Hay Shredders!!!

Yay for snow in Northern Minnesota!  The extreme cold is a major drag, but the snow is beautiful!  Yesterday my little family spent the day playing soccer and football in the falling snow, watching Christmas movies, snuggling and reading books.  There is something about the wind howling and white puffs flying by the window to make you want to just curl up with babies... even if those babies are 3, 4 and 6.

This morning I woke up with the daily crick in my back, and penchant for trucker coffee.  As I mean-mugged the cold coffee pot and grabbed the Tylenol, my eyes wandered to the window.

Snow Aftermath.

It wasn't major, but it was enough to let me know that back had better loosen up awful fast.  So coffee got made, kids got fed and I went to go get the old gear on.  Keith had beaten me outside and was already plowing.  This meant I was of course on coop duty.  Max the psycho was already in there waiting for me.  As I got closer, I saw that he was using one of his massive paws to hold down a duck.  Normally I would have flipped, assuming he had tortured the duck and was eating it.  I knew better... the only torture happening was that the duck was officially getting a Max bath.  I shook my head at the ridiculousness and attempt to open the gate.

It wouldn't open.

The chickens and ducks officially shredded ten bales of hay in a couple of weeks... and now it was pushing the gate closed.  How in the heck did Max get in there?  Could he have done this to keep me out?  I am officially losing my my mind.  I go get the pitch fork and have to swing it over the gate and do a sort of "weak rake" with it.  I got the gate open and with my hands on my hips, I glared at all of them.  It made me feel like a really mature person.

I got to work immediately on getting all of that hay up and piled against the coop.  We are going to be having a long cold snap up here in Northern Minnesota and I am not looking to have frozen chickens.  So I literally worked out there for two hours while Keith went in to tend Littles, and when I finally finished, it dawned on me that they are going to wreck it by tomorrow.  Ever feel like having the wind completely blown out of your sails?  Come spend the day out here on my farm sometime.

When I was all done, I went in and grabbed todays eggs before they froze.  I have a feeling we are looking forward to tons of frozen eggs in the next couple of months.  Actually, Max is looking forward to that.  Max loves nothing more than getting an eggy treat straight from the coop.

After letting Max have two frozen eggs, this is what we had left.  Just think, this time next year and we will be pulling in hopefully about 4 dozen of these bad boys a day.  We feed our chickens awesome feed, grains and corns and tons tons TONS of treats.  They are happy and they make the tastiest eggs.

Eggs... its what was for dinner ;)