Alaskan's Journal

[Alaskan]

Must be in the air, because @fuzzi had one sit and hatch, @Mini Horses has one sitting... I just set the langshan and now a leghorn is clucking ???

My fiercest most protective broodies were leghorns. But they were not hatchery leghorns.

 

[farmerjan]

The most protective broody hens I have ever dealt with were the large fowl OE games. My ex had them and the hens would flat out get after you both when sitting and when they had chicks. The bantam OE games are also pretty protective... Have had a few large leghorn hens go broody over the years but not overly protective.
The little langshan puffs up and squawks at me but will let me check under her without pecking... I sure hope her 6 eggs are fertile... Wish I had started saving her eggs sooner, so I had more...

 

[Alaskan]

Improper placement of water.

The hoses are us trying to siphon some of that down.

Kid #2 made some comment about how a moat wound be cool. I should ask him to build me a drawbridge!!

 

[Grandmas Barn]

 

[Alaskan]

Well, yesterday evening I FINALLY got the culvert free of ice. The pond water was just so cold!!! that it took a long time.

Using just the running water from that sump pump thawed all but the last maybe 3 feet. But the icy pond water was too cold to thaw the pond/north end of the culvert.

So... I connected the hose end to the HOUSE faucet, turned on the hot water (we have an on demand water heater, so endless hot water as long as the well keeps up). But... even with hot water, and the hose stuffed up as far as it would go in the culvert (on the south end, so as not to add water to the pond) the last couple of feet of ice would not thaw.

I then put the hose into the north end of the culvert, and WOW is that pond water icy!! And 20 minutes later it thawed all of the way through! Very nice, and DONE!

 

[Alaskan]

That white is the slushy ice in the pond all blown up against the NW edges of the pond.

And, our first Mallard pair looking it over, just today!

 

[Alaskan]

2 more photos, from in town, YES, very close to sea level, eventhough you have to fly over many very tall mountains to get here.


Also... note the dry dead grass in the foreground. Like wowsers, even town has zero green.

 

[drstratton]

That white is the slushy ice in the pond all blown up against the NW edges of the pond.

And, our first Mallard pair looking it over, just today!
View attachment 127981View attachment 127982

You still have ice and I'm going to have a taste of summer, in a few days we'll be in the 90's!

 

[Baymule]

Didn't realize that squirrels could survive in the extreme cold in Alaska... might be a different subspecies...

They wear special down filled fur coats.

 

[Alaskan]

Ooooh! I did find some green grass in my lawn!!

But... . see the white line at the back edge of the pond? Icy slush is still there.