Grumble.
21F is warmer than 19 but the wind has picked up. The benefit of the garage being turned into our extra fridge was negated tonight when bflan managed to knock over my 2 Quart glass jar of sourghdough starter. How do you clean a slightly soupy mixture full of glass shards? We swept up what we could then rinsed out the broom and dust pan and will try again after the rest dries.
Only 3 of the chickens are smart enough to go inside. The rest of the birds are nesting in their usual spot. I found blood in the coop but couldn't spot any injuries. The turkeys have been doing weird foot shaking things for a few days. They should be hardy birds but I'm worried about frostbite. The mobile coop seems warmer, but the water in there is freezing - although not all the way through like the main coop - which means it has to be below 32.
Puppy training when the weather is ridiculous is no fun. This morning we realized we had left both cats locked in the sunroom (too many toys on the floor for a mouthy puppy to leave the doors open). That meant cleaning up cat pee. Also, its a good thing we want to replace that carpet anyway since the cats tried to dig their way out.
There were a few nice things today. Birthday lunch with my Dad at Mike's. Yummy salmon. Good company. Other meals weren't quite as expected. The reasturant was beyond over full and the waitress ended the meal by screaming at us when we couldn't understand the bill. (Really, 5 of us were looking at all the subtotals and 3 or 4 lines of taxes and trying to make sense of it and failing.) P is so full of energy that he was running in the aisles. Maybe we'll try a bounce house tomorrow after school to bleed off some of that energy since outside is miserable. Or maybe I just need to bundle up? Both boys were running around outside for a few minutes _sans_ jackets before they decided it was too cold to run in wild circles? We still got 3 eggs today despite the weather. The puppy's only accident today was small and on the hardwood.
Still, I'm having a hard time feeling positive about the weather just now.
Only 3 of the chickens are smart enough to go inside. The rest of the birds are nesting in their usual spot. I found blood in the coop but couldn't spot any injuries. The turkeys have been doing weird foot shaking things for a few days. They should be hardy birds but I'm worried about frostbite. The mobile coop seems warmer, but the water in there is freezing - although not all the way through like the main coop - which means it has to be below 32.
Puppy training when the weather is ridiculous is no fun. This morning we realized we had left both cats locked in the sunroom (too many toys on the floor for a mouthy puppy to leave the doors open). That meant cleaning up cat pee. Also, its a good thing we want to replace that carpet anyway since the cats tried to dig their way out.
There were a few nice things today. Birthday lunch with my Dad at Mike's. Yummy salmon. Good company. Other meals weren't quite as expected. The reasturant was beyond over full and the waitress ended the meal by screaming at us when we couldn't understand the bill. (Really, 5 of us were looking at all the subtotals and 3 or 4 lines of taxes and trying to make sense of it and failing.) P is so full of energy that he was running in the aisles. Maybe we'll try a bounce house tomorrow after school to bleed off some of that energy since outside is miserable. Or maybe I just need to bundle up? Both boys were running around outside for a few minutes _sans_ jackets before they decided it was too cold to run in wild circles? We still got 3 eggs today despite the weather. The puppy's only accident today was small and on the hardwood.
Still, I'm having a hard time feeling positive about the weather just now.