Baby It's Cold Outside

Yesterday was very cold and windy, I am not sure it ever got above freezing.  I live in Texas for a reason...I dislike extremely cold weather.  When it is 16 degrees and windy...I am not a happy camper...especially when I have a lot of chores outdoors.  When you have over a hundred chickens, ducks and geese...you are responsible for keeping them alive through frigid temperatures.  I spent the day breaking ice, hauling water, putting pine shavings out, throwing scratch grains out for them, scraping frozen poop off of roosts, gathering eggs before they froze, filling up feeders with dry food because the fermented feed froze up...I even let them have access to the compost pile by taking down the fence.  I had to let them out...they tend to swarm me when they have been locked up in the coop and run and it is hard to even feed them or change out water.  I had to mix up the grains I feed them and they kept jumping in the big trash can I mix it in.  So, I opened the door and they flooded out...it is really funny standing back and watching them taking off running across the yard, some on the roosts fly out the door so if I don't want to get hit I have to stand back away from the entrance.

I have not started on the breeding pens, but I need to soon if I am going to start breeding chickens and selling them this year.  I have a lady who I have sold eggs to that wants hatching eggs. I need to separate the hens with a fertile rooster to get pure bred chickens.  I have a roofed area I need to enclose for this purpose.  It is very cold again today and it may rain, so it ain't happening today...I would much rather it be at least in the forties to spend the day constructing anything.  I am no "Spring Chicken" and the cold tends to make me ache a bit and when my hands are cold, it is difficult to hold on to the tools.  I have already called my husband to take me to the emergency room once...I would prefer not having to do it again.  He was good about me calling him when I got locked in the rooster coop too...I wonder sometimes how I got so lucky with him, he doesn't complain about it...he does tease me a bit though.  

I know my husband loves me...that is why I married him.  I try doing all kinds of things, he is my backup...and when I screwed up the lawn tractor, he fixes it so I can do it again!  Lol, I really don't want to mess things up, just weird things happen sometimes...and in tall grass you miss things sometimes.  He had changed out the blades and done a complete tuneup on the lawn tractor, so I thought I would mow more in a different area so he wouldn't have to...we had a man mow this area with his tractor so I thought it was safe to mow.  Long story short...I hit a downed branch and the mower blades being sharp cut it and it got stuck in the blades and shut down the motor to them.  I could not get it out and I messed up the blades.  Kinda like when he got the tire fixed because it had a slow leak...and I forgot to check it and took off and the tire came off the wheel...OK, so I did it more than once, but something was wrong with the valve stem, and after he got it fixed...I thought it would last.  It didn't.  I bought a new tire for the lawn tractor so we could have a spare, I was good and stayed on this side of the creek when I mowed the last time...he winterized it and put it up before I could break it again.

This is all new to me you know?  I was born and raised in a city.  Out in the country, there are a lot of chores that are simular to city chores...but a larger scale and probably a bit more dangerous.  I am just glad when I mowed by the pond I didn't fall in with the lawn tractor or loose it in the creek.  Instead of trimming hedges with electric trimmers, I trim trees with saws and a machete.  Instead of planting just a few flowers, I plant fruit trees and huge gardens.  I planted a Granny Smith apple tree, two pecan trees and a large blueberry bush before this last cold spell.  I dug up and transplanted 9 Chicasaw Plum trees a few weeks before that...and a Santa Rosa Plum.  This is a good time to transplant stuff...if it wasn't so cold, I would go dig up some muscadine grapes and transplant them closer to the house too...maybe once it warms up...