Deck The Halls

     Last Friday's weather was supposed to be sunny... but I only saw it's rays for a minute when there was a hole in the cloud coverage.  After school I was pleased to see Norman with the other cows, and I celebrated the fact that this was the first time all week he hadn't escaped.  Knowing I had all weekend for school work, I started hanging ornaments on the tree.  It wasn't long and there was a knock at the door.  A lady was wondering if we had a loose cow and was worried it would wander toward 150.  Yep, Norman was now on the wrong side of the fence.
Decorating
would have to be put on hold again.  Joe used the now taller trailer to take trash and haul home more wood shavings.  He was almost home so I waited for him to help with Norman.  After he parked the trailer, you can see here the added panel, we went after Norman... me with camera and Joe with feed dish to lure Norman back in.

     I added a light to Baby's cage in the coop because I thought she looked cold and she was kind of wheezing when exhaling. 


     While filling feeders in the coop,
I discovered a small opossum hiding between a cinder block and the wall. 


     We moved him out from there and rolled him into a bucket where he would have to wait till we headed for town.  Opossums are so easy to catch because they "play dead". 
     None of the chickens would go into the coop late in the afternoon.  Also Tiny was missing.  Joe said there have not been eggs in her nest for several days.  Hum, how long has our "visitor" been around?  Little by little, many of the chickens finally went in to the coop.  Hercules was camped out on the picnic table... he is not headless in this photo, he has it tucked under his wing for sleeping.  I woke him up and shooed him to the coop.
      By dark I was missing 3 hens that I found roosting in various places in the barn.  I searched every where for Tiny, figuring she was gone for good.  We do have a hawk that flies over almost daily, making its rounds.  There was no evidence of feathers anywhere, so I figured she vanished into thin air.  The ducks WOULD NOT go into the coop... they had made up their minds not to. It took me 20 minutes to finally get them in.  Normally I would wait, but we were leaving for town and wouldn't be home till late.  I wanted them in!  We went to the local Community Players theater to watch one of Joe's colleagues from work perform in the play "Murder At The Howard Johnsons."  On the way in we dropped the opossum off by a lake.

     Saturday morning Joe did the feeding, and when he went out to the barn, Tiny came running out.  We throw cracked corn and oats on the dirt floor by the calf pen for the poultry, so they hang out in there regularly.  It also provides shelter from the rain and wind.  Who knows where Tiny was hiding out there the night before.  Here she is by the manger looking on as one of the young hens is waiting to lay an egg. 
     I worked very hard on my Bio I exam and review and felt great about getting it all done by 1 pm.  Joe was testing and fixing electric fence so I went out to check on his progress.  I put out my lighted snowman but discovered that the wreaths that were stored in a trash bag were gone.  Joe was a little too efficient hauling away trash yesterday.  I looked at it as help to me in down sizing decorating, which has been my goal.  While outside,
I started cleaning up more flower beds, hauling debris to our burn pile and compost out by the railroad tracks.


     Courtney came over mid afternoon and we took care of the horses, me brushing each of them and Courtney picking their hooves.  Then I held them while she gave them their wormer.  In these photos, Zorro and Roni continue to work things out.  I think Zorro is being playful, but Roni in his wise and mature years wants nothing to do with it.  He prefers eating, as does Amiga.

     I came in to start back up on Christmas decorating, finishing the tree
and Nativity scene.  Before I knew it, I had to

go back out to get the chickens into the coop, then eat dinner, do dishes, shower, and fold laundry.  Believe it or not, I was just too tired to continue any more decorating.











     Tiny was missing again, when I did my nightly chicken count, but I knew were to look for her.  This time I did a through search of the whole barn. 
Do you see what I see?
Tiny in the rafters above Amiga's stall.  I guess there is an advantage to being little, gives the chicken better potential for flight.










     It was 53 degrees out at 6 am Sunday morning, the high for the day, and 35 degrees when I crawled back into the sack at the end of the day.  I had worked in the nursery, gone to Church and then to school, getting home later than my normal work day.
The barn cats found the shelf in front
of the window in the warm tack room an ideal place to sun and survey the paddock.  I did some more decorating







and collected a large bag of Christmas crap to take to Goodwill (deciding not to make any of it this years white elephant gift).  While sitting here sipping on tea and working on this Blog, I got too sleepy to continue, so went to bed.

     I had therapy after school Monday and then came home to work on sorting through Christmas stuff and putting some finishing touches on my Christmas village
and little trees in the dinning room.  I

still needed to hang lights above the kitchen and dinning room windows and in Britney's room.  There was one lighted garland string that needed to have several burnt out bulbs replaced. 






Another set was completely missing the light, base and all, and I looked through several dozen replacement bulbs, but none fit.  I unwound the lights and pitched them, but kept the garland.  Losing track of time I headed off to Growth Group without dinner. 

     Tuesday after school I took three bags of stuff to Goodwill.  Shopped at Wal-Mart for another string of Christmas lights and a bunch of groceries.  I have been frustrated that none of the stores are selling those old large decorative bulbs anymore.  I guess those lights are on the outs with energy saving ones to replace them.  If anyone can come up with some larger, ornamental LED lights that screw in, you'll have me for a customer. All I have seen is whole strings of the little lights with cheap plastic figures that fit over them.










     I always love watching our animals especially when they are being cute or interacting with each other.  Out in the barn Amiga and Brother were being silly.  I was out there helping Joe get the heated water buckets set up.  We had to rig an extension cord and drill a hole for the new heated bucket we had bought Roni.  After dinner I  
was determined to get a garland light 
set working so sat for nearly an hour and replaced 13 burnt out bulbs out of the 100.  Yes it would have been easier to pitch it and buy a new set, but I did not want to be wasteful.   I got the garland hung in the dinning room window, taking these pictures Friday morning.  I love the reflection of lights on the china hutch in this picture.

     Wednesday was an unremarkable day except our ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption.  I am glad to see justice done.  The sun also did come out for the first time 
                                                     in several days.  I filled the water tub

and enjoyed watching all the poultry come for a drink.  I find it amazing how sunshine (and no wind) can make it feel so much warmer than it actually is... or visa-versa with clouds and high winds.

     During evening chores I climbed up a ladder to get Tiny down from her now new roosting spot above Amiga's stall.  She has gone there every night now, but it is just going to be too cold for her there over the winter.  So I took her back to the chicken coop.  School work had precedence over decorating... but after a few hours, I took a break to watch Survivor with Joe.

     Thursday I worked on this Blog and decorating.  I wound the new set of lights I had bought, around the old garland, and hung it in the kitchen window with the 50+ year old blinking bells that I recall my Dad was not too fond of... but I always loved.  A washer like insert that holds the bulb into the bell has completely deteriorated and I used electricians tape to fix them.

     This morning I woke to a dusting of snow... our first snow of the season.  Above you can see the lights in the kitchen window with the snow outside.  I took my camera for morning chores to capture the ducks coming out to their first walk in the white stuff.
Babe was born the end of March so I am not sure if she has experienced snow yet.  The cow pasture is mostly


eaten up so they have been begging for more hay.  We have been monitoring and moderating handouts because I am not sure we will make it through the winter with what hay we have stored in the loft.  There is still plenty to eat on the side pasture where the horses go each day.  We plan to let the cows out there with them, but will wait till we get back from Florida because we want to keep an eye on them and it will make chore time a little more difficult. 

       I made a detour to Menard's on the way home from school to get some hardware to fix the old blinking bells because my patch job did not hold.  I got them fixed and finished decking the house with holiday cheer.

     The pretty lights are my favorite part of Christmas, but the yummy decorative treats are a close second.  This is our kitchen island.  I replaced the dying geranium in Britney's painted pot with a poinsettia to keep in the Christmas theme.  As I finish this post I look forward to working on my Christmas cards... but first some school work.