When false springs shows up and then Mother Nature changes her mind

 This post is a bit in the making so it may be a bit longer and full of nonsense. 

Just kidding. ... sort of. 

A few weeks ago we had subzero temperatures and I was sticking close to the wood stove. 

Then the sun came out, the temperature rose and the snow started melting. 

Wonderful. 

You know who else enjoyed the nice weather? 

The ladies and roo have been demanding to go out as soon as they hear me step outside. They were  cooped up way too long, without feeling the sun on their feathers.  The colder weather included grey skies and no sun.  I figured there was no point in letting them out and suffer in the snow that was probably too deep for them. 

But now, as you can see, the snow was melting away. 

I took advantage of the first nice day and went out and cleaned out the coop. 

I had photos of the process, but really, who wants to see me dumping chicken bedding in to the compost pile?

There are photos of the fresh shavings in the coop and the chickens not knowing what to make of it.  Where did the frozen poop go? 

"This can't be *our* coop.  It's too clean! 

I thought I'd share what the outside looks like with the solar lights that I *originally* bought for my greenhouse. They need it more, so they can venture out in the late evening and have one last sip of water. Not too shabby for solar lights I ordered off Amazon. No idea if I'll ever get them back. If I decide to let the birds keep the lights I'll do something more pretty with them than just lump them over where the water dish is. 

While I'm talking about the evenings and those little darlings ... 

This is what I see now when i go out to close up the coop for the evening. 

At least two girls sitting out on the chute. Every single time.

They jump up there and when I go out I carry them to the run and set them down.  They go in for a drink and then venture into the coop for the night. 

And while the paths melted and weren't as icy, the birds made to make the pilgrimage to the front door again.  I told them they were too late for a flosstube cameo.  They seemed disappointed. 

While the weather was nice and the snow was disappearing the deer started hanging out in the front yard in the late afternoons. 

There's this one deer that I remember from last year.  How it is still going and surviving, I don't know, but it is. 

Can you see that bad leg? 

I see it hobbling and hopping along. It looks so painful. My guess is that it is a doe.  No way would it survive a tussle with another buck, I think. 

What else ... 

This past weekend my hubby and I took advantage of the nicer weather and got back to the wood splitting project. 

I split wood for about an hour, maybe.  I was worried I was going to be a bit too cold or that I would tired out quickly.  Not the case.  Then we switched and my hubby started splitting wood and I started tossing wood into the round stack. I tired out pretty quickly. It all goes back to what I've got going on with my body/health right now. Thankfully my son stepped in and helped finished the project. 

I recently recorded a flosstube podcast.  It had been a while since I last recorded and published one. If you are interested, here it is: 

Full show notes are here.

This was just a bit of the mess after recording. If you know, you know. When recording you inevitably make a mess. 

I did listen to an audio book over the course of the last couple of months. 

"I Cheerfully Refuse" is written by a local-ish author. A fellow flosstuber mentioned reading it. I was all about reading a book that had Lake Superior in the background. 

Yesterday while I was in town the fun weather started.  Rain. Ish. 

Then late afternoon the rain switched to snow.  The snow went all night and this morning I woke up to Narnia. 

It snowed throughout most of the day. It finally stopped around ... 5 p.m. 

The sun came out and this is what everything looked like. 

In other news, I started a new project yesterday. 

Also, I'm feeling a bit perky right now, which explains the burst of writing. I'm hoping it continues for at least a while.