Digging out the Chicken Coop

I am definitely feeling the farm girl lifestyle today. In fact, I just came in from plowing our lane (again) after all the snow drifted back over the plowed areas. We received somewhere between 12 and 15 inches of snow over the past 24 hours. The biggest problem however isn't the snow but the wind, upwards of 40 mph! It seems like as soon as you scoop or plow the wind just fills it right back up. You can practically watch all your hard work get covered up! The funniest thing about today however has to be the chicken coop.

Let me preface this story with some background information. Unfortunately, through first time farmer ignorance, our coop design isn't really the best one for our needs. I simply cannot fit the water station in the coop. A few weeks ago I went out to the coop only to discover that the waterers that I was using were not really meant for winter. The water was frozen solid! So I hoofed it to my friendly neighborhood tractor supply for an answer. Apparently, there are these little devices called "de icers" that you can place in water to keep it from freezing. However, it will not work in my suction based waterer so I had to settle for a deep metal pan.

Now, before the storm hit yesterday I went out to make sure that the feeder and water station were full. This morning I look out and realize that the chickens are officially "snowed in" with a drift of about 3 feet tall in the run. I therefore have to bundle up and tread out there to dig them out and give them access to their water. So after falling down a few times, I finally had a path for them to get out of the coop, get to the water, and for me to get in :-)

So now it is just keep feeding the woodstove to stay nice and toasty, unpack from our Christmas trip and get some laundry done. Oh and wait to see if Best Buy braves the elements and delivers our new TV...my guess not so much!