This never gets old. And weather preps.

Remember this little gal? She was the sole hatch who was kind of a mystery. She ended up in the garage aka "the land of misfit toys" and did really well. My old biddy took care of her until she got big enough to move out to the hen house. Now look!

This never gets old - these little eggs. 

You find these "pullet eggs' when hens start to lay. The eggs start out small but then get up to regular size. It's adorable. Looks like our newest hen is now a valuable member of the team! I'm so glad she wasn't a rooster.

The next day I found this bigger egg.

We are going to be busy with storm and weather preps today. When I got up the temperature was about 55* and we've already lost a few degrees. By tomorrow we'll be at least 40* colder. When the cold weather settles in we will have negative windchills.

I can't really complain - this will be the worst of it. Aside from some very cold temperatures in November we really haven't had a horrible winter. But it will catch up with us next week.

We need to wrap the goat house with tarps - not all the way around but enough to take the brunt of the cold wind. We'll leave enough open space for plenty of ventilation. But really today we'll need to work on moving the goats over to the Turkey House for a couple days. It's more sheltered and will be easier to run a heat lamp out there if we necessary.  We'll take the goats to the goat yard during the day provided it's not too cold.

We've pretty much figured out that the Turkey House can no longer house poultry. It's too close to the woods and we had all that trouble with the weasels coming up out of the ravine. So we may do even more fencing and move the goats over there permanently.

As for the rest of our preps, several weeks ago we got a load of straw so we'll be using that as a way to insulate against the cold. The big sliding door to the garage faces directly into the wind so we'll use the straw to keep as much of the cold out as possible. Aside from our small collection of limpy ducks and lame hens we don't have poultry in the garage - but we do want to make sure the barncats are comfortable. I have a feeling they will be locked up for a couple days. There is no reason for them to be exposed to these kind of arctic temperatures. So they can just hang out inside the garage and hunt for rats in there.

There are plenty of hens in the chicken house to keep the place warm. Their little bodies really generate the heat. On the coldest days they will have to stay inside. But if there is not any ice or wind it's almost better for them to get out into the sunshine. They will naturally seek a sunny protected spot. We'll also do chores early so everyone can get in and get settled before the worst of the cold happens.

Later we will head out and get a truckload of wood. I have a feeling we'll be running the woodstove nonstop for the next week or so.

Happy Sunday everyone! Are you doing storm preps? Everyone ready for the cold?