You know it's cold outside when.......

...you go out to do chores and your nostrils freeze together.

...your face gets so cold it hurts.

...your gloves get wet watering the animals and they stick to the metal handles of the wheelbarrow.

...the slop you feed to your old "grandma" horse (and she doesn't finish right away) freezes solid so now she can't eat it.

...you have to use an axe on the water trough so the horses can drink (because it's too expensive to keep the trough heater plugged in!)

...if you don't pick the eggs up soon enough they freeze, expand and crack.

...even though you have two layers of pants on, your upper legs don't feel like they belong to you anymore.

...the horses of bugger-sicles.

 ...and lastly, the "outside watch-dog" has become an inside dog. *wink*

I have this little chicken...

she's not very pretty

In fact, some would say she's down right ugly.

But you can't blame her. She's the only bantam chicken I have left (from a little flock a few years back) and everyone else picks on her. So she's missing some feathers on her head and she's kind of skinny.
In the summer she runs off by herself to scratch and roam in the yard. But in the winter, she stays inside the chicken house since all of them are penned up right now.

This picture is kind of dark, but over on the left wall are nest boxes. She usually waits for me there while I go outside and feed everyone else. Then I put a handful of food in the nest box with her so she can eat unmolested. If she happens to be on the ladder, she'll wait and let me pick her up and move her to the nest box to eat. We've become friends this chicken and I.

Today I decided to give her her own "palace". She really needs to put on more weight. This way she can eat all she wants and be afraid of getting picked on.

I mean can you blame her for being intimidated?! Look at these big 'ol chickens she has to be with. The black one in the back left of the picture  is half bantam. You can see she's a bit smaller than the rest, but still is quite a bit bigger than the little "Mama."

Oh, and here's "Hopsing", my rooster. (Can you tell I grew up watching Bonanza?) 

All settled in. Hopefully she'll do better here.