Rusty Bucket Farm

[CoopBoots]

Today's picture courtesy of the neighbor's cockerel or rooster--who was up a tree in our front yard crowing his head off (and setting off probably all 5 of our boys) at 5 am:
View attachment 4278221

We sent the neighbor a picture and they said it was theirs. Well, turns out he wasn't!

They took him in anyway as he's been fitting in well so far. I really hope he just wandered off and wasn't abandoned by an irresponsible local...

Heck, if someone desperate showed up at my house with their unwanted boy I really would try to help!! It's the recklessness and lack of taking responsibility that are so saddening.

Tax: Noodle trying to get a clear look at something whilst being escorted to bed, back when things were so normal. She really is composed of impossible angles!

Grateful she is still with us after so much loss and change. 2025 loaded so much grief into its final chapter; we could really use a fresh start.

 

[CoopBoots]

My porch is slowly becoming coop:

This is the view from my kitchen window

There may be ice soon, in which case we'll probably be offline and without power for a day or two. Best wishes to anyone else getting hit by this storm!

 

[CoopBoots]

 

[Mother of Chaos]

View attachment 4289598
View attachment 4289599
View attachment 4289600
View attachment 4289601
View attachment 4289602
View attachment 4289609
View attachment 4289610View attachment 4289611
View attachment 4289612
View attachment 4289613

Ok, please tell me the rooster is just a lawn ornament!

Those pictures are actually quite beautiful, although terrifying. I can't remember if I'd read - whereabouts do you live, generally? We got enough ice to outline the overhead aerial netting, and to make the trip to the coop and back extra-exciting, but we didn't get what's in your photos. Did everything come out ok with your chickens and all?

That's an incredible job of photography, by the way, especially the hexagonal netting with the different focuses. Foci. Focal depth??

 

[CoopBoots]

Ok, please tell me the rooster is just a lawn ornament!

Those pictures are actually quite beautiful, although terrifying. I can't remember if I'd read - whereabouts do you live, generally? We got enough ice to outline the overhead aerial netting, and to make the trip to the coop and back extra-exciting, but we didn't get what's in your photos. Did everything come out ok with your chickens and all?

We are just north of Nashville, TN. Power is still out at our place, but my in-laws got theirs first so we'll be running back and forth for chickens this evening.

We lost power Sunday morning around 7 am and have been roughing it with kerosene, but we couldn't say no to some relief once the roads were clear enough.

Remarkably, the chickens have done quite well thus far. It's been a pain with food and water because I have multiple coops and they don't like to leave them when the ground is covered... Also, a mass of starlings has decided to try and roost, feed, and bathe in EVERYTHING--I am NOT pleased and praying my poor flock doesn't pick something up. I'm trying to exclude them from my feed somehow, but now just isn't a good time to figure out additional infrastructure.

Hopefully when the thaw happens they will get less problematic as other food sources become available...

 

[CoopBoots]

That's an incredible job of photography, by the way, especially the hexagonal netting with the different focuses. Foci. Focal depth??

Oh, thank you! I'm actually an awful photographer, I know nothing about it but pointing a phone and clicking the button ahaha. There was an abundance of pretty things to point at, the only difficult part was enduring the cold

 

[fuzzi]

View attachment 4289598
View attachment 4289599
View attachment 4289600
View attachment 4289601
View attachment 4289602
View attachment 4289609
View attachment 4289610View attachment 4289611
View attachment 4289612
View attachment 4289613

The chicken wire and the sun peering through the tree branches are my two favorites.

Sorry you're having to deal with ice.

 

[CoopBoots]

My coffee buddy, letting me know we were missed for the last two days.

We got our power back yesterday evening, and so we've now returned to the "homestead." It is unnerving how different our home, once my grandparents' home, felt in the middle of this crisis. It barely felt like home at all. The safety of the place was stripped just as bare as the trees covered in ice outside. Even if you weren't trying to listen, the sound of tearing tree flesh and the crashes of its ice-shattering collapse were everywhere.

I went through an ice-storm in our family home down the road, back in 94... or 96... as a very young kid. I can't recall the exact year. I know my mom does, and that my dad did. The experience as a parent was so radically different I cannot even compare the two.

My dead dad is the reason we had heaters and fuel to survive the cold without any power. He'd never forgotten. Fully three fueled and ready to light kerosene heaters were in his shop on my property. Just waiting for us. One went to my brother-in-law who had nothing on hand. The others kept us going for what, 3 days... and could probably have gotten us further. One of them is a Kerosun Moonlighter--the SAME one I remember from my childhood.

His stashed away hiking supplies were what I managed to safely heat our food in. It's like he was everywhere, all at once, and yet so painfully absent.

Anyway...

I've been trying to clean up the backlog of extra dirty outerwear, cooking clutter, litter boxes, bedding, etc. I tried to clean up before the storm hit but hoo-boy. We are a MESSY bunch of people. This is going to take some time, plus I'm out of detergent.

I haven't even begun to make all the necessary phone calls and institution-visits to have my dad fully declared dead. I'm so behind, on everything. I just don't know that I can do it. Life is gonna need to give me a second to BREATHE. Please.

I'll pay some chicken-tax shortly. They do a lot to remind me to be here, now, and to stop dwelling so much.

 

[AntiqueB]

One step at a time. It will all be there later, if you need a breather.