Cold!!!

The temperatures over the past few days have gotten down into the single digits around here.  I know that many folks live in much colder climates than ours and probably scoff at anything above 0 degrees, but for us, that's really bloody cold!  I'm accustomed to temperatures in the 20s and 30s, but once it starts dipping below the teens I get nervous.  That kind of cold simply hurts. 

I feel bad for the girls when it gets this cold, but they seem to be handling it very well.  My fingers ache as I open the cold metal latch of the chicken coop in the morning.  I need to thaw and refill their water bucket with hot water by midday.  Everyone gets some extra food, a heavy layer of straw bedding in the coop, and a check for signs of frostbite on the more prominent combs and wattles amongst them.  Some of them have taken to hanging out inside the coop sometimes during the day, but most of them strut around the yard as though nothing is different.  However, Honeybunch noticed that Popcorn, one of our Golden Sexlinks, was standing on one leg, switching back and forth between left and right... it seemed like she was trying to keep her feet off of the cold frozen ground! 

They're calling for another storm to hit our area on Wednesday.  It's difficult to tell how much snow we'll get... according to the weather service, it could be a nasty slush storm, or it could head out to sea and leave us with only a dusting.  I'm hoping for the latter.  Driving to and from work in the bad weather is a harrowing experience, and I have to be there Wednesday night.  A little while back we got a terrible ice storm, and it took me half an hour to chip through the half inch of ice that coated my car from head to tail.  I slid all over the road the next night on my way in as the melt froze again into patches of black ice.  Not fun!

Tonight we are supposed to hear back from the sellers in regards to their acceptance of our offer... I'm really hoping it goes through.  We secured financing, made a fair and reasonable offer, moved up the settlement date as they requested... now if we can just get the place under agreement...