Welcome 2017!

Happy 2017!

This is what New Year's Eve looks like in Potter County.  We had a great big bonfire and sledding down the neighbor's hill.  We employed snowmobiles to pull the children (and adults) back up the hill.  

Fun and frosty times! 

Warming up between sled rides!

This is what the snack  and drink table looks like when a great big snow squall comes roaring through and coats everyone and everything!

On New Year's Eve day, we moved our gilt, Marmalade, into the farrowing stall.  We're on piglet watch.  you can see her belly is getting round and her teats are really starting to show!

On New Year's Day, I went out to the chicken coop to find a dead chicken with it's head eaten off.  This is almost always the work of a opossum.  

So, I set out the live trap with the chicken carcass and then finished my chicken and turkey tending chores.  Then, on a whim, I thought I better check the nesting boxes.  I walked into the chicken coop from the very bright, snowy, outside into the dim interior and began lifting the feed sack curtains from the nesting boxes.  

On the second one, I saw something strange, but because of the light change, my eyes hadn't adjusted, and I couldn't figure out what it was.  Then slowly as my eyes focused, I realized I was looking at an open mouth and a very sharp set of teeth!  

I did what most people did.  I shouted!  Then I ran back to the house yelling, "there's a fox in the chicken coop!"  My hubby, Fitz, came down to the coop with me and lifted the curtain.  It wasn't a fox at all, but what I had first expected when I saw the headless chicken... an opossum!  

It was quickly dispatched and I found it had killed not just one, but two of my chickens.  I feared there might be another 'possum lurking about and made sure the live trap was set....

...the next morning, I the trap door was shut....

...and this is why we use a live trap around the farm.  Our kitty, "Thug" had decided to investigate the dead chicken!  He wasn't hurt in any way, just very happy to see me and meowing to get out.  

Happy New Year!