Snow Day!!!

For the first time in possibly forever, the news got the weather right. All week, it's been "Snowpacalypse" this, and "Snowmageddon" that, forecasted to hit between four and six o'clock this morning. Being renown for my pre-planning skills, I took the day off of work in the hopes that epic amounts of snow would prevent me from safely leaving my driveway. Sure enough, when I rolled out of bed at the crack of eleven am, I looked out the window and saw nothing but white. We got at least two feet! (Gene insists that it's more like one foot, but I'm sticking with two feet just for the bragging rights.)

This is the first time the chickens have ever seen snow, so of course I brought my camera with me when I went to outside to turn them loose. Before I opened the coop, I shoveled a play area for them in front of the door, and also created a path to their winter enclosure. I then had to knock the 18 feet of snow off the top of the winter enclosure, because it was sagging dangerously and I didn't want anyone getting squished. When I opened the coop door, all of the chickens just sat on their roosts, staring at me like they were annoyed I was letting the cold air in. Apparently they could see all the snow through their window, and decided it was much nicer inside. When a few of them finally made it to the door, the "WTF" expressions on their faces was priceless. Chickens, much like their mama, do not enjoy snow. They made good use of the paths I shoveled, and if one of them wandered off the path, much squawking and flapping was heard. The goats barely left their shed all day, preferring to cuddle up in the straw and stare out the door. 

Poor Gene had to get a ladder and shovel off the roofs over the turkey, goat, and rabbit areas, since the weight of 24 feet of snow could conceivably cave the roof in. The only critters who didn't seem fazed at all by the snow was the ducks. I'm pretty sure the ducks wouldn't even notice if a nuclear bomb went off in the backyard... they seem content to waddle around investigating puddles no matter what's going on around them. They do look decidedly dingy though; no matter how many times I change their pool water, it's been so cold lately that it's always slushy, so they haven't gotten their daily bath in lately.

Ceri absolutely loves the snow. This is the first time she's seen this much of it, and she played for hours in the front yard, bounding around like an antelope. I discovered that the laser pointer, her favorite toy, works really well on the snow, so we played that until I couldn't feel my feet anymore. 

Ceri wasn't the only one who got to play outside - our neighbors Keith and Abigail (our raccoon hunting friends), got a new quad, so they were having a great time in the snow. I got to go for a ride too, which was awesome. It doesn't get more country than that, riding on the back of a quad through a ton of snow with a happy German Shepherd running along beside you.