Glaciation

We’ve had it all in the last two weeks: snow, bitter cold, freezing rain, rain, freezing rain, bitter cold, snow. Today I have been playing Heinous Choices, Winter Edition. Would you rather drive to work in extreme cold, snow, or freezing rain? I do not enjoy extreme cold, but I put it #1 on my list. It only requires precautions. Keep the gas tank full, have a good battery, wear an enormous number of layers covering every inch of skin, and spend as little time as possible outdoors. Snow is second. It slows everything down, but if you proceed with caution you will make it. Ice, however, is terrifying, The whole world becomes an accident waiting to happen, a crashed car, a broken bone. Tiny steps everywhere I go.

Freezing rain on top of snow makes glaciers, such as the one currently covering our driveway. By going ever so slowly, I have made it out with no problem. When coming into the garage, with gravity working against me, I had a bit of a problem. I let the car slide backwards a bit, and got traction somehow on the second attempt.

The glacier on the driveway, viewed from the garage. Terry chipped the ice off the curve.

On the day when temperatures crept ever so slightly above freezing, Terry chipped the ice of the curve in the driveway.

Here are the ice chunks that Terry scraped off the driveway

Now I stop on the clear spot to open the garage door, and don’t slow down until I’m in the garage.

We had a bright sunny day yesterday. The ice sparkled on the trees in the maple forest and the grasses in the field.

Sparkling trees and grasses

Here is a picture of iced-up spruce branches.

Iced-up spruce branches

I took an ice scraper—walking very carefully—out to the solar panels. I was delighted to see that the ice was melting rapidly. All I had to do is nudge the remaining sheets over the dividers between the panels, and down they came. I also learned quickly to step aside because there was enough ice there to be painful when it hit me in the thighs.

I had every intention of letting the girls out. It was a brisk 9°F, but there was no wind. Unfortunately, the gate was frozen in the ground. As winter has progressed, we have gotten less and less of the post back in its holes, which is why it looks so far out of the ground.

Fence post firmly frozen in the ground

I tried a crowbar, which loosened the back prong, but I couldn’t get a good angle on the front. I borrowed a little piece of 2 x 4 from Terry to increase my leverage, but it didn’t help. So the girls stayed in. Hilda worked on it more later. Still it would not budge. This morning I took out an ice pick and some salt. I made a divot in the ice with the pick and filled it with salt. By the time I was done with the chores inside the coop, I was able to get the fencepost out of the PVC pipes. But it wouldn’t go back in. I put more salt in the pipes and poked with the ice pick until I could get the fencepost back in. By afternoon, I was able to get the post all the way into the ground.

I was feeling clever at doctoring Bianca in the storage side of the coop rather than setting up a cage and keeping her in isolation. There is a drawback, however. We have trained Bianca to expect treats. Hilda warned me before I went out. Bianca would do anything to get to the storage side of the coop. “You’d better take some buttermilk,” she suggested

“We need to stop enabling,” I replied.

I though maybe it was just because Bianca liked Hilda better, and maybe I wouldn’t have a problem. I was glad to see that she looked perfectly normal.

Bianca returns to normal

She didn’t seem particularly interested in escaping at first. Yet, when I turned around after hanging up the feeder, there she was next to the heater. She almost evaded me, but I got ahold of her tail to stop forward progress until I could pick her up. That little stinker!

Bianca made an escape to the storage side of the coop

Interestingly, since we had the really cold weather, Juanita has stopped pecking Lupita. I haven’t posted pictures of Lupita recently because she has had ugly bald spots all over her breast and back, and I was afraid you would think I was a bad chicken-mom. Thus you cannot appreciate how much better she looks now. 

Feathers growing back on Lutpita's breast and neck

Here is a close up of her back by the tail that clearly shows the shafts of the new feathers.

Shafts of new feathers growing at the base of Lupita's tail

We watch the weather forecasts anxiously, looking for an opportunity to get the rest of the ice off the driveway. Sooner or later, I remind myself, spring will come. Sooner or later…