snow man 1You know, “they” have labeled almost everything you can think of. I’m always finding out about labels that I didn’t know existed. I think I’ve heard of this one though, often it affects people who live in extremely northern or southern areas which experience lengthened periods of darkness, sometimes places like Oregon that receive a ton of rain – I’m talking about Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.). I don’t think we want to go so far as to say that we have S.A.D.; but we’ve sure been fighting off a case of the blah’s lately.  I think losing Taco-George has something to do with it. The constant wind drives us batty and keeps us up at night, mostly worrying about the animals and whether the RCW will tip over again or not. The cold has just crept into our bones and it’s been hard to warm up once we’re back in the house… then all of a sudden we’ll be so incredibly hot, only to get cold again when we go out to do chores or put everyone away. The last few days have been dark and dreary, cold and windy, so I think we’re just feeling a little sun and warmth deprived.

We will survive! As will all the animals. And we will be ecstatic once our warm Arizona weather returns. Today, we’ve had sun, wind, rain, hail, and snow flurries. Our high, at one point, was 50° and then just a short while later we were at 40°, then up to 43°. Such fluctuations are rare, but we’re hanging in there. We’re supposed to be down to 22° tonight so we covered the garden, right after which we were pelted with itty bitty hail stones. When the wind drives them, they sting! Now, we just have patchy dark clouds rolling over us.

hygge-to-beat-winter-bluesDid you know that the Danes have a whole philosophy built around staving off the winter blues? It’s called Hygge (Hew-guh). It has to do with cozy-fying your home and life. For some reason, I’ve heard a great deal about that particular philosophy the last few months. I just keep running across it at odd little moments; an article here, a review there, it even popped up in a classical music show I listen to called “Performance Today.” I think you can still hear the episode for a short time longer: here. Basically, with Hygge, and many other “beat the winter blues” books, posts, and articles, the advice is quite simple. Surround yourself with comfortable places and people, after a long day – take time to really unwind before you turn on that computer or tv, eat well, accomplish a goal, socialize, get some sun and stay active (sometimes more difficult to do). We try to do most of things… even force ourselves to socialize (she writes with a wry smile). So at least we know we’re doing what we can.

winter quoteNow, I know this post has absolutely nothing to do with the farm or animals or anything else that we generally discuss. It’s just been so cold, rainy and yucky we’ve not been able to really do much of anything. Today we took one of the young roosters, Flat-Top II, and put him in the green house with our young banty who kept wanting to sit eggs. Flat-Top is constantly picked on and stays outside of the coop until the last possible moment and, in weather like this, being out in the cold, wet and wind can create health issues. So, now he has a friend and a place to stay warm during the day and won’t be picked on at night. Lucky guy. We’re all waiting for the Spring, but I know that February can be an exceptionally cold month. We, animals and humans, will breathe a sigh of relief when we’ve truly begun to head up into the higher numbers on the thermometer.
Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!

Today’s Weather: Hmmm. Let me give you only the parts missing from up above. Currently, at 5:21 p.m., it is 40° (feels like 32° according to our weather station) with 57% humidity and 50% chance of precipitation – supposedly that’ll be in the form of snow later tonight. Sunrise was at 7:07 and sunset will be 5:58. Our wind just peaked at 33 mph this hour. Hoping that goes away very soon.

Egg Report: Tuesday – 28 chicken, 0 duck.  Wednesday – 33 chicken, 3 duck.