February

One Day in February

6:45 Wake up, put wood on fire, feed child, fill water container for rabbits, water container for chickens, step in melted puddle by front door with socks on, curse, but put shoes on over wet socks, no time to change them.

7:30  Race out door to get child to waiting bus at end of driveway. “Sorry driver”, late again. Back up stairs, get full water container for rabbits, and walk to first rabbit tractor through deep snow. The crust of the snow on top is not strong enough to hold my weight, so my boots plunge down, down, down, until fwamp, the snow is  up to my knees. Fwamp fwamp fwamp. Lift lid, take out frozen water dish, slosh warm water inside, then turn over repeat until ice puck falls out. Place dish on ground, taking off woolen mitten so it doesn’t get wet, pour water in, lift and place in hutch, add food pellets to food dish which hopefully you remembered to get before crossing the yard, pet bunny “good bunny” you say. Open their door so they can jump around outside. On to the next hutch and the next. Four in total. Don’t forget to add hay.  If really cold, back to the house to boil kettle and fill hot water bottles to place in with rabbits to keep them from freezing.

8:00 Clean out dirtiest of the pens. Get the bucket as the wheel barrow isn’t good in snow. A shovel, shovel out the wet or soiled bedding which is wood chips and hay. Thankfully very little smell involved with rabbits and their poops, being perfectly rounded, frozen and odourless, they don’t even seem like poop at all.  They are almost cute, if poop can be cute.

Once that is done, haul the takings to a corner of the garden, fwamp fwamp fwamp, and dump. When all done, cover the four hutches with tarp or plastic and weight down with rocks to prepare for the coming wind, snow, rain storm which comes about every other day this year.

Call the dog who is busily eating rabbit poops from the ground and fwamp fwamp fwamp across the yard to the garage/barn. Greet chickens, open their door to the outside, get some feed and take it outside around 

back and call them out, “here chick chick chick chick” whilst sprinkling on the ground. Observe chicken politics, chuckle.

Get frozen waterer out of chicken coop, try and get lid off which unscrews, take frozen container back to house, don’t slip on  the ice. Up the stairs, exchange for the full waterer, and back to the coop. Try and line up threads of screw-on lid even though it is frozen plastic, hands getting colder and wetter. Crap, my wedding ring got wet and froze to my hand, now has ripped a bit of skin right off. That smarts. Ok, chicken water ready, set in place, and check for morning eggs, usually one or two, there will be more by end of the day.  If really cold, -17 or colder, turn on heat lamp.

Back outside, last chore for now. Grab sled, hike up hill fwamp fwamp, fwamp, slip, and contort back in strange and inelegant twist and slip. Scrape snow from logs under shelter, load sled armload after armload, grab rope and walk carefully down hill and if sled goes too fast, must remember to let go of rope so sled doesn’t pull me down with momentum. At bottom, get in front of sled and pull with all of my might to somewhere near front door step. Then armload after armload up and down the stairs until after about 6 trips, the only thing left to do is take sled back, lean it against shed, grab some kindling, split a log  and call the dog head back in.

Crap realize must build another rabbit box for second rabbit doe to lay her kits in out of scrap lumber. Put dog in, head back to garage. I sure move slowly in this cold, Cut, nail, glue, and sand the edges. Got half done.

9:00 Come back inside, toasty warm, put wood on fire, thaw hands, and put snow pilly mittens by the fire to dry. Check e-mail, write blog, warm up, shower, get dressed because until now I am wearing some crazy outfit I threw on this morning to be warm. Clear dishes, make pathways through clutter on kitchen table, wipe everything down.

10:00 Brunch, always eggs, of course, coffee sometimes, visit with my mother, relax.

11:00 Figure out what is for supper; haul something out of deep freeze which is in garage. Curse myself for not getting it while I was outside or even last night. Start beans or sauce or chicken cooking or bread going in the bread machine.  Company coming tonight for supper, wine and board games.

Gather things to fix tile in bathroom, but end up fixing doorknob and closet door instead, based on annoyance factor.

12:00  In coldest weather, bundle up and head back outside with warm water and repeat this morning’s water chores, thawing, emptying and refilling for the bunnies and chickens. Fwamp fwamp fwamp.

Shovel walkways, driveway, and steps. We have a very big driveway. If it didn’t snow, then I might clean a rabbit hutch, take some table scraps to the chickens, If there is no snow to shovel then do an hour of chopping wood. I like to get at least an hour of hard exercise in everyday plus regular chores and running around.

1:30 Warm up, snack, read

2:00 Son comes home from school. Get him a snack, sit and talk about our respective day. “What did you do today?” Sign endless permission slips, read school notices.

Start supper, tidy, laundry, hang it by the fire to dry on a drying rack, rinse sprouts I have growing in the kitchen, water seedlings which haven’t come up yet.

5:00 Do rabbit and chicken chores all over again about half of the time as husband does them, when he get's home on time from his long drive from work. They need extra hay to eat and to sleep in to help warm them, table scraps and pellets. Son has his set of chicken and rabbit chores which involves feeding all of the animals and collecting the chicken eggs. We all bring an armload of firewood but because of the extreme cold an “armload” has turned into another sled load to keep us warm over night. Shovel a bit more snow, spread ashes in slippery areas, clear pathway through garage and sigh at the mess.

6:00 Warm up and play board games, chat, listen to music, plan the next day. Sweep entryway which is dirty with mud, dung, straw, wood chips and bark from firewood.

8:00 Plan the next day, bag the cleaned, refrigerated rabbit meat (17lbs!!)  and put into deep freezer,  tidy, boil water to fill hot water bottles for rabbit hutches, make school lunch, and relax.