Our Belated Earth Day Barbecue

We call them the Washoe Zephyrs. It makes them sound like sweet little warm breezes, doesn't it? Which they sometimes are. Of course you've guessed that they are actually mostly gusty, cold, take-no-prisoners winds. The kind that blows fences over and uproots trees and chills you to the bone. They are just part of life in the Truckee Meadows.

So when the forecasters warn that upcoming winds could cause damage that got our attention. Rightfully so.

Living without power for eighteen hours was interesting and brought an Earth Day aesthetic to our Tuesday. Turns out the only things that worked in our house were two battery-operated clocks, the cell phones and the water heater. I was more than happy to spend the day at school with the power ON and felt a little sorry for my sweetie to got to spin his wheels all day wondering when we might have power again. All he could really do was call the power company repeatedly, read or work on a cross-word puzzle. The bad news/good news aspect was that we both had food poisoning from our anniversary dinner the night before so we didn't really miss either the microwave or stove.

The chicks were grateful for our wood-burning fireplace. Just picture their foil-lined cage sitting cozily in front of a roaring fire (yep, looked like some strange chicken barbecue) so the poor girls could bask for a little while before I wrapped them up in their warm down-blanket cocoon.  A cocoon complete with hot water bottles, I might add. Fairly spa-like.  I would have worried more about my fluffed-out dears if they hadn't been almost fully feathered.

The Movie Stars are officially one month old today, have completely outgrown their brooder and have moved to interim quarters in an old dog house while we work on their chicken coop. Perfect timing to score a linoleum remnant ($1) from the ReStore.  The value of an easily-cleanable surface cannot be underestimated if you have chickens.  Just sayin'...

It's just me, the pups and the chicks for the weekend while our menfolk are out-of-town.  Either I'll get lots done or else I'll remain as scatter-brained as this post!