The bright side to winter

There are plenty of things I do not like about winter. It's dreary. It's gray. Nothing is growing. It rains -  a lot. It's cold, but rarely do we get snow. We get freezing weather on occasion, and all the headaches that come with it (duck pools that freeze over and an inability to wash out rabbit litter boxes), but don't get to enjoy the fun of snow. (And before you jump down my throat, when you rarely get snow, and have dogs that love to play in it, then yes - it is fun.) 

There is, however, one thing I do like about winter: the hormone levels go way down within the ducks. This means that the ducks are - for the time being - a united flock once again. The boys and girls hang out together without any infighting between the different age groups. I may have mentioned that the Mamas and the Papas and the Littles do not hang out together in the spring and summer. But in the winter time they spend all their time together, running around the yard in little row of all eight ducks. 

Aside from this being enormously cute, it also makes my life easier. I don't have to chase the ducks around in the evening to get them all in the run at the same time, and they go into the coop easily at bedtime. When the hormone levels are higher the boys enter the coop first and lie in wait for the females to enter the coop, where they then jump on the females in an attempt to mate. The females, who are far from unintelligent, know this and do everything they can to avoid going into the coop at night. This means that I can be seen running around the duck run with my arms spread out, trying to gently herd the females into the coop while they dart under, around, and behind the coop in an attempt to avoid me and the doorway. I'm sure I look crazy as I plead with the ducks to just. go. to. bed!

So not only is winter nicer for the female ducks, it is also nicer for me because let me tell you, seeing eight ducks filing into the coop in a nice little row after eating dinner at bedtime is a thing of beauty.  I suppose, it is even nice enough to make up for all the downsides to winter, so bring on the rain.

Starting the new year off with a fizzle, and wintery weather

Every year I make New Years resolutions. Lose weight, get in shape, blog more, etc, etc. This year I have managed to avoid inevitably breaking my resolutions by not even getting around to making any. So, like I said, I'm starting the new year off with a fizzle. I may eventually get around to making some resolutions but likely not any time before the end of this month and possibly not even by the end of March. We'll see how it goes. At any rate there is some news from the Unfarm to catch you up on. I finished four of my needlepoint stockings just in time for Christmas, we finally got some winter weather and Molly managed to come down with a case of giardia, probably from drinking out of puddles on her walks.

But now: snow. We finally got some, though not as much as I would have liked and it didn't stick around long enough either. We ended up with about ten inches of it here on the Unfarm, which I realize isn't much compared with some parts of the country but it is a fair amount for around here and considering global warming and all. The animals were of mixed opinions about the weather. The dogs thought it was great, even Molly who is barely above the snow when standing in it. We bundled Molly and Scout up in their coats and took them out for walks in the snow. They tended to stick to the pathways where the snow was already packed down while Axel, with his thick fur, simply plowed through wherever he felt like it and was often found lying in it on the back deck.

The ducks and the chickens were decidedly less enthused about the wintery weather. The ducks were forced to stay inside the whole week the snow stuck around as their pond was frozen over and I didn't want them sitting on the ice and sticking to it or getting frostbite on their feet as they have not the sense to stay off of the snow and under the covered areas of the yard. They are frequently to be found sitting out in the middle of whatever bad weather we are having at the time and did I feel like carrying two wiggling, squirming ducks furiously paddling their feet and/or flapping their wings inside each day while trying to keep my balance in the slick, packed down snow? No. I did not. (Why would I have to carry them inside, you ask? Because Maggie has developed a bad habit of stepping on his own feet when he walks, causing him to fall down at which point he often just sits there waiting for you to come retrieve him.) 

The chickens were quite put out by all the snow. On the first day we opened their coop and they poked their heads out like they always do but instead of jumping out enthusiastically they made a collective decision to stay in the coop. For the whole day. And the next day. And the day after that. Finally, feeling sorry for the poor birds, we put out some old fence boards on top of the snow so that they could have somewhere to stand that wasn't covered in ten inches of the wretched white stuff they were so dismayed to awake to each morning. After that they would hang out on the boards or underneath the coop - the only place the ground was still visible - until the snow melted sufficiently (about a week later) for them to begin venturing out into the yard again. Needless to say that the chickens much prefer the warmer months when the ground is soft and they can once again become the terrors of all small plants in the yard.

Snowshoeing, Mt. Hood

On December 28, we (my brother, sister and I) took all three dogs up to the mountain to go snowshoeing. This trip up to the mountains necessitated the use of our 1980's Subaru which, while it is our best car in it's ability to handle in the snow and ice, is also a relatively small car, especially when it is crammed with three people, three dogs, and snow gear for everyone. We parked in a lot located above the lake we were planning to snowshoe around and let the dogs out. Kita and Maia - who have been to this lake with us before - recognized the area as soon as we opened the car doors and were immediately ready to head out on the trail. Buddy was another matter. The first thing he realized when he jumped out of the car was that he was standing in snow. This is NOT what he had in mind when he realized we were going for a road trip. He probably figured we were going to the beach - or, at the worst, going camping. Snow, in Buddy's mind, is simply rain, but colder. He is not a fan. Why Kita seems to love it so much is a complete mystery to Buddy. I'm sure Buddy would have been more than happy had we gotten back into the car and gone home right then and there. No such luck.

We got everyone suited up - winter gear and snowshoes for us, coats for Kita and Maia, and a coat on top of a sweater for Buddy - and headed out. (I should perhaps mention that I did make an effort to keep Maia and Buddy's feet warm with little boots, but they managed to get them off in a matter of minutes so we had to leave them in the car or risk losing them in acres of snow.) We let Kita off leash within minutes of heading out on the trail and he had a blast. He loves the snow and was off and running as soon as his leash was off. You would never know from looking at him then, that he is suffering from arthritis. The only sign that he wasn't feeling as good as he once did was that he stuck to the trail instead of going off into the woods like he had the last time we were up at the mountains, several years ago. He made an attempt early on in our walk to go into the deeper snow but soon abandoned that and stayed where the snow was already packed down.

Maia is a bit less dependable when it comes to behaving while off leash so we waited until we were down near the lake before we let her off leash. Once off, she behaved relatively well although her hearing tended to be a bit selective when we asked her not to wander so far ahead. Maia also seems to think that everyone wants to pet her. Whenever we let her off leash (say at the dog park or on the beach) she spends all her time running up to all the people to see if they want to pet her. This presented something of a problem while we were snowshoeing in that as soon as she saw a cross country skier coming, she would run over and sit down in the ski tracks, right in front of the skiers. Fortunately, she is cute enough that no one seemed to get too annoyed at her, and we were usually able to get her out of the way quickly enough.

Buddy was the last to be let off leash. To be honest, I wasn't even sure we were going to let him off at all, given his track record. He comes when called well enough but becomes overexcited around other dogs and has a tendency to bite whoever is within reach: unknown dogs, Kita, Maia... me. Being well aware of this fact, we kept his muzzle on him for the first half of the hike in case we ran into any other dogs on the trail. (Note: we do not like to muzzle Buddy, but it is sometimes the best option for his safety and everyone else's, and we use a soft muzzle and always take it off if he seems hot or if there are no dogs around to rile him.) At any rate, halfway through the hike we found a quiet area where we could take off his muzzle and let him off leash. As Buddy loves to chase balls, we scooped up handfuls of snow and took turns throwing snowballs for him. He loved being able to really run for the first time in a long time (being confined to running up and down our hallway as he cannot yet be trusted at the dog park) and he chased snowball after snowball, but was always somewhat confused when he couldn't seem to distinguish the snowballs from the snow it landed in. He had fun, at any rate, and might not be too terribly disappointed the next time we decide to go snowshoeing, although he was quite happy to snuggle under a blanket in the car on the way home - he is, after all, still Buddy and, as such, is a creature of comfort.

Above are some of the pictures we took during our trip - see how happy the dogs are? I love it when they're happy.

It's beginning to feel a lot like... winter

I am considering going into hibernation as it is apparently still winter, and it will remain so until... who knows - forever? It has rained every day, or nearly every day, for the last few weeks. There are gray clouds from here to the end of the sky, and at this point I doubt that the ground will ever dry out. There is probably water seeping out of the ground at the other side of the planet from all the rain we've gotten here. It is the beginning of June but the air smells like woodsmoke from the chimneys that are still going. It feels like we should be out gathering pumpkins instead of strawberries. Spring? I wish.

On the plus side, however, I am finally done with my ethics class. Add another check to the endless list of classes I need to take to finish my degree - one more down, somewhere around one hundred left to go. And we have had some more newcomers here on the Unfarm, as well. A pair of robins have made a nest under the back deck and their eggs have recently hatched. I haven't actually seen the baby birds, as I do not want to disturb the parents by going so close to the nest, but both robins have been busily flying around the yard gathering worms to take back to the nest. So the rain is, I suppose, beneficial in that it has been keeping the worms near the surface and the parents are easily able to keep their little ones fed.

The dogs, however, are a bit out of sorts as all this rain has had me in such a mood to hibernate that I have tended to neglect their walks. I am aware that this makes me a somewhat terrible mother, but all I've felt like doing lately is sleeping. Perhaps I'll take the dogs up to our family's cabin on Puget Sound for a couple of days to make it up to them. If it ever stops raining - I find that the beach is little fun when you're as wet out of the water as you would be in it.