Pardon me while I procrastinate

Much to do!  But there has been much to do for weeks, I'm just especially sore and tired today.  What a relief that it's only -8 C out there...Morning chores were easy and fun, and the ducks appreciated the buckets of water and a pool for them to finally wash off the frozen poop.  Poor Bossy drake must be sleeping under one of the young ducks who prefer to roost on the perches, since he was covered in duck bombs from above.

Ring-necked pheasants on west edge of our property, -24 C, just trying to catch a few of the early morning rays.  They are also waiting for me to fill the bird feeder.

Finally all chopped and stacked!! Two cords needed to be chopped.
  The other cord and a half just needed to be stacked and burned in our wonderful wood stove.
We've really been enjoying it!  

It's amazing to me that despite the recent cold snap our ladies are laying pretty well.  The ducks are as well! My challenge with them is just finding out where in their house they've decided to lay.  They bury the eggs so well in down and straw. Yesterday there wasn't a single frozen one, after it was -27 C overnight! 

We will start offering duck eggs to our customers and see if they like them...We will charge $3.50 for a half dozen.  We now have six ducks so we should do pretty well if there is a demand, and maybe it will make up for some of our older hens not laying very much, or at all anymore.  I also think we should charge a bit more for our hen eggs, but that will be decided at our farm meeting, whenever we get around to it!!  They are all going through a lot more food during these cold snaps.  I am buying cabbages for greens and enrichment, so at least those are fairly cheap.  I think G said we still have some frozen squash for them as well. 

Seed catalogs seem to be arriving in the mail every two days.  Perfect for sitting in front of the fire and dreaming of warmer days to come...We will be planning some extra plots for growing food for the chickens, especially foods we can store and give them throughout the eternal winters.

The frost free hydrant still isn't working. 

 Won't even budge.  I will ask G to try our new propane torch on it this weekend.

  But it's time to accept the fact that we may be facing months ahead without water in the barn.

This is how I manage:

Haul the hay over to the back door of the house, run the hose from the downstairs sink and soak the hay in muck buckets, then load it and water buckets back on the sled and drag back to the barn.  As long as we can keep some snow cover this works really well.  I think I got that sled for $35 on sale at Fleet Farm.  One of the best farm purchases ever! It's designed to be pulled behind snow mobiles.

A few of the 'loner chickens' have decided to join the guinea roost at night.  That's poor Miss Paprika the gold laced wyandotte on the left.  Since she recently lost both of her girls (Chili, and then Cayenne two weeks ago) she is a little out of sorts and just trying to figure where she fits in I guess!

Love drunk Lacey.

Happy New Year everyone--I think I forgot to say that two weeks ago!