Winter Inside and Out

It's cold outside and humdrum inside, it certainly is winter.

We had a little snow storm (thunder and lightening included) a few days ago. It left lovely landscape behind and excited littles. It has been a very snow-covered winter which I enjoy. I always say if it's going to be cold--which it will be as we live in Iowa--it might as well be beautiful!

I'm trying to get away from the seasonal monotony, or "momotony" and get back into the groove adding thoughts and pictures here. Perhaps it will brighten up my days a bit. I have been doing a little Konmari-ing the past few months and have come up with many many things that have left or are on their way to leaving the house. Each cluttering item that goes takes a little bit of weight off me I didn't even know I was carrying, such a nice little bonus. There is so much left though, I've got a lot of work ahead of me.

Tonight as I was shutting the chicken houses for the night, Sunflower (the dog) was along with me as usual. The ducks and geese usually stick together and are last in, usually having to be persuaded (herded) into the door. Lately the geese have been very irritable. They basically hiss at you if you look at them, which is new. Well, Sunflower was getting too close for comfort and one goose was standing his (or her?) ground firmly, hissing and stretching his neck far up into the air. Poor goose got a little too carried away and stretched his neck too far back he fell over backwards. Those geese are pretty, but they sure aren't smart.

Our chicken numbers have been dwindling over the winter. We have about 15 roosters too many and no time to fix that. Basically every poultry processor near (and by near, I mean the closest is a good hour away) us is closed till April. My husband will have a nice little jaunt in a couple weeks to take care of this issue, but then we'll have a nice variety of birds in the freezer including some duck and turkey. The little baby turkey is all grown, gobbling like his daddy. And hopefully this also makes the mood in the yard a happier one. All those roosters, fighting with one another (to the point of death a few times unfortunately) is really just making things tense. It's no wonder we've got like 5 eggs from our hens in the past few months. I had to break down and buy eggs at the store the other day, it was a sad day. But, the six month old eggs hidden in the back of the fridge just weren't tasting fresh enough anymore, ha.