My Animals

Let's talk animals this week.

First is sweet, wild, energetic Dixie. I love her to pieces but she has so much energy! I have been working long hours and feel very guilty that I am not home enough during daylight hours to let her run and play outside. Whenever we do get the chance though, we are out in the back field playing with her frisbee or with the whippet stick and ball. The weather has been all over the place this week. We have had beautiful (muddy) +5 degrees and freezing, snowy, windy -20 with wind chill days. Dixie doesn't care. She just wants to be outside! So we have been muddy and we have been frozen, and we have tried to run off some of her endless energy.

Next are the chickens. Last weekend was very difficult. I lost three chickens. The first one was one of the older Rhode Island Reds that had been the victim of our aggressive rooster. He tore at her comb and she never was able to recover from the shock or blood loss. The second was the rooster. We had three roosters. Two are good little boys. They take care of their ladies. They stand guard when they leave the coop and make sure the girls are safe and protected. They are gentle and allow me full access to the coop, the eggs, the chickens and they let me pet them and coo over them. This third one however was not so nice and he met his fate last Saturday when our friend came over and taught me how to humanely prepare him for the soup pot. The third loss was so sad for me. I have no idea what happened. My beautiful, big, grey, gentle, calm, peaceful chicken laid her first egg, a robin's egg blue coloured one, then was dead two hours later.

This sadness and loss aside, they are still a joy to watch and love everyday. Today it was a lovely 0 degrees out with no wind so I opened the barn door and watched as they sat on the door frame but refused to get their feet snowy! More and more of the new girls are starting to lay eggs now. The size difference between the older girls and newer girls amazes me, so do the colours. We have had one blue egg, green eggs, brown eggs, and even pink eggs! Makes me smile, love all my girls💖