A December day at a glance: We have had snow, then rain, deep cold and then thawing, leaving the ground locked in the iron embrace of real slick ice. Walking is miserable for us clumsy humans and the chickens don’t find it too hot either. They were sauntering down the driveway by the house today, peering about in search of bits of grass that had melted up out of the snow and picking up little stones for their crops. Every time one of the big, heavy roosters hit an icy spot his feet went right out from under him and he slid downhill on his feathery fanny like a kid on a sled. No damage was done, except to chicken dignity, but whenever one fell, much flapping of wings and hysterical clucking ensued. They were sure that the ice was attacking them from below. Good thing they couldn’t see us inside the house laughing our gizzards out at their activities. At least the fat fellows have started sleeping in the heifer barn so we don’t hear them crowing all the hours of the night like medieval night watchmen on patrol.

The guys have started serious construction on an addition to the milk house. They poured concrete for the foundation this fall and built a 55 gallon drum into the floor for a muffler for the vacuum pump when we move it out there. However, they were too busy to get to the wooden part until now. It will be nice to get the pump out of the main barn so we don’t have to hear it. We have a temporary pump and motor in place on the floor behind the north side cows and it is so loud it actually hurts to work around it. It will also be wonderful to have storage for tools and such out of the milk house proper. Something about clutter plumb annoys the milk inspector. Our current personal farm torturer is a super fussy fellow and not fond of anything out of place, so tools on the floor and windowsills just drive him crazy. He reacts by writing us up. I won’t miss that.

Becky and I went up to the city to get an oven element for the stove. Of course the old one expired right in the middle of a Christmas cookie baking frenzy last week. It was genuinely painful for the cookie junkies among us to be without a means to make more. Add to that the fact that pot pies were impossible and casseroles hopeless, and you could find some sadly deprived folks around here. However, the nice new one is all installed and all things edible are once again possible. Hooray!