Winter Blues and Dirt

When winter begins I experience a mix of emotions- excitement for a new season-trepidation because I do not always do well with it-anticipation for the beauty of new snow and ice- and curiosity at what the snow reveals in the way of footprints. (I like to find the coyote trails, and see where they come onto our property)

Winter has a little over a month left and I have taken a swan dive into the winter blues. Fatigue is my constant companion, creatively I am congested, sicknesses have taken their toll on my immune system, lack of sunlight makes me want to crawl under the covers and hide. I want to spend the day in pajamas and am completely unmotivated to do anything. 

Aside from sunlight I am missing dirt. I miss the feeling of warm dirt crumbling in my hands, the deep earthy smell as I turn dirt over, the excitement of watching things grow out of the dirt.  Never did I imagine that I would experience such a deep connection to dirt, and during the growing season be concerned about the health of my dirt- to the point of nearly daily conversation with my husband who is not in love with dirt. 

I came across a news article that discusses some studies concerning dirt, in particular a bacteria in dirt, that alleviates depression.  Reading it made me wonder if the profusion of depression in modern life isn't in some way related to the lack of connection to dirt in daily life...and the push for everything to be sanitary. 

Next week we are supposed to have a few days of warm weather, possibly in the 50's.  Hopefully the ground will thaw out enough to do some digging.
Today the chickens found a soft patch of dirt in the potting shed and all squished into the small space to take dirt baths. If chickens can be happy, they were.

Read more!

Thursday

After two snow days the kids are back in school and I am once again left with a quiet house. The walk to the end of our driveway to catch the bus was...slippery. There is at least an inch of ice on the ground, and that is covered with a couple inches of  snow. I figure that between the walk to the end of the drive, and then out back to the chicken coop to feed the chickens took care of my leg workout for the day. My quads were burning by the time I was done.

Yesterday morning when I took the dog out, I noticed two large and very fat raccoons checking out the chickens. They ran off when I yelled at them to shoo.  This morning when I went out to the coop I was greeted by the sight of blood. Everywhere. After making sure everyone was still alive, I started looking at feet thinking perhaps the raccoon had gotten another toe. Indeed, that is what happened, Dread Rooster Fairy now has one less toe.
I do not have much love for raccoons.

Thursdays household schedule:
~The ever present laundry needs to be done
~Vacuum upstairs and downstairs
~cat boxes
~writing
~homework

When the kids get home from school we dash off to Tae Kwon Do, and then to the library for our biweekly trip.
Read more!

Adventures in Chicken Keeping

Last March we went to the feed store and on a whim we bought  7 chicks.

This one was named Butterscotch

Since we did this impulsively, and brought them home in a little box, I had to be inventive in making a brooder for them.  I had an old dog crate, so I put bedding in it, surrounded the sides with cardboard because they could fit through the openings, and rigged up a heat lamp.
Leia the Cattle Dog mix took her job as chick protector very seriously. She also liked to herd the chicks in the crate by running around it till she was satisfied they were in their proper places. The chicks did not like this.

Leia the chick guard dog

 They grew and were moved outside to a coop. One day one of the chicks crowed at me and I realized I had accidentally gotten a rooster, we called him Bob.

Bob

Unfortunately, Bob turned out to be mean and attacked my daughter. So I rehomed him. After Bob left our very flashy chicken named Fairy started to crow...Fairy was then named Dread Rooster Fairy.

Dread Rooster Fairy strikes a pose

My chickens free range during the day and in the evening they go back into their coop. So far, even though we have coyotes, raccoons and hawks we haven't lost anyone during the day.  Christmas Eve, however, there was a chicken massacre by what I assume to be a raccoon due to my red hen's head being pulled off.  My husband came home from somewhere, and asked me why the chickens were not in their coop and were huddled around our backdoor.  I went out to check, and noticed feathers on top of the coop, and lots of blood. I opened the door to the nesting boxes and found the body of the red hen.

The door was not shutting securely, there was a large gap, and I was lazy - so it wasn't fixed, and the chickens liked to sleep right by this gap, which was big enough for a paw to reach into.
I disposed of her body and shooed the rest of the chickens back in.  After that I went into the house and took a bath.  Upon getting out of the tub, I heard a horrible commotion coming from outside. I threw on a robe, ran downstairs, shoved my feet into my boots and went outside.  There were chickens squawking- running everywhere, and ghastly growly noises coming from the coop.  I thought I had latched the main door earlier, but I hadn't and the beastly chicken killer had opened it and was back.

Running around at night, in the snow,naked aside from my robe and boots and chasing chickens was never on my list of things to accomplish in this lifetime,but I suppose I could add it and check it off. (By the way,chickens are very fast).  After several minutes I found and caught three chickens and stuffed them in the spare coop.  The next day two other appeared-one with a stump for her middle toe.

Anyone interested in keeping chickens, can find wonderful information at Backyard Chickens.
Read more!