Thursday, January 23, 2014

Of Chickensicles and Ice Fountains

Sleet's here!  Has been coming down off and on for a while and has built up a bit.  The weatherman's saying we might get an inch of snow!  I hope so!  I love snow.  My boss gave me tomorrow off so I don't have to drive in this mess (Bless him!), so all I need for it to be a true snow day is the snow.

My boss also told me to be safe.  I told him I would.  I lied.  I just busted my ass going down those stairs trying to put a chicken back under cover while holding the leash of a naughty dog.

That's the new girl in the picture.  She's hard to catch when she's outside.  All I can do is sit calmly, motion to her to come (she's deaf), and hope she does - or walk around 'til she follows me, then walk back in the house.  She got out a bit ago, and I wasn't too worried, until she found the chickens.  Yeah.

I finally caught her, put her on a leash, and went outside to find the traumatized chickens.  She'd chased one up on the porch and he'd hidden, frozen (in more ways than one), in a spot that would have collected a lot of snow and sleet overnight.  By the time he would have felt it was safe enough to move it would have been too dark for him to, so he would have stayed there and been a chickensicle by morning.

I scooped him up and headed down the stairs, being all calm and assertive while poking the new girl a la Cesar Milan if she even WINKED in the chicken's direction.  I got to the bottom, and ...

... my feet went out from underneath me, I hit the ground, the chicken went running off (luckily in the direction of good cover), and the dog laughed (I'm sure of it.).

There's a happy ending to this story.  Chickens are all inside and toasty, dogs are all inside and toasty, and I'm inside almost all toasty.  Waiting on a great big, piping hot, bath to settle down in to.

When you get older, you don't bounce as well as you used to, so that hot bath is going to feel SO GOOD on my poor sore butt. Mmmmmmmmmm...

So here I sit, waiting for the snow.  Come on snow!  I can't wait 'til morning!  

I put a sprinkler up in a tree in the front yard earlier, just before The Great Chicken Caper.  It's going to look gorgeous come sunup.  

Anybody else ever done that?  You should.  The ice fountain it makes is so beautiful.  

I'll update with pictures in the morning.






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Update:

Man, I didn't need the sprinkler!  I got a LOT of ice last night!  You should see the house - looks like bars on the windows.  Luckily I'd brought the chainsaw inside to sharpen the chain and clean it up - I had to use it to get out the front door!


*snicker*

It's like a winter wonderland out there.  The sun keeps peeking out, making it all glisteney and shiny.  It's so pretty.  I might have to brave the cold again to take more pictures.





The new girl, chewing on the ice stalagmites.  (And yes, that's a leash on her. After last night's experience, I'm taking preventative measures from here on out.)









2 comments:

  1. It looks like I have Southern Blight on my seedlings' soil :(. I was looking around for the handout I got at the veggie growing class at the Natural Gardener a couple weeks ago on organic solutions for fungus and pests but I haven't found it. So... what would you do for Southern Blight?

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    Replies
    1. Hi, Dory. Sorry for the lateness of my reply. I don't always get notification of comments on here. I hope you called up at the nursery and got an answer to your question already! If not...

      Are you sure it's blight on the soil? Usually blight is on the plant, showing up as yellow spots on the leaves with brown centers, or wilted brown leaves. I Googled Southern Blight and it shows white fuzz on the stem, sometimes down on the soil, but looks like it's only on the soil when it's on the stem as well.

      If you have white fuzz on the soil only, my first thought is just a benign mold growing on some bark or wood in the soil mix. If that's it, I wouldn't worry about it unless it starts taking over and climbing the plant. If you want, you can use a fungicide like Serenade to try to get rid of it, but it's probably harmless.

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