A Little Snow

It's hard to tell, but it was snowing hard when I took these pictures....it still is five hours later.  The dogs were thrilled, and Willy got away from me in his exuberance.  He raced around with his leash trailing behind him, but I caught him without incident.  I took them out behind the house, rather than down the road as I usually do, so he was relatively safe.  The snow is deep enough and fluffy enough so that he disappeared in the drifts, to lunge out a minute later.

The chickens have been inside because of the cold, but I opened their door this morning for a breath of fresh air.  I tried to lure them out with breadcrumbs, but they just couldn't muster the courage to jump into that snow.  They even refused to come down the ramp I made for them with a nearby ladder.  I scrounged the crumbs out of the snow and hand fed them, which I know they appreciated.  Most likely they appreciated the fresh air, too.  Their coop is pretty dirty and smells bad....though once I had that thought, I wondered if chickens have a sense of smell.  Probably.....their eyes and ears(wherever they are) are very acute.  If so, I feel sorry for them, but not enough to shovel and scrape the place out in the middle of a snowstorm.