Texas Rebel Girl: November 2013

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Winter Wonderland

Sunday morning we awoke to find a blanket of snow on the ground. Here is a view from the backyard:

Dawn, Maggie, why aren't you two down with the other ducks?

"They are too far beneath us, and are not worthy of our presence."

Dawn: "Besides that mommy, my froze are tozen!"

Maggie: "And...to make matters worse I haven't had my cup of coffee this morning!"

Maggie: "Or my hot oatmeal."

Dawn: "I cannot believe you'd leave me out here to suffer this bitter cold with .. with those things in the poultry yard. Humph."

Maggie: "But, if you say you'll give me extra treats if I suffer myself to mingle with them..I will give in just this once and suffer their presence."

Maggie: "Move out of the way, peasants."

Dawn: "Yeah, move out of the way..you pheasants!"

The ducks don't seem to mind the fluffy layer of snow too much. They spent most of their day lounging nestled in the cold, fluffy snow.

And digging in it looking for goodies (although, I'm not sure what they think they're going to find under there?)

They must have felt pretty good, because they had several fights over who got to be the Snow Queen.

FooFoo (yes he is a boy duck, and yes that is a stupid name. Don't judge.) was the referee.

He followed close behind them quacking his little fluffy little crest off.

And if anybody came near the two fighters, he opened his mouth and hissed at them. In case you're wondering, the fight was a tie. Who gets to be the Snow Queen is still to be determined.

Apparently, the little Call ducks thought they should all be Snow Princesses, but Mr. BO disagreed ... and they all attacked him.

They chased poor Mr. Bo in single file all around the poultry yard, biting and pulling his feathers. He was outnumbered, and finally gave up his objection, and they were crowned The Wee Little Princesses.

To celebrate this happy occasion, they went dabbling in the snow.

The ducks took lots of little waddle walks around the yard, exploring this strange new world.

Thing #1 was one of the only chickens brave enough to venture out into this new world. He wants to be like Columbus when he crows up.

Trouble, is on guard duty.

He makes sure that equal food rations are distributed among the different citizens.

And he also makes sure that all the ducks, chickens, and guineas are in line. And if they aren't, he is sure to alert me inside the house, if they step a foot out of his set boundaries.

June is complaining about the lack of hot tubs that are installed in their spa. She is very put out with me.

Winston guarding over his harem of hens, inside the safety of the Goose House.

Tulsa: "Mommy, you'd better schedule a date for the hair dresser. This damp weather is making my eye-liner run."

Rusty pouting after they kids put a horse halter on him like a harness and hooked him up to their sleds. He pulled them down the hill a couple of times, and then refused to budge. He came back to the house and sulked the rest of the day, refusing to look at anyone, and if he did it was only to show us his look of complete and utter resentment at his treatment.

We have come to the end of our tail...(sorry Rusty, no hard feelings now..it's just a statement)..so I shall bid you all a very fond farewell, until tomorrow. Unless something unexpected happens. Which it very well could.

Blessings -

~ Aspen

Monday, November 25, 2013

Fried Pies

Yesterday for lunch, mom decided to make fried pies. She cooked up some Sweet Meat Squash, and I chopped up a few apples, we tossed them in the rolled out dough, and threw them on the wood stove to cook. Everyone else had gone sledding, when they returned, they were only too happy to scarf some pies down.

Cimarron thought they were pretty good.

"Cim! Get your hands outa there! You've already had four! Nub."

Blessings -

~ Aspen

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Winter Has Arrived

The weather folks had been warning us since last week that we had several days of cold, wintery weather ahead of us. They were right.

I spent the day before yesterday prepping for the cold weather. Pens were cleaned, bedding was changed, feed was stashed, the geese were told to put on their warmest goose down, and pile up on good books to read because they'd have a lot of spare time to sit by the fire wrapped up in their warm goose down.

The night before last, the wind, cold, ice, and powdered-sugar-snow moved in. It was pretty miserable, let me tell ya!

First thing that morning I had to head down to the mailbox to pick up some packages. First, let me state that I'd never driven in ice or snow. So, me and the two little ones hopped in one of the pickups and fired her up. I didn't dawn on me until after we had shut the doors that we couldn't get out of the pickup, due to the fact that both handles are broken. Normally, we just roll down the windows and open the doors from the outside, except in this case there was a layer of ice on both windows, and they wouldn't budge. We were stuck! Thankfully, I had my handy dandy phone on me, so I called mom, who was in the house, and she came and let us out and we scraped the ice off the windshield and windows. Phew. I then drove around to the gate (we were parked behind the house), to find the gate was shut. Great...did I mention we still couldn't get out because the windows were jammed? Finally, after much struggling one of us got out and opened the gate. Then we went on our merry way, creeping 10 mph down the road to retrieve the mail. If I drove any faster then 10 mph, the pickup would start swerving. Our mail lady was waiting on us, we completed our errand, and got home without further difficulties.

Gypsy is my blogging partner. She is wrapped up in a warm quilt bundle nestled in my lap.

Meanwhile, back at the barnyard. The critters were less than impressed with the new weather. When I opened the doors, the chickens poked their heads out, took one look at the cold-grey sky, and icy-white ground, and said No thanks, I don't want any of it! They refused to come outside all day long. The waterfowl are now experts at ice skating. They came barreling out of their house and slid the rest of the way. Most of the Call ducks and Muscovies come flying out, when they saw what was on the ground they circled in the air several times before lightly landing.

Maggie: Hey, mom! Whats up? ME of course!

Daffy: I believe I can fly!

Big Boy..

Dawn..

and Hershey, are not quite as affected by the weather due to their, how shall we say? Their fat storage?

In winter time, the feathered dinosaurs eat a lot more than they do during the summer months. It takes a bunch of energy to stay warm. Which is why I keep food available for them to snack on all day.

See this young white Scovy girl? That is Dawn's daughter, and her chocolate Scovy sibling on her left by the mesquite tree, who I am assuming is sired by Hershey. ;)

You would not believe what great lengths I went to to take this pictures. While doing this shoot, I was laying down flat on my stomach on the cold ice with my face pressed against the ground clicking away.

Because who doesn't love a fluffy bum picture?

Or even better!! How about two fluffy bum pictures? I just know you are thrilled beyond..okay maybe you're not.

Daffy: Mercy it's cold out here!

Taffy: I told you to get your snow shoes!

Daffy: No comment.

As soon as I exited the house the geese started honking for me hurry up and bring them supper.

Most of all, they wanted to take a bath, but somehow an ice cube bath just doesn't do it, you know? I scared to think of how many trips with a 5 gallon bucket from the bathroom tub to the goose yard and back, would take to fill up their pools.