No, That's Not What I Meant...Aw Damn!

Look winter--I was *kidding* about the Game of Thrones thing, OK?!

Last night, after I padded through the kitchen around midnight and looked out the window...and actually yelled, 'Oh, come ON!'

I had to go outside to see if I was seeing what I *thought* I was seeing.

Yeah.

Today, and daylight isn't helping.

I'd call this 'the view from my kitchen window' BUT THERE ISN'T ANY VIEW.

 It's like being in Icicle Prison.

If you look close you can see Nora the rooster hopefully eyeing the salt on the walk I'd just shoveled, hoping for his very own Fun Trip To The Vet or alternatively, Horrible Salty Death. To be fair, the stuff is the size of chicken crumbles and glitters so prettily...
The next storm is due tomorrow and they are calling for flooding. So yeah, a whole new joy.

Oh, and husband just stalked out to glare into the closet the furnace squats in..."It's making a weird noise."

YAY.  That MFer breaks and right hand to God, I'll take my wood-chopping ax to it. And I've got a good one, too.

2/12 UPDATE: SOMEBODY GET MY AX. Furnace igniter is dead, and our next storm is due tonight.

We Come From The Land Of The Ice And Snow...Ah-Ah, AH!

Another snowstorm yesterday into last night...and this morning the view from my kitchen window is straight-up 'Game of Thrones'.

Looking out the sliding door...

HEY CHICKENS, HAVIN' A GOOD TIME, OUT THERE?

The rest of the yard looks like the World's Worst BBQ/Beach party.

Venturing outside, seven inches of snow overnight. The icicle crop has gone all Icicle Armageddon.

The kitchen window from the outside.

The big one has nearly made it to the ground.

Out in the chicken yard, the kid has been busy making snowmen.

Cthulhu on the left, a nod to Calvin & Hobbes on the right. The one on the right ripping it's own head off still needs a face, she had to come in to warm up a bit first.

A snowCthulhu...*wipes away a proud tear*

OK, I'll go shovel the patio and walk...wait--where the #@&* is the snow shovel?!

Ah. OK, so I need a snow shovel to unearth the snow shovel.

*sigh...*

Weird Food And Winter

So...it's been snowing. And snowing. And icing up. And so flippin' flappin' cold we have chosen to hunker down and bake cookies to have with our coffee as we watch the snow fly. The dogs are asleep in the corner and Pong naps under her heat lamp.

Meanwhile...I've been noticing things, cooped up in the house as I am. Like when I opened a new jar of peanut butter and realized it possessed a...belly button.

And an outie, at that.

The next day, lunch surprised me with...a face.

Heh...cabin fever is FUN!

Now to be fair, this is what it was like outside.

It got to be a proper two-day blizzard and laid down about a foot of snow, complete with whiteout conditions making the houses across the street cease to exist and black ice everywhere.

The back yard. Even though the coop and run were open, the chickens refused to come out. Snow must NEVER touch chicken foot, after all.

I leaned out the back door and called, 'Chick-chick-chick!'

Predictably the response was a universal 'Screw you' from the grumpy poultry. They wouldn't even come out of the coop.

Meanwhile, the next morning, the 2019 icicle crop was coming in nicely. This was the view from my kitchen window.

The next day, and now we're talkin', baby.

 Ignore the cobwebs, the spiders took a hankering to this side of the house recently, way up I can't reach and before I could get out there and remove them the bad weather hit.

Also, the one icicle on the left outside the kitchen window is busy forming A HAND.

It'll be the perfect murder when it strangles us all in our sleep, melting away and leaving no trace of itself.

Lordy, things need to thaw out so I can get out of the house again. Meanwhile, off to make zuchinni bread...
Oh, and look on ebay for hatching eggs...Chickam in April!

Lake Tahoe...

...looked pretty in the snow today as we drove up to South Lake to get our Powerball ticket.

The clouds moving in over the lake were beautiful.

And heck, they make no-kidding icicles up here that put ours to shame!

I figured this was The Abominable Snowman's winter resort digs.

Icicle Season Is In Full Swing...

Over the last week or so the snow has persisted and our annual icicle crop is coming along handsomely.  By December 29th, even the chicken run had some fun ones!

You gotta admire Mother Nature's artwork.

I love the pattern in the ice from the hardware cloth.

And the Icy Hand Of Death icicle!

The small run was working on some larger ones.

Once in a while one would fall and leave interesting bits.  We closed the door and kept the chickens out so they wouldn't become chicken kabobs.

The ice on the house is just getting started.

But two days later on New Year's Eve, they were coming along nicely.

Looking decidedly more serious, especially that bad boy on the end, there.

By today I think we've reached maximum icicleness.

And the Icicle King is now 4 feet long and we worry about the dog walking under it.

These pictures also remind me of one of the many Springtime jobs awaiting us...repainting the eaves.

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.