The Bunch Make it through the Crippling Cold

I know, it has been awhile. There has been much happening on the Walters home front. First, we lost our first chicken that wasn't our doing. Unfortunately, our youngest daughter found her and it was traumatic. It took us very much by surprise because she was our best layer (and first). We had cleaned out the chickens on a Saturday afternoon knowing that we would be gone all day on Sunday. When L went out first thing on Monday morning to let the girls out, we found out that Jim (named after Paleface) had become egg bound and passed. It happens VERY quickly when they become egg bound. Needless to say, this has made us all very hesitant to leave them alone. We check on them multiple times a day now. I know there will be times we can't do that and survival of the fittest and all that, but it took SOOOO LONG to finally get eggs and I dread starting all over again. We started with 10. Six were roosters. One died. Three eggs a day (for a good day) for a family of five (C doesn't live with us and has his own house) is the bare minimum. If one were to quit laying or God forbid die, we would be back to having to buy eggs which would completely negate the expense and trouble of having our own organic eggs. I really don't want ANY more roosters. Our two guys we have left in the back pasture we love watching and they get along great and seem to control the bug population, but I don't want anymore. Kids have their heart set on new chicks....we'll see.

These cold snaps have been horrible. We are traipsing out multiple times a day to break open the water for the animals. Some days the wind has been so strong and cold that I can't feel my fingers after 5 minutes. The chickens seem to be okay. I saw the boys out in wind chills below 0 strutting about. I was worried about the girls when it dropped to the low single digits so I made D set them up in the dog cage in the garage during in night. They seemed to think it was a fun girls night out once they realized death wasn't imminent. They were quick to wreak havoc and mess in the garage. It took me an hour to clean up after their departure, but at least I slept not worrying about having chicken popsicles in the morning!

The kids have been getting back in the swing of things since our break. They, much like myself, find time goes by too quickly during breaks. As we find our schedule slowly getting back to regular, we miss the more relaxed schedule of the holidays. We are already looking forward to our next adventure......the Cherokee museum and the Pioneer Woman's mercantile. My great grandmother was a full blooded Cherokee Indian and T has become obsessed with them, you know since he has SO much of their blood in him. We plan to expand our knowledge of the Cherokee Heritage and make a quick side trip to one of our favorite shows establishment. L and A really LOVE the pioneer woman and can't wait to visit her shop. It is only a half day trip from here so YAY!