Are You Winter Worn Yet?

It’s been crazy cold and snowy here in Minnesota this winter. Those who don’t live here probably think that’s nothing new, but we’ve been spoiled for a while now with mild, almost snowless winters. Time to get our Minnesotan back on!

The chickens are hanging in there, thanks to the addition of a heat light in the coop, in addition to their regular winter heater. I use the light as little as possible as the red glow is a bit disturbing to the girls, but when it’s -35°F at night, I figure disturbing their sleep is the lesser of two evils.

I thought the chickens might turn up their beaks at salad, but they quickly scarfed down the lettuce I gave them as a treat.

After a two month break from laying eggs, the girls seem to think the days are getting longer, the sun’s angle has changed a bit, and Spring has to be on its way, so they have popped back into egg production.

I’m glad for the green growth going on in my Salad Table, a contrast to the vivid winter white. I just started new seedlings to replace the older plants. I’m hoping the spinach seeds I just bought from High Mowing Seeds will grow well as I have so many recipes that call for spinach. With so many greens, I refuse to buy spinach so I’m using Kale in recipes instead, which is fine sometimes, not so great other times.

As long as I was placing a seed order and paying for postage, I also ordered three types of sprouts and two sprouting lids to grow them in large mason jars. I’ve never tried growing sprouts before but thought they’d be a nice addition to my salads. The photo is from when I originally soaked the seeds. It’s been four days and the sprouts are expanding to fill the jar. Maybe I’ll toss some in my salad today.

I’ve been brushing the snow off and refilling the bird feeder quite frequently. This is the view from my office. I love watching the activity.

Sometimes it’s like wild kingdom around here or world’s funniest home videos, if only we were fast enough to capture the antics.

She’ll still manage to tree them and visibly shake with excitement as she sits waiting to see how they’re going to come down the tree. The squirrels generally can escape by jumping from tree to tree but sometimes, they run across the snow and Latte runs after them.

One day, she was so intent on chasing the squirrel in front of her she didn’t notice the one running behind her who actually ran right into Latte’s butt. But yes, the little terrier ignored the bash of her hind side to keep her eye on her prey. And where was Java? Sitting and watching the action from the sidelines, her head movement mimicked someone watching a drag race.