Which is still appropriate, in this house.
Meanwhile, I picked these up for anyone but me in the house to try.
It takes some serious stones to call these horrors 'old fashioned', though.
So yesterday they called for about 2 inches of snow to fall here, our first snowfall of winter. Not unusual, as our first snowstorm tends to be pretty feeble, not really revving up for the good stuff until after the first of the year.
Yeah, I think they missed the mark a wee bit. After slogging through snow up to my knees, I found the street.
It's pretty, but we're thankful that we planned ahead anyway, what with lockdown and all, and don't have to go anywhere for the next few days.
But criminy, after snowing all night at a very energetic pace, IT SNOWED ALL DAY, too.
It tried to eat my Plymouth.
It's a convertible top, so I had to clear it off so the weight of it wouldn't tear the top. First having to shovel a path to the car, of course, ha ha.
Yep, that's about 2 feet of snow.
But why stop with clearing access to one car, when you can do two? But surely the second one won't be as ba-- DAMMIT.
Needless to say, the chickens and the dogs are not happy with all that white stuff, and naturally blame us.
...chickens don't give a hang about being embarassed.
As always on the day after Halloween, the chickens get the Jack-o-Lanterns. But why just give it to them, when you can take advantage of the banties being so small, and stuff them inside the pumpkin for picture time?
Marble goes first, and good-naturedly complies while Chonk and Bobbie watch...
Tingle, standing on the ground to the left, makes a maximum effort stretch to reach the goodies.
But immediately jumps up for a more direct approach. She is one of about ten hens molting right now, and looks quite the train wreck.
Skillet's turn in the gnashing pumpkin o' terror...
Bacon the roo, however, doesn't find the humans funny at ALL, and scoots right out.
After this we remove the glow-in-the-dark plastic teeth and move it to the ground. The others aren't shy, and join right in. Kentucky on top, in front. Left to right is Pumpkin, Marshmallow the whiteish hen towards the back, Henry the golden-laced Cochin in the far background. Oxide the frizzle is next, with Basil, Bonesaw and Gumdrop making up the rest of the hens.
Skillet resumes her spot on top. Bobbie the buff Brahma roo in front, he is only 7 months old, but is growing by leaps and bounds. Chonk the light Brahma hen is beside him, she is an adult. The whiteish roo on the back right is Milton the d'Uccle/Cochin mix bantam, our Head Roo.
Kentucky boots Skillet to hang upside down like a bat and nibble. Pie (Rambo's daughter) the buff Brahma mix on the far right, is the only one who has finished her molt; she looks grand with her foot feathers and dignified beard.
Gumdrop joins Kentucky and they snarf down pumpkin together. Everyone else is more sensible and goes directly in from the front.
And our nighttime temps are already dipping into the low 20's. Hurry up and grow new feathers, ladies!
Ultra low-key this year, just making a comfort-food dinner, watching scary movies and snarfing down Halloween candy...but the kid is carving jack-o-lanterns (yes, those teeth glow in the dark!), which will be dutifully turned over to the chickens for snackies tomorrow.
Criminy, I think the hens could stand inside that one and eat.
So the kid and I went over to WalMart tonight to hit up the Subway there for dinner--100 degrees is too damned hot to cook.
As we were leaving, sandwiches in hand, a WalMart employee ran past us to exit the store, hands cupped around something wrapped in a paper towel. From his posture I knew it was something alive, so the kid and I followed to watch the release of whatever it was--we figured it was a mouse.
He crouched and released the creature *just* outside the automatic doors, then turned and ran back into the store. My first impression was 'Oh boy, whatever it is, is just gonna turn around and go right back INTO the store', because that's what little creatures LOVE to do.
Then we see what he released.
A tiny, gray tree frog.
Now, it's 100 degrees, and the concrete outside is scorching, as is the big asphalt parking lot. Lil' frog is either going to broil in short order, or get stepped on/run over. The kid leaps into action and grabs up the little guy, there are trees here and there in the parking lot and we figure we'll release it under one of them.
But...I just can't. The trees are saplings that are surrounded by rocks, and nothing about this habitat is frog-friendly.
On the other hand, I have a lovely yard at home that is perfect for frogs...
I call the kid back and tell her change of plans, Frog is going home with us. She's happy and agrees, so she gets to ride home with her hands cupped around a tiny frog who really, really wants out. I warn her not to let him go, if he gets loose in the car we'll never find him again. I buckle her into her seat, peel off her face mask, toss dinner in the back seat and we're off.
On the way, she tells me the frog has some kind of fuzz tangled around him, so we make a plan: when we get home, she's to go directly into her bathroom and place our frog friend in the bathtub, where we can gently rinse him off and clean him.
She dashes past her so-very-confused father and places our frog friend in the tub. Yup, he's got all kinds of fuzz around his legs. A combination of water sprinkled on him and gentle pulling away of the gunk gets him clean. He appears to be a Northern Pacific Tree Frog.
Yay, clean frog friend! Although he's a bit puzzled by this whole adventure...
...and decides that he's done posing for pictures and starts to climb the bathtub. We hastily agree (he's really startlingly good at climbing) and the kid grabs him again, and troops him out to the weeping redbud tree in the front yard--a lovely, shady spot with a deep layer of bark chips, just moist enough for a frog!
He seemed uninjured, so hopefully he'll do well!
