Merry Mary

A week or so ago we went to a church in the Italian village neighborhood of Columbus. The men at the door greeted us with "Buon Giorno!" and part of the mass was said in Italian. It's still all Greek to me, but the church is beautiful, and this statue of Mary and Gabriel was stunning.

We are off for a week, to a place where mass will be all in Spanish, and the air will be warm.

Merry Christmas to all, and a very Happy New Year!

Holiday Chicken Cheer

Chickens are easily entertained. They also eat everything, including, yes, chicken. The more we get know them, we are finding out that they do have their favorites. One of the foods they seem to enjoy the most is sunflower seeds.



These are roasted, and salted sunflower seeds. That might make a difference, and might be good for their diet in general (they need some salt like we do). They will run up to us now, if they think we have any of these little seeds to sow, directly onto the ground, especially for them.



Claire had a brilliant idea recently. She carefully stuck the seeds all over an apple, and hung it up for the chickens in their coop. It was a fun way to feed them, and an entertainment to boot. The apple would move away from their pecking, but somehow they managed to get them all out, in a rather short amount of time.  Who said chickens weren't smart?

All good things must come to an end, of course. And this treat did just that for them.



It's a good thing that there is warm earth for them to dig, and 'bathe' in. Two dirty little chooks, all filled up with sunflower seeds. Happiness could not be simpler than that.

December 10

We are deep into December now. Yet it was just a day or two ago did we feel like winter has actually arrived here in central Ohio. There were flurries falling, and frozen chicken water. The roofs are now painted white in the morning with frost. The buzzing of the central heating system has become more of a constant background music, along with holiday tunes from the children's hums.



Winter is here.



Together with an additional egg that we found in the coop today, on the opposite side of where the other layer (Squash) had been using as a nesting area.



Perhaps these chickens are territorial? No matter, we were elated to have found the newly laid (bigger) egg. Butternut, the new layer, got a few extra deserved hugs and smooches throughout the day.



What we also found in the branches by our house was a wary red-tailed hawk. A predator who loves small pseudo-flightless birds. Beautiful they are, yes. But a little too close to the coop for our liking. He (or she) must have a nest nearby for this was not our first sighting of this creature.



Ah yes. Life is full of excitements. Eggs, hawks, and even this frozen stick of ice. December 10th has been a good day.