Wicked cold sunny day

What do you do on a wicked cold sunny day but fire up the woodstove and sleep in the sun? We should all be so lucky! I did have to go out and do some chicken and goat chores, and walk my friend's beagle, and pick up the mail at the PO, but otherwise it was a really good day to stay home and work on the computer.

Poor lame hen

I still don't know what's going on with this one young hen. She started limping on January 3 and then went pretty quickly to being totally lame. She seems otherwise healthy, still eating and drinking, but because she uses her wings to move around, she frequently knocks over the water and food in the small crate I have her in. I brought her into the basement because it was getting so cold outside in the coop that she would have frozen to death with her feathers all wet.

Cyrus is still very interested in the noises and smells coming through the cat door (in the basement door). I am pretty sure he would kill her if he had the chance.

Monkey is also very interested in this strange creature. He is not  the murdering type. If she is down there much longer, I think they will become friends.

Super Blood Wolf Moon

How often do you get to use those 4 words together?

I am sure the Super Blood Wolf Moon was spectacular. And I was surprised that the skies cleared enough so that we could actually see it, or could have seen it if we wanted to stay up late and go outside in that frigid air. At about 10 pm the moon was so high over the house that I could barely see it out the window. There was no obvious eclipse starting, so we both just went to bed.

Wicked cold out there today too. 76° in here with the heat and the woodstove on, but I am worried about the chickens in their unheated coop. Even with the door closed it is mighty chilly out there.

One lame chicken in the basement. At least she won't get frostbite, but I am not sure why she went lame. About 2 weeks ago I noticed her limping. Then a few days after that, not walking at all. The vet said they have seen one other case like this, and that vitamins appeared to help, so we are trying the spa treatment in the basement.

Benchmark

I know winter has truly arrived when I start measuring snowfall with my bench. When it is 7° and windy and still snowing, hard to leave the house, and I can take these pics from inside (lazy me!).

The Husband took both dogs out. Cyrus had a party off-leash twice. Woody went straight to the frozen compost heap, poked around a bit, and then back to the front door to come in. He's a southern boy, not a lover of single-digit weather.

Willie was happy to be warm inside trying on his Fire Hose Work Pants.

Weather dogs and holidays

Don's house on the hill on the left, back of the snow-measuring bench, and our living room windows on the right

The 3 hot topics on my blog—weather, dogs, and holidays. Well maybe not the hot topics, more likely the only topics. Best I can do, folks. Barring any bobcat emergencies or goat births, I don't really have that much to talk about.

So here are all 3 topics in one post to start off the new year.

It has been an unusual winter. We get a few inches of snow, then go back to warmer temps and grass, then windy and frigid and more snow. At least the warmer days mixed in make it less painful.

Last weekend I made the trip back to NJ to visit Little Sister and her dog Lucky. We know Lucky's mother was mostly chihuahua, but the rest of her genetics are a mystery other than dad was something larger than chihuahua. The famous Dr. Wolf says husky because of her mask. After realizing she had a spotty chest, I am voting for Australian cattle dog. We will never know for sure unless we get the DNA test, but it is fun arguing with Lester and Sophie's former vet.

Finally, our perfect Christmas tree survived all of the animals in the house, but because I was away on the weekend when I should have taken it down, it was just a bit dry when I finally got around to taking off the lights and ornaments yesterday.

Monkey says it's not his fault, Mom made that mess, not him.