We are soooooo excited. Its only the 11th of December and it looks like it will be a cold, wet winter for us here in Bakersfield, CA. Normally, drought is.....well, the norm. We are the city with a riverbed running through it. Now I'm smiling but not so sure about the hens and bunnies and dogs. I've got to come up with more warm dry places for the critters. I'm not so worried about the chickens, a lot of you have to deal with snow and your chickens seem fine, but the bunnies need a little more protection. Hmmmm, wonder what DH has planned for the weekend? I hope he wants to use saws, boards, hammers, and nails. Please, God, don't let Dallas be playing. Our fruitless mulberry is practically leafless, thanks to two windy winter storms (last year we had leaves until January) and I'm daily raking and throwing leaves in the compost bins. The hens like it when I keep the leaves in piles for a few days so they can scratch around in them. When I go outside to rake, they gather against the fencing of their coop/run and tell me "let us out, let us out". When I open the door, they all run to the dog's water bowl to wash their faces. Then they're off like so many greyhounds chasing a rabbit, spreading out to their favorite spots to scratch and peck. Two of them don't have an original thought between them and they follow the other three who, of course, don't want to let the others in on their secret spots. So there's a bit of squawking and pecking at first, but then they simmer down and get down to business. Once the big hens are occupied, I let out the banty and the two young ee pullets. They're a bit spooked by the big girls and stay close to me and each other. When everyone is settled down to the task in front of them, I get to go back inside the house. Now and then someone gets mad and gooses another but for the most part everyone plays nice. Kind of like the playground at school. It seems so cold and wet many are thinking about snow here. Now this happens only about once every 10 or 15 years and the last time it happened was the year our dgd was born. She will be 11 in January, so we're about due. And our dd is expecting again in Feb., so the timing is perfect.
[FONT=book antiqua,palatino]Merry CHRISTMAS everybody[/FONT]
