They're Girls!

Backtracking a couple of weeks...I called the hatchery three Mondays ago to explain that my brown leghorn chicks were not brown at all...the nice lady on the other end laughed, said they get calls like that all the time, and that in fact future feathers would emerge brown. And sure enough, that is the case.

We moved the girls to their nifty new chicken house two weeks ago...they are venturing out into their run, and generally doing chicken things on a miniature scale. The dogs are mesmerized by them, and stand at the chicken run staring for hours.

One has lost an eye, I am not sure if she was pecked, but the eye has gradually atrophied during the last week. She is very tentative in her movements but seems to be managing okay...her name is Elizabeth...no names for the others just yet...can't tell them apart.

I'm Perplexed...

My brown leghorn chicks are growing creamy off-white feathers...so apparently they are not brown leghorns at all. I will have to check the packing slip to see what the hatchery says they shipped...the box they came in with the packing slip attached is in my office at work. This is going to take some investigation. If they have shipped the wrong breed, they could also have shipped the wrong sex...now I'm horrified at the thought of possibly having 26 roosters to contend with. Hell's bells.

Peeps!

Things are carrying on as usual here in Lone Butte. Since mid-May the weather has been generally cool and damp, and today we have had periods of very heavy rain. This has been the wettest late spring and early summer we've had since we arrived here 4 years ago. No complaints though...I'll take this over worrying about forest fires.

We have some new critters...tiny little ones! Yesterday morning I arrived at the feed store to pick up our long awaited chicks; brown leghorn pullets who will be providing us with fresh brown eggs in a few months. The minimum order was 25; we will be keeping about 12; a friend from work will add the rest to her flock when they are a little larger. I'm keeping the chicks at work until tomorrow. The seniors are loving having them around. The chicken run is almost ready for occupancy, Mike and I just need to staple the wire on when he's home. In the meantime, the chicks will be occupying the spare bedroom with a heat lamp to keep them cozy.

The Lull...

We are caught in a lull here...winter is over, but spring hasn't quite yet sprung. The snow is all but gone; just a few hardy patches where the sun doesn't quite reach yet. We still see the odd flurry of snow, but any accumulation is short lived. Our nights are still very frosty for the most part.

With the light snow cover this year, there is very little standing water...I am hoping this bodes well for a relatively light year for mosquitoes. Behind our property stands a marsh...this time last year the water at our fenceline was nearly to the top of my trusty gumboots...this year there just soft wet ground. There are other areas where we have temporary ponds in the spring; this year one is completely dry, the second is just mud, and the third has about four inches of water instead of its usual two feet. I hope the summer is not too dry...we don't need another year of forest fires in the area.

The ice is off the local lakes already. Mike and I drove past Horse Lake as we went into 100 Mile House on Good Friday...the lake was ice covered with a small accumulation of snow. When we returned about an hour later, the lake was bare with white caps from a howling wind.

The ice came off our most local lake, Irish Lake, on the weekend. This is about three weeks earlier than usual, and a full six weeks earlier than 2009...for some reason, we keep track of things like this.

In other news...we plan to build our house this year and are awaiting bids from local contractors. Mike spent a few days plowing and removing rocks from an area of the pasture we are improving...we seeded it on Sunday, and put an electric fence around it to keep Buck and Rupert out. It's not quite warm enough to germinate yet. I'm hoping for some rain, but may have to water to get things going.

All the critters are well, as are Mike and I. Mike and Cody are off to Virginia and Maryland after 10 days at home. Things are quiet here without them.

Things to Do on a Saturday in February...

You can trudge through the snow, carrying a section of newspaper and some dry cedar kindling and light up a great big stump pile...


Or you can just lay down in the snow and chew on a log.

It's up to you.

The Critters (most of them, anyway)

Here are a few moments captured yesterday afternoon.

Lucy and Jasper roughhousing. Lucy does pretty well for an arthritic old lady, whose hip dysplasia is apparently so bad that her xrays could be those of a dog who can't stand up.

Victorious Lucy pins Jasper by his throat. That's Rudy off to the side. He doesn't join in the play fights...he just continually shrieks encouragement at the top of his lungs from the sidelines.

Here's Buck at his scruffiest. He doesn't look like the beautiful sleek golden horse who lives here during the summer months.

Rupert, tucking into his meager ration of hay. He thinks he's being starved, but as you can tell, he's still looking rather over nourished.

Feeding the Birds

Early this winter, Mike made me two simple log bird feeders by boring several 1" holes in each, and attaching a hook to suspend them . I stuff them with a concoction of peanut butter, suet, & mixed seeds, much to the delight of the chickadees, nuthatches, sapsuckers and woodpeckers who visit them almost constantly.