Winter doldrums

News casts and newspapers  were quite excited about a first winter snowfall this weekend, but all that's happening is rain and dark skies. There's only one thing to do.

We're being threatened with grooming, so we plan to stay as inert as possible.

Mom opened the door to the chicken pen but the chickens wouldn't go out to the yard because even the bugs will be napping. The girls stayed inside the hutch that they use as a day lounge. (They lack artistic sensibilities.)

Maewest stayed in the mini-barn.

Nobody wants to go outside today.

So what happened less than an hour later?

That's not snow so much as freezing rain and hail, so slick that a neighbor could barely get up the slight incline from our road to the main road.

We'll see if the slop turns into something dogs can play in.

Eggs for winter

This about wraps up a year of chickens. The hens are still laying regularly but will slack off as the days get shorter. They'll need the break, so I don't plan to add artificial light to the coop until much later in the winter. Meanwhile, I'll have eggs for cooking because I'm freezing them.

Eeewwww, you think, frozen eggs. Warning: do not freeze in shell unless you want to eat crunchy bits of calcium after you thaw out exploded eggs. According to the book Chickens in Your Backyard, mix fresh eggs with half a tsp salt or one tsp honey for each cup of egg and freeze them in ice cube trays. When they're frozen, put them in plastic freezer bags and they should keep all winter and more, as long as the power doesn't go out for three days or somebody leaves the freezer door open....

One egg equals about 3 Tbsp of thawed eggstuff. Yolks and whites can be frozen separately if you're really picky and only the yolks need the salt or honey. I have been known to forget a bag or two in the freezer and find their little frozen bodies in the spring--the following year. But I'm sure other people are much better organized.