It's a peep show!

My husband is a chick magnet. Chicks love him. He was out today picking up chicks and I went along for the fun of it.




Ok, now that you all have your minds in the gutter...lol...












Oh, like I even had any of you homesteaders going for a second! You say 'chick' to a homesteader, and we automatically picture feathers and beaks. lol

These are our little guys from TSC. I am so glad they are carrying peeps in the store again. The bird flu scare had them available 'by order only' for the past three years. A big thank you to Silent Crow for tipping me off on the return of the chicks!!!

We got eight bantams, straight run (that means they could be male or female, they haven't been sorted), of various breeds. I'm anxious to see what they turn out to be. I think at least one of them will be feather footed. yay!

We also got 10 pullets. Well, they called them pullets, but I'd always heard that term in reference to hens under a year old but already laying. *shrugs* Anyway, they were sorted so these are all female, various breeds.

I was surprised that we got such a good deal on the chicks. TSC had them for at least $1 less (each) than some of the hatcheries, and of course we didn't have to worry about shipping costs.

Unfortunately, that was the only thing we got a good deal on. Dog food has gone up over $2 in the past two weeks. I also stopped for a bottle of wine on the way home. That went up more than $3 since the last time I bought some (just a couple of weeks ago). Sheesh!

I have to go look at my cute little peeps now. The girls have been checking on them off and on. Big Sis said she was 'chillin' with her peeps'. lol

Easter Eggs

We colored our Easter eggs today. It's a tradition to color a few dozen, then make them into deviled eggs for Easter dinner, or eat them as they are (hard boiled). We never hide them inside, though, just in case one would get lost. Ew! lol

These were actually brown eggs before they were colored. Well, I think a couple of the pointier ones were green to start with, though not quite that shade of green. lol


The basket with the bunny was made by my MIL. Isn't it great? I love baskets, and the ones that she has made for me will be family heirlooms.



I thought the eggs came out nice. I had forgotten one important thing, though: the eggs will hold color better if they are room temperature. I boiled these yesterday and had them in the fridge, so the colors aren't as neat as they were last year. Also, the wax for designs kept peeling off because the eggs were too cold. *rolls eyes* I'll remember next year, I hope. lol

Another tip that we had to learn the hard way (when our hens first started laying): fresh eggs are impossible to peel when boiled. The egg white will come off along with the shell. It's best to let the eggs age in the fridge for a minimum of three days before using them in baking, and I like to let them age at least a week or two before I boil them or use them in angel food cake. I never knew that eggs could be too fresh. lol

Hope everyone has a Happy Easter!! We're expecting snow here..again. DH wanted to buy some white eggs and hide them in the snow. lol

Meet Fluffers McBunny

This is Fluffers McBunny. It's hard to get a good pic of the little guy..the flash completely blanks him out, and without the flash is a bit blurry. I went with blurry. ;)

DH found him in the bunny pen. We don't know which nest/burrow he came out of. Could be the doe just dropped him there and left him, but most likely he was either kicked out or escaped from the nest.

Little Sis is attempting to hand raise him. It's hard to do that with rabbits. We've had some success in the past, but not enough. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Fluffers lives, as she's getting attached to him. It's hard not to love something so tiny and helpless. Our guess is that Fluffers is now about four to five days old.

Update:
Poor Fluffers didn't make it. Little Sis took it better than I'd expected. She's learned a lot about the 'circle of life' since we moved to the country.

Past experience has been that if we find a bunny out of the burrow, it won't live. The mom has usually rejected it because there's something wrong with it. The ones we've successfully hand raised were the healthy ones rescued from flooded burrows.

We're hoping that not all of the burrows were flooded with the heavy rain. As soon as the little ones hop out, she'll be nabbing one for her 4-H project.

As promised: pics

Pics of digging out the driveway:
This is about one third of the driveway. It took most of the day to do the whole thing.






Little Sis' snow fort. Isn't it awesome?

Snow!

We got a bit of snow last night.

That's a 28 or 32 gallon trash can. I was looking for something to give the snow some point of reference. I haven't measured yet, but the weatherman says we have over 15 inches. The wind is gusting over 30 mph, so the drifts are pretty deep in spots. Digging out should be fun, since most of the drifts have landed in the driveway. lol

So far, we still have power. *knocks on wood*

Some of my pet peeves for power outages:

The recording at the power company says we can report the outage online. Sure, if I had power, I could do that, but then I wouldn't need to.

The radio is our only source of news, but we don't have a local all-news channel. Instead, I get hours of pop music and a 30 second news update, followed by, "for more information on the power outages, closings, and delays, go to our website." Once again, if I had power, I could do that, but probably wouldn't need to.

Flipping on a light switch as I walk into a room, even though I know the power is out.

The power being off so long that, after it has been restored, I look for a flashlight instead of flipping a light switch.

Hope everyone is keeping warm and dry! More pics tomorrow as we shovel out.

Our adventure in Ice-Land

Remember that coating of ice I mentioned in my last post? Here's a pic of one of our dogwood trees, just beginning to bud, coated with ice.



The second pic (I always have trouble getting the text to line up with the pics) is the same tree the following day...after the full blown ice storm. The rest of the pics are from the same day (Wednesday). It's amazing how even chicken wire can be pretty when it's coated in ice. lol





Even the grass was frozen. Have you ever tried walking on grass that is coated in ice? I never knew I could ice skate on grass! lol

The ice caused a lot of damage, though. Trees and tree limbs were falling all night long. One tree limb took out our power lines...again. I know it's a price we pay for living in the woods, but it wasn't even our tree. The lines went down in the exact same spot last month, too.

So here I was, trying to get some housework done, when suddenly I am in the dark. Big Sis said she heard a crash, so I went outside to see if the line was down. All of our lines looked good, so I headed toward the property line. I get just a bit across the yard, when I see orange lights back in our neighbor's woods. I thought "wow, the power company sure got here fast", and then I realized it was fire! Lots of smoke, lots of sparks, and fire!

Shortly after I saw the fire, I realized I had been hearing a low, steady hummmmm. It's one of those sounds that doesn't really register at first, KWIM? It's the sound that electricity makes when it's not where it's supposed to be, I guess. At this point, I'm heading back into the house as fast as I can slide across the frozen yard. I should mention it was pouring freezing rain at the time, just to make my attempt to hurry..um..interesting. *rolls eyes*

I called the power company right away, assuming they'd want to get someone out here to turn the power off on the downed lines. Their operator was nice, but at the end of the conversation, I get the spiel that 'it may take a few hours' to get someone out here. Um, what part of 'sparks and fire' didn't seem important?

I checked on the fire (from the window...I wasn't about to go out there again) and it seemed to be going out, but then it would flare up again. So I called the number I had for the fire dept, and there was no answer. I tried twice, just in case I'd misdialed. Nope, no answer. At the fire department? Surreal, huh?

Little Sis came to the rescue with a new phone book and a different number. I was about to call when I heard sirens. Then I see lights at the bottom of our driveway. Um? Our drive is gated, so I guess the fire dept didn't know what to do after seeing the gate. They moved to the street (I could tell by the lights where they were..I can't see the street from here). I called the new number and told the dispatcher that if the firetruck was trying to get to the fire behind our house, they needed to go up the street and use another driveway. There's a ravine back there, and you can't get a truck back there from here. I told the dispatcher how to get to the fire and left a callback number. Then the fire truck left. As in drove away, back the way they came. Yeah..very surreal at this point. But, when I went to the other end of the house and looked out, the fire was out. I still don't know why they didn't even go back there and check it out. Maybe because of the live lines on the ground?

Shortly thereafter, the power company comes and shuts down the lines. Then they left. As in drove away. Without repairing the lines. I guess there were a lot of people without power due to the storm, and we were low priority. In fact, I think we were last priority. We finally got power back Thursday morning.

And now...I've spent the day catching up laundry, restocking the flush water, filling up drinking water containers, etc. Yesterday DH restocked the kerosene and gassed up the four wheel drive. It's a good thing, too, since now we are under a blizzard watch. *rolls eyes again*

To my friends in Cali: anyone have an empty guest room? I'm done with winter! ;)

The first buzzard of spring!

I saw it yesterday! I still haven't seen any robins, but I don't think they are as reliable as the turkey buzzards. lol

We had a gorgeous day yesterday; we set a record high temp. The wind was a bit rough in the morning, but by evening it had settled down enough for Little Sis to go play in the creek (the one we only have during snow melts and heavy rains), and Big Sis to shoot her bow a bit. We were so happy just to get outside without all the cold weather gear.

I noticed buds on a lot of the trees, and some of the wild roses have tiny leaves. Maybe, just maybe, spring is close!

Not too close, I guess. We have an ice coating on everything today, and we were just upgraded to a winter storm warning. The winds are supposed to pick up later this evening, with more ice accumulation expected, and maybe a couple of inches of snow and sleet later tonight.

*sigh* Spring is such a tease. :P