January Thaw

It’s been a truly strange stretch of weather around here this month. After a nearly two-week cold snap with temperatures bottoming out below zero after Christmas and stubbornly refusing to get above 20 for a good 10 days, we had a rebound that ended in a couple bizarrely humid, 60-degree days. Add several inches of rain to that, and this is all that’s left of the blizzard:


Alas, not everyone made it through the cold spell. Kirk found Louisa Catherine dead in the chicken run the other day. As with our other chicken deaths, there are no clues about what happened. Chickens die suddenly and — as far as we know — quietly. 

If you’re not sure which chicken was Louisa Catherine, that’s because she never did anything noteworthy enough to mention. She was a gold-laced Wyandotte and cute as a chick:  


She wasn’t a great layer, and I think she was the only chicken who could tolerate Lizzy’s craziness. She mostly kept to herself and was pretty far under our radar. 


Louisa Catherine is the one in the foreground. She’s not quite mature yet in this photo, so her feathers aren’t as yet as pretty as they would be as an adult. She was our refined lady, which is why she was named after John Quincy Adams’ foreign-born, elegant wife. 

We are now down to four chickens, so it’s as if we’ve always just had our original flock. Rachel (the Rhode Island Red) is the only survivor of the second set of three that we raised, but she gets along very well with the older hens and is a worthy successor to Dolley. 

In happier news, the thaw means that it’s easier for barn cats to get around without freezing their little paws off:


I will admit that I had doubts that Smithy could possibly survive the frigid temperatures of the past several weeks, but he is clearly back to nibble at the food I keep putting out for him. We keep the heat on in the workshop so he could very well hole up in there whenever he likes, but we’ve seen no signs out there. That cat simply does not want to be found, but he’s obviously still doing just fine. 

Based on the number of rabbit tracks in the snow, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s had a few great meals during the thaw, too.

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