Winter Satisfactions

The girls are sticking close together -- and close to home -- these days.  Who can blame them?  The Mercury won't climb out of single digits today, with winds translating the feel to well below zero, and the cleared spaces around the coops are by now well travelled and fully explored.  Short of simple calisthenics, they have little incentive to budge out into the frigid breeze.  The sunshine helps, but only barely.  They have concluded -- as have we -- that there are very few places that are urgent to visit while the atmosphere is this forbidding.  

It has occurred to me that they have a certain advantage in winter weather:  their down jackets are always on them.  Ours we have to stuff ourselves into, only to waddle around like the love child of a penguin and the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man.  They are born with a knack for feathered navigation; we never really get the hang of it.  

The matter is further complicated on days like yesterday when their waterers run dry.  Let me just say -- without getting unnecessarily graphic -- that it's not that easy to schlepp gallon milk jugs filled with water out to the coops, squeeze my jacket-bloated frame through the coop door, squat in the common space shared by a handful of curious and thirsty hens, dismantle, fill and reassemble the water canister, and then extricate myself without snagging my coat or stepping on anything living.  All, I might add, for very little recompense.  I’m collecting only one or two eggs per day through these abbreviated daylight hours.  

Not that I blame them.  I'm not that productive these days either.  And given their limited entertainment, they are doubly happy to see me when I trudge out in their direction.  Ones who have never given me the time of day have started begging for attention, squatting in front of me in hopes I will pick them up and cuddle.  Even the Buff Brahmas, which at close to 10 lbs each is a lot of bird to cuddle, but almost as rewarding as an egg.  

We’ll get through this frigid time.  They, after all, have each other to snuggle up to at night, and a steadfastly reliable me to keep them amply supplied with food, water, treats and occasional boredom busting entertainment options.  And I, with a smile on my face, have a warm house to return to, with even warmer housemates, and a flickering fire with a beckoning hearth.  

Come to think of it, winter isn't so bad after all.