Monthly Archives: December 2008

Chicken Molting in the Winter in Colorado

2 Replies

Frosty tree against a blue sky
After the sky cleared up it left frost on the trees against a blue sky

I noticed that our leghorn chicken (the white one) was looking a little sparse in the feathers around her neck the other day, but Britton just kind of dismissed it. Then,  I went into the greenhouse to fill up their water and it looked like someone had had a pillowfight in there. There were white feathers everywhere! She is looking pretty ragged and I am pretty certain that she is molting. Why in the world would a chicken molt when it is negative 15 degrees? Don’t ask me, but she is…She has also stopped laying eggs which is common in the winter anyway to conserve energy when it is cold and also because they don’t lay eggs when molting. (We actually had to buy eggs for the first time since August so I could make chocolate chip cookies.)

Chickens and feathers

Now that she doesn’t have quite the same level of “down coat” that she did before, I am a little more worried about her in the cold. We might run an extension cord and a light bulb for heat. My dad says to put a box, even a cardboard box in there with hay and a blanket or towel over it so they can conserve heat. The problem is that they still like to get up high at night and roost on the board or roosting stick we put up there. If we can get through this cold part of winter, I think they will be tougher for it…

Here are a few more pictures around the yard and neighborhood.

Winter Fog over the lake out back
Fog over the lake out back 

 

Schnoodle and Kitty in Greeley
Kitty and Schnoodle follow the path we made in the snow from our house to the greenhouse

Kitty Walking up the Path
Kitty walking up the path to the house

Schnoodle in the snow
Schnoodle with a snow beard

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (0)
  • Awesome (0)
  • Interesting (0)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)

Let’s Party White Elephant Style

Leave a reply

It is still cold and snowy here, but let’s focus on fun! We weren’t sure what to do for New Year’s Eve this year. I have to work during the day until 5pm, so that kind of limited our travel radius some.  When we went over to the boxing fight party the other weekend we decided we should all do something, but we didn’t know what. So, Sandi and I decided that we could just have it here in Greeley, and that our house would be a good location…So…We’re having another party.

Here’s the Invitation

elephant-party

When: Wednesday, December 31, 2008 from 6:30pm until???
What: A White Elephant Party  (AKA Re-wrap your Crap Party  -What is a White Elephant Party, you ask? Well, this means for every person who is participating you should bring a crazy, silly, wrapped present. The sillier the better. Examples include (to get those creative juices flowing); an avocado green blender, a trophy with someone else’s name, a strange painting that you would never hang on your wall, a duck call, plaid pants that are 10 sizes too big, an old Bronco’s helmet lamp, a toilet coin bank, etc etc (BTW, I have seen all of these!)
Where: Our house, Greeley, CO
Contact info: Britton’s cell or home #:
 
Additional info: Please bring extra drinks or food, if you would like. We will try to have champagne, beer, non-alcoholic drinks and snacks. Also, if you are planning to drink and don’t have a DD, you are more than welcome to crash at our place-please do so, it will probably be a crazy night to be out driving anyway. Please bring a sleeping bag if you are planning to stay. Also, if you have a favorite game (board game, video game, mind games, magic tricks?)bring it as well. But most important of all, bring yourself!
 
Tentative plans:
7pm-8:30: Hang out, eat, drink, be merry, talk, listen to muzack
 8:30pm-10ish: White Elephant gift exchange
10pm-12: Play games, hang out, eat, drink, be merry, talk, listen to muzack
12am-12:05: Happy New Year 2009-ring in the New Year with friends!
12:05am-?? -Hang out some more, sleep?… lol
 
Please RSVP to me if you can so we can plan, but if you forget, no prob! Come anyway! And feel free to bring a guest if you want.
For more info, email us:
@comcast.net

Also…if you have any extra chairs, that would help. We are low on the seatage.

Then we’ll be Jammin’ like Bob Marley 🙂

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (0)
  • Awesome (0)
  • Interesting (0)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)

It’s Fffrrreezing! Arctic Cold Weather in Greeley, Colorado

5 Replies

It is about 8am and it is negative 15 degrees Fahrenheit (negative 26 Celsius)! That is arctic Colorado weather! Kitty usually sleeps outside, but we took him in to sleep in the laundry room last night because it was so cold. The people on the news kept saying to take pets in, that it is so cold it will freeze human skin within a few minutes, so we were pretty worried about the chickens.

negative-15-degrees in Greeley

I boiled some water this morning and took it out to them and they were just fine. They were not moving much to conserve energy and the black one had frost on her feathers. I think the leghorn has frostbite on her comb, but they were happy when they heard the ice crack as I poured the hot water into their dish. The high today is only supposed to reach about 10 degrees, so the water will freeze again soon!

pine-tree

When I was bringing water to the chickens, Schnoodle ran out with me to go to bathroom (our yard that is). As I was walking back to the house, she just stood there on three legs. I thought maybe she was standing awkwardly as she peed, but she wouldn’t move. I had to coax her back in, but she was slow and looked  like she was in super pain. I think she might have arthritis in one of her back legs, and they say arthritis is more painful when it’s cold (low pressure). 

icy tree in Greeley

As I was coming to work, my car started slowly and the road conditions weren’t too bad until I tried to get up onto “O” Street from 25th Ave. My car slid around and let out a bunch of steam/smoke as I gunned it up there. As I walked from my car into the building, the contents of my nose froze as well as my hair that was still slightly damp from showering. All of this is to describe that it is frickin’ cold!!! Puerto Rico, you are looking especially lovely today! 🙂

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (0)
  • Awesome (0)
  • Interesting (0)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)

Tropics in the Snow -Puerto Rico in Colorado?

2 Replies

As I was trying to stay warm in our flannel sheets this morning, I just realized that we have quite a bit of tropical things in our house. This must be part of our subconscious desire to be in the tropics considering that Colorado is in the USDA plant hardiness zone 5 and Puerto Rico is in zone 11 (same as Hawaii). What this means is that the low temperature that can be expected  in most of Colorado is -10 to -25 degrees F and the lowest you should ever expect in Puerto Rico (or Hawaii since they don’t list Puerto Rico on the map for whatever reason) is +40 degress F. So the only tropical things you can grow here are houseplants. Last night the low at night was  about 0,  and we are not even half-way through the winter season. But in good Colorado fashion, Saturday’s weather was in the upper 50’s which confuses things even more unless you are from Colorado like us, and then it’s just normal.

usda-hardiness-zone
USDA Hardiness Map

Here are a few tropical things we have in our house sheltered from the snowy, cold world outside.

Josh the African Grey Parrot
Josh, Our African Grey Parrot eating a tortilla chip

Banana Tree in Living Room
Our Banana Tree in our Living Room looking out to a snowy scene

We got this drawf banana tree from a seed catalog in the houseplants or exotic plant section. When we first received it, it was only about an inch tall, but we kept watering it and now (after about 3 years) it is about 6 feet tall. It has never had bananas yet and I think that is because it is so dry and the varying amount of sunlight it receives. Still, it makes me smile and it gets a new huge leaf (like 2-3 feet!) every so often. Also from the seed catalog we got some coffee plants that have never born any fruit (coffee) either but have beautiful glossy dark green leaves.

Banana Christmas Tree
Me with the Banana Christmas Tree

Because the banana tree and another tall houseplant in our living room are so big we decided to just put lights on the banana tree in front of the big picture window with a couple of ornaments and call it good.  We have had a real pine tree before from the mountains and we had a nine-foot fake tree for a while, but this is kind of fun for this year. It kind of reminds me of that Corona commercial where they light up one big palm tree…

Plus, while some holiday lights in this dark time of year are welcoming, I think too many lights and decorations are kind of corny (more on that later).

**CHICKEN UPDATE**
I was worried that the -10 degrees F might be harmful to the chickens. I checked some online references and apparently they’ll be fine as long as they are out of the wind and / or rain. Well the greenhouse is dry, but cold. It was 0 degrees a little bit ago.

I have to remember that they come with down jackets. 100 years ago nobody had a heated coop, they seemed to get by just fine.

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (0)
  • Awesome (0)
  • Interesting (0)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)