Those of you who have been following my Chicken series may have checked back here today, looking for the promised video tour of my chicken flock and hen house. I have to apologize -- nature intervened! The week started with freezing rain. Anyone living in the north, where their winter precip is normally white and fluffy may have little experience with freezing rain, but it's common here in the South. Freezing rain comes when the temperature is hovering right around freezing at ground level and just above freezing a thousand feet in the air. The rain falls and then freezes immediately on contact with the cold ground. It creates lovely icicles and treacherous "black ice."
When my son came home from work that first day, he came in the door saying, "The dirt is slick!" True enough... the dirt was so slick, that I had to carefully navigate my way from one little mound of ice-covered leaves to another just to go feed my chickens and check their water. The leaves gave a modicum of traction under the coating of slick ice.
As the week progressed, a good snowfall fell on top of the ice, making it even more treacherous. (See the picture above, taken on Wednesday.) On days like that, you feed your critters and then stay inside, stoking the fire and drinking coffee. Wednesday night the temperature went down to zero. Just before daylight, my husband checked the temp on the front porch, and the thermometer read 4 degrees. This morning (Friday), at sunrise, the temp was 8 degrees on the porch. My husband said, "It's a heat wave!"
So, long story short -- I have not ventured out to the hen house with the camera yet. Stay tuned.....
When my son came home from work that first day, he came in the door saying, "The dirt is slick!" True enough... the dirt was so slick, that I had to carefully navigate my way from one little mound of ice-covered leaves to another just to go feed my chickens and check their water. The leaves gave a modicum of traction under the coating of slick ice.
As the week progressed, a good snowfall fell on top of the ice, making it even more treacherous. (See the picture above, taken on Wednesday.) On days like that, you feed your critters and then stay inside, stoking the fire and drinking coffee. Wednesday night the temperature went down to zero. Just before daylight, my husband checked the temp on the front porch, and the thermometer read 4 degrees. This morning (Friday), at sunrise, the temp was 8 degrees on the porch. My husband said, "It's a heat wave!"
So, long story short -- I have not ventured out to the hen house with the camera yet. Stay tuned.....