Spring at last

It’s been raining off and on. Yesterday afternoon, the temperature was 78°! Almost hot. After such a long cold winter, I had forgotten how much easier it is to live when it’s warm. I automatically brace myself for the cold air to hit me when I go outside but wait—it’s not cold. It’s nice! With the first warm rain, the grass has greened up considerably in the last week.

A different color on the lawn!

I had some leftover buttermilk after I made muffins. Buttermilk is reputedly good for chickens as a probiotic for their crops (“crop” in this case being part of their digestive system). I found two flattened hamburger buns, circa Labor Day, in the back of my freezer. I broke the buns into the buttermilk and gave it to the girls. It was the Best Thing Ever (as usual). I videotaped the event for your enjoyment. The chickens ate their treat in two phases. The first phase is to grab a piece of bread out of the bowl and give it a good shake, flinging buttermilk everywhere including all over the photographer’s legs. The bread gets dropped, picked up, shaken, dropped, stolen, and finally eaten. After the bread is gone, phase 2 begins. All the hens gather around the bowl and drink the remaining buttermilk making tap, tap, tap noises on the bottom. I didn’t realize until I played back the recording that the woodpecker and redwing blackbirds were louder than the clucking of the hens. As you watch the video, enjoy the sounds of spring, including the occasional gust of wind.