In Which I Become That Crazy Chicken Lady

The last I left you, we were enjoying a nice snow day at Prairie Cairn Cottage and catching up on some crafting.  It continued to snow Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  I dug the chickens out 5 times on Tuesday and woke to even more snow on Wednesday!  I was faced with a drift that was 5' tall and 3' wide just to get the pen open before I could check on the dear chickens.  After digging out enough to get the pen open I discovered the snow was blocking the main door to their coop.  I had tried to put a cover over the top of the coop to keep the snow from blowing in on them the night before but the winds got through anyway.  The wind was unbearable, stinging my face and eyes.  The wind chill was -22 and I was fighting a loosing battle with the snow.

Looking out the morning room door.  That is a push lawn mower up against the house.  Yes the snow drifted this high!

The poor dears are buried!  This is the backside of their coop.

You can just make out the edge of the main coop door towards the bottom  left.

The morning room.

 

What  was I to do?  I didn't have the strength to keep digging them out and if I left them they ran the risk of suffocating if the snow covered all the vents in their coop.  I was mounting a major expedition just to get out to the coop walking through the drifts with the blowing snow blinding me.  So for my sake alone I made the decision to abandon the coop to the elements but I was not about to abandon my girly girls.  I quickly went in and set up a temporary coop in the basement then mounted a rescue mission.  I had to take the roof off of their coop and scoop them two at a time  into a waiting dog crate.  They fretted and worried until all 4 were reunited in the basement then they set about investigating their new abode.   

A tarp on the floor in the corner with two dog exercise panels as walls, pine shavings sprinkled on top.  A large cardboard box for the coop and two smaller chicken sized boxes as nest boxes.  Their usual water and feeder and poof, an indoor coop.

 

And that, my dear reader, is how I came to live with chickens IN Prairie Cairn Cottage and my friends labeling me That Crazy Chicken Lady.

 

The snow finally stopped with this storm but the drifts were so high the hens couldn't move back into their coop.  And this week?  Well, we've been hit with another 17" of snow!  This week it's been snowing since Monday.  The weather prophets keep promising us it will stop sometime tonight.  I'll share with you the big dig out that is to come.  I'm hoping we can relocate the girls back outside by late this weekend.

 

It has been quite an adventure here at Prairie Cairn Cottage.  I'm glad you donned your snowshoes to come for a chat.

 

Audrey