Oops, Our Bad, We Meant To Say 'Feet'

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.

The kicker being, of course, that if you don't shovel your car out, you'll be rewarded with a Detroit iceberg the following morning that won't thaw out until the heat death of the universe takes pity on you.

At least the kid had fun making a snow angel, although once committed to it, she had a bit of trouble moving that much snow.

Needless to say, the chickens and the dogs are not happy with all that white stuff, and naturally blame us.

As Long As There Is Food Involved...

...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.

 The entire chicken yard is awash in molted feathers, and it's only going to get worse in the next two weeks or so since most of them are just getting going on the molt thing.

And our nighttime temps are already dipping into the low 20's. Hurry up and grow new feathers, ladies!

Happy Lockdowned Halloween!

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.

Buy Three Sandwiches, Get A Free Frog!

 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!

Chickam Chicks Two Months Old!

Just before they got the old heave-ho out into the cold outside world, this year's Chickam chicks reluctantly posed for pictures.

In order of hatch, here is Carrie, mom is one of our black bantam Cochin mix hens, dad is either Milton or Rafe. Carrie was being a butt during picture time so only one usable photo. Carrie started crowing the day the chicks went outside...so yeah, rooster.

Bobbie, a buff Brahma from eggs a neighbor kindly gifted us with. We're on the fence about Bobbie...hoping for a hen, but more than likely a rooboy. Here is Bobbie posing as a fluffy stick.

Rapunzel, a chick from our flock and I'm betting a hen, mom might be Paprika, not sure yet who dad is!

And lastly Boombox, another chick hatched from the neighbor's egg. Boombox is something of a mystery, possibly a white Leghorn. With those drooping side tail feathers, I thought at first this chick was a roo, but she has turned out to be a hen! With big ol' orange feet.

Next to the word 'Glum' in the dictionary is this picture.

So there we go! Uptown Bus is still working on raising her two chicks, Caramel and Downtown Taxi. These two chicks are now three weeks old, Bus is still being a good mom but is very restless in the brooder box. I figure she'll give up motherhood by the time they reach 6 weeks of age.

Pretty Things All In A Row

Another month, another afghan...
This one is made using a starburst granny square pattern, with red chenille yarn I'd had around for years, plus leftover pink yarn from another project, put together with a white yarn with a sparkly thread running through it.

.
Basically it looks like a giant red and white peppermint candy.

This one's more of a throw than an afghan.

I do like the sparkle, though!

Another recent project was cleaning and rewiring this vintage orange spaghetti ball lamp!

 It's marvelously tacky, I love it. I have one more vintage lamp to go, it's a 5 globe affair.

Meanwhile, my husband got me a giant metal terror chicken, house size.

I busted out laughing when I realized it looked *just* like my Russian Orloff rooboy, Rafe.

Unexpected Chickam, Phase Two Chicks!

Uptown Bus' eggs are hatching! So far she has two chicks. This afternoon, she abandoned her eggs, but we had the ReptiPro incubator fired up and ready, so I relocated the last three bantam eggs to the incubator. Tonight I'll candle the remaining eggs to see if they are viable.

Meanwhile, we took the chicks away from mom for a few seconds for some quick pictures, despite how mind-bendingly ANGRY it made her. Here is the first to hatch, Caramel. Screamed like  banshee when taken away from mommy, I'm calling 'rooster' on this one right now.

Next is Downtown Taxi, a very chill large, black chick.

The little family is doing well, more pics as mama hen permits!