Back in the Saddle

 Hello old friends.  I am a little sore tonight, but oh, it hurts so good!  I've taken a much-too-long break from running, partly due to the extreme cold temps and partly due to the extreme late nights!  Oh, how the nights can be productive because it is quiet and still without interuptions.  My head has been swimming with all of the things and ideas of things that I have been wanting to get done.  No wonder I'm always in the middle of something.  I'm always starting something new before anything else is finished, and after all these late nights, rather than having completed lots of things, I've just started lots and LOTS of things!!  But, OH. SO. HAPPY. to move again (and of course to reconnect with my friends!!)

Those cold temps have made way for some warmer ones these last several days and the snow boots have been set aside and replaced by rainboots!  Hooray!!!  The warm sun is so welcome.  Seems that the wintery-grey days tend to lead to lack of motivation to do much of anything, but when that sun pops out and things start to thaw, we hurry out to soak up as much of it as we can before it succumbs to the remaining blustery days we likely still have ahead. 

I love rainboots.  They're so much prettier than the boring old rubber farm boots!  :)  Notice that we didn't put away all of the snowboots...we needed one today since we couldn't find the match to Millie's red rainboots.

Even while the sun was beginning to set, the temperatures boasted numbers well-above freezing...and when you're used to barely above zero, 5o degrees starts to beckon sun-bathing!

Or at least shadow catching!

...and what good would all these puddles of thawed snow and ice be if you couldn't stomp through them a couple hundred times??

It's been a while since the girls have been anywhere near the barn, much less in it to help with the chickens.  The cold just makes it much more reasonable for me to hurry out, feed, water, gather eggs, check the nests and run back inside.  We actually got things cleaned out today.  Lots of bags of garden fertilizer--ready to go!  :)

It's fun just to hang out and watch chickens...and the duck who thinks he's a chicken!  I bet we stayed out in the coop for an hour cleaning, feeding and watching them scratch around and peck at things.

I sometimes think I'd rather not have chickens, until I go without these fresh eggs!  Well worth it!

Probably just as much fun gathering them as it is eating them!!

Please Mother Nature, let the warm weather stay a little longer!!

Oh, and when the sun goes down, the productivity still goes on.  :)  I figure 5 haircuts a month times $10 each is a great reason to get really good at this!  Unfortunately the productive motivation stopped after the haircut, because that mess in the background is STILL THERE!!