Thursday, January 07, 2010

Snow and Ice


The last of the “warm” weather will end today. At the moment I’m defining warm as maybe reaching 35 degrees. More snow is on its way followed by what is becoming the usual weekend cold and wind. I took advantage of the calm to make sure the dogs got a good walk this morning and let the chickens outside the pen for a few minutes.

None of my brood may get much in the way of walks or outside time over the next few days. At the moment, wind is running in a tie with ice for being my least favorite outside phenomena. Ice is more of a fooler, though. A path that is snowy one day quickly turns icy after a few hours of sun or footsteps that pack down the snow. One step is safe and easy, the next a slippery accident waiting to happen.

When it’s icy everywhere, I wear Yak-Trax over my boots, but they can be a pain to put on and wear over the long haul. So I end up not wearing them unless I have to. The problem is, I can’t always tell when it’s okay to not wear them. This morning even Dog miscalculated a step while he was fooling around and slipped sideways. He looked embarrassed, I thought, and with good reason as he at least has four legs to my two.

I haven’t seen one of the chickens slip and fall, yet. They don’t much care for the snow, but willingly walk along an icy path, looking for a tiny patch of bare ground to peck at. When one finds a patch, she is soon happily joined by all of them. It doesn’t take much to make a chicken happy.

3 comments:

Jacqueline Donnelly said...

Had to laugh at your chicken/happiness remark. It's my goal in life to find the most happiness with the least amount of "stuff." So much that brings us joy is absolutely free. Like reading our fellow nature-lovers blogs.

Holly said...

I love the image of the chickens slipping on the ice - you'll have to give us a description if you ever do witness it.

Pablo said...

Out here in the Midwest today is the last of the cold weather. We start a warming trend, and I've even seen forecasted highs in the 40s for next week. Stay warm.