Snow, Sam the Bantie, Valentine Dinner and, Oh Yeah--More Snow!

Like most of the Midwest, we have been hit hard by snow. I'm guessing we have around a foot. It's hard to tell because of all the drifting in places. Check out he slide show I posted. There are some drifts that are up to my waist! It sure made doing chores rough. I was worn out by the time I got them done and took pics to share. However, the dogs seem unaffected. Tuffy and Toby have been having a blast! I left Toby off leash and let he and Tuff bound. Sadie and Justin were kind of wussy about it and wanted in right away. I took Roscoe down the road, so he didn't have any trouble.

When I fed my chickens this morning, I noticed that one of my banties, Sam the rooster, had this little ball-like think stuck to his foot. He is a Silkie Bantam and has feathers on his feet. The Silkies also have five toes instead of four like regular chickens. Of course, he being the rooster that he is, did not want me to inspect any closer. However, I won. He threw his tantrum and then resigned to let me inspect. There was a ball of poo and sawdust stuck to two of his little toes. It was very hard and stuck on that I had to get a pair of needle-nosed pliers to crumble the ball apart little by little! He was good the whole time. While I was at it, I trimmed the feathers around his feet to help keep them from getting stuff caked to them. Invariably this kind of thing happens. Chickens, or birds for that matter, don't care where they poop or if they step in it--no matter how clean their pen is. After I was done, I held him for a while to baby him and back in his pen he went.

Of course, last night was the Valentine dinner at church. A few brave souls ventured out in the snow for a nice time of food and fellowship. We had a guest speaker, Elsa Kok-Colopy. She spoke on families and relationships. One thing she said was "(a) relationship is rich and good and worth the effort." This is so true. For some reason, that really hit me. I think too often we take some of our relationships for granted. They become too comfortable. Sometimes we don't want to put forth the effort to cultivate our relationships into something great. She also talked about words--the words we say to each other and how they can be taken in good or bad and the lasting effect they can have. She shared a story about her father. It was her anniversary and her father had called to give his love, best wishes and how proud he was of her and her marriage. The next day, her father was sailing and never returned home. The coast guard found him at sea where he had drown. Sad. But, she now has her father's voice mail message saved in her ITunes library, cherishing the words her father left. It was a very touching and eye-opening talk she gave. If you would like more information on Elsa and what she's about visit her link under, People to Know.

Valentine Dinner Pictures (Check out the arrangements...they were a hit!)