Feb. 17, 2003 ~ What happened to spring?
Remember last week I was writing about our tulip trees in bloom, and all the pretty daffodils, and how everything was greening up? Well, all those things are still true, but baby it's COLD out there! It's actually 47 degrees right now, but it was down in the high twenties when we woke up, and that is plenty cold for us. I can't believe that I once seriously considered moving to Alaska. Never would have survived the first winter.
The cool temperatures required bundling up in cold weather dork regalia before stepping outside to feed the animals. And parts of me were still cold, even with the scarves, gloves and such. The cows stay in one pasture at night, and go into another pasture during the day. When they pass through the gate, we always count to be sure everybody is there. This morning the count was one short! This meant following them back to the woods, where they were happily gathered around the hay rings, munching away, and recounting. It's always a challenge to try to count moving targets. One of them moved a bit more than the others, as Sophie instinctively lifted a back leg and kicked in my direction when I passed behind her. She just didn't know I was there, that's all, and her hoof didn't even come close. But eventually I figured out that all the bovines were present and accounted for.
The barn held two surprises this morning. First was a pile of reddish-orange feathers. My initial thought was that one of the hens had gotten out somehow, and something had killed her. The cats weren't suspects -- they get along fine with the chickens, and the roosters and guinea wander around loose all the time. Then I took a closer look at the feathers, and remembered the pretty female cardinal who had perched on the barn roof yesterday. Still, who could have done this? While feeding the cats, I got a clue. There was "evidence" that a large creature had been in the barn, probably one of the huge raccoons who grow fat on our cat food. Raccoons are killers, in case you didn't know it. They don't just scavenge through trash cans or beg people to feed them. We've lost a number of chickens to coons, and I don't doubt that they've been trying to get into the chicken pen recently. One can see the holes beneath the wall.
Speaking of chickens, our youngest hens have started laying. Their eggs are about 1/3 to 1/2 normal size -- so cute! We haven't used any of them yet, but I expect it would take an awful lot of eggs to make a decent dinner.
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