Winter Came All at Once

Day 252 of 365

I am so tired. Not only did I spend the afternoon shoveling some very heavy ice-snow, I couldn’t sleep last night because I could hear the ice coming down, which made me fret. Mainly, I was fretting about what kind of day the poor chickens and ducks were going to have. Today was miserable weather here in our part of Maine. It was ice then snow and then ice again–all_day_long.

I shouldn’t complain because we have had a very, very mild winter. I was just seeing a farmer friend call this year in Maine “the year without a winter.” Well, I am sure my farmer friend must have jinxed us because winter came today–with force.

The poor ducks stayed out in the terrible weather all day. I took them straw and tried to give bring their water and food to them, but that just upset them. You can’t move the food bowl. It is wrong to move anything. Everything must stay the same always and forever.

Thankfully, I was able to clean out their duck house in all this mess and tuck them in tonight with a bowl of warm peas and a house full of fresh straw. They seemed happy after a long day.

The chickens, mostly, just refused to leave the coop, so they sat in there and got on each other’s nerves all day. I delivered treats once and stayed for a visit. I also visited off and on while I shoveled the snow.

The cutest story of the whole day relates to Ruby, Juliet, and Kate–mainly Kate. This morning, despite the terrible weather, Ruby and Juliet took off out of the coop front door while I was bringing in the food. Later, I realized that, somehow, Kate also got out, but she may have gone out the back door and then flew over the fence. I didn’t check for tracks, but she does that kind of thing all the time. When she was young, she used to trek through the snow all the time.

Anyway, there was nowhere for the driveway crew to go today, except under Ron’s camper shell for his truck. So, all day long, I took treats and food and water to the camper shell. There, under the shell, Ruby, Juliet, Kate, and a red squirrel hung out all day long. They all seemed to be pretty happy with the arrangement.

But in the late afternoon, just as I was getting ready to go out to shovel snow with Ron who, by the way, shovels snow like a miracle, I thought I heard someone at the door. Turns out, it was Kate. She was ready to go into the coop, and she knows to come to the door to get us.

I took this picture of her at the door because it was the cutest thing. If we had a doorbell down low, I have no doubt that she could ring it. Isn’t she wonderful?

I sure hope tomorrow is a better day for the chickens. I told them when I tucked them in tonight that tomorrow would be better. I hope I didn’t tell them a lie.