An Aching Farmer's Best Friend

Winter chores are pretty hard on an middle-aged, decrepit farmer's back, shoulders, elbows and wrists.  Twice a day I carry four 5-gallon buckets of water and a bale of hay. Every day I shovel manure.  Every week I haul  about  ten 50-pound  sacks of feed. Every two weeks I clean out the chicken coop.  Every month I unload a truckload  of hay and straw and stack it in the barn. Plus there is plenty of snow shoveling. Not to mention, too much time sitting at the darn computer - sitting is the worst.  My Back Buddy has been getting a good workout lately.

This  "Back Buddy,"a simple, plastic, knobby "S," has served me well for many years.  My friend John, a yoga instructor and trigger point massage therapist, advised me to get one years ago when my back was  in excruciating pain and I couldn't stand up straight. He showed me how to use it to smooth out knotty clenched up muscles, and ever since I have used it to relieve pain in my lower back, shoulders, neck, and even the bottoms of my feet.

After my chores, the trapezius muscle is a recurring pain. The curve of the  Back Buddy hooks over your shoulder and when you find the source of the clenched up muscle, you apply pressure and smooth it out. The knobs on the inside curves enable you to work on your neck, calves, feet. etc.

It's not the total solution.  A  jacuzzi or a weekly massage would be nice -- but this tool is  effective,  inexpensive and immediate.

N'Ice Night on the Town

Rog and I do not go out very often, but  this week is Winterfest in Rochester, so the city is full of ice sculptures and special events.  On the Peace Plaza in the center of town, drinking establishments  and restaurants have carved elaborate bars out of ice and  are serving up fancy drinks in glasses made of ice. Tonight we decided to celebrate Valentines Day a couple days early and have a night on the town.

Some bartenders were dressed for the weather in oversized earmuffs.

I really wanted to try  one of the  martinis served in a crystalline ice glass. They were kind of pricey, but hey, you get to keep the glass!  Rog ordered a Cranberry  Sparkler and I ordered a Blue Goose.

You definitely needed to wear warm gloves  to drink these drinks.

I have no idea what is in a Blue Goose, but it tasted great.

We sipped our drinks shoulder to shoulder with throngs of people, as close to the heaters as we could get, and listened to the band playing from the skyway above the Peace Plaza.
Then we went to dinner at Chester's, where we ran into our friend Bob. After that, the three of us went to listen to a friend playing music at Papa Georges Taverna.  Such social animals are we! We still managed to get home by 9 p.m.  We must be getting old.

We stashed our ice martini glasses in the  car while we went to dinner so they wouldn't melt. They made it safely home to our freezer until our next special event.   

Wedge of Morning

The sunrise pries its way through the crack of dawn.
It makes me so happy when days get longer and sunrise corresponds to chore time. It's already 22 degrees and promises to be a beautiful, balmy weekend! 

5 o'clock Frost and Shadows

The past few days have been very cold and sunny,  enhancing the elaborate frost-etched designs on the windows. 

At  5 p.m. the setting sun glows golden through the frost.

silhouetting the little metal bird on the window frame

and casting its shadow on the sun-bronzed wall across the room.

 

Wordless Wednesday: February Flora

Bucket Brigade

It took a while for  the hens to decide they like  the 5-gallon bucket nesting boxes I made for them, but now  they prefer them to the wooden  cubbies. I prefer them too - they are so much easier to clean out.

I was  worried that some of  the chickens would be too big to maneuver inside the buckets, but even the largest hens seem to have no problems getting in and turning around.

There are  six nesting buckets, but for some reason the hens seem to choose  just a couple buckets to lay their eggs in, but not the same buckets each day.  Most mornings I find 6 or 7 eggs in each of three nesting buckets and three are empty. This despite the fact that often there are hens waiting to use a bucket that is already in use,  loudly scolding the hen inside laying and telling her to hurry up, while there is an identical bucket free right beside it.    Maybe they like the nest to be warmed up for them.

Knock knock. Who's there?

I've been working in my office this morning (it used to be a porch) and keep hearing an occasional knock on the door, which at first I thought must be snow falling off the roof. When curiosity got the better of me and I finally peered out, I discovered this fellow, nestled up against the door on the deck, tucked out of the wind, cleaning up the birdfeeder fallout.

Several hours later: Now I am a bit worried about this rabbit.  Before tackling chores I went out with my camera, and the rabbit was still on the back steps.  I was able to get pretty close, and he didn't flinch, despite the fact that when I turned around, Cocoa was standing right behind me. She was oblivious to the rabbit, though, and I walked away calmly and she followed.
He's still there!