You must have made a nice pillow Tom!

I wish I had a picture of the avid gardener with a cat sleeping on his back...... what would you have titled the photo?

OK, this beats all, but it has nothing to do with irises. Like a dumb jerk, I let the chickens out this morning like I usually do, forgetting that we are going to have snow. Well, it turns out we have more then snow, we have a full blown blizzard out there with 2 foot drifts. So tonight when I went out to feed them, there were several not in the coup, so I went looking for them. There they were cuddled under the horse trailer where I couldn't reach them, so I go get a broom and try to chase them out of there so I can move them into the coup. Well, if anyone would have taken a video of that with me and a broom chasing the chickens one by one to the coup it would have gone viral I'm sure. I'm sure my language would have been bleeped! One sure gave me a chase, running all over the place except toward the hen house. Worst part was I banged my leg on a trailer hitch, and fell into a drift, and I have a nice big hematoma and it's really sore. It wasn't funny at the time, but I'm thinking after the leg feels better I'll get a good laugh out of it.

Ouch! Giggle!

Ouch! It is funny except I hope you recover quickly. Those trailer hitches can be deadly! I have a scar still from one I tripped over 35 years ago.

So your chickens are individualists? No mass run to the food??? Must be really really cold up there if they won't move for dinner.

Were the chickens laughing ? ?, Maybe they were having too much fun with you to go "home" !!

Omigosh -- that must have been a sight. I would have been breaking up at the phloxing language!!! But I sure am sorry about the encounter with the trailer hitch -- those things are deadly!! -- and the header into the snow drift.

At my last house, nearly the entire front yard was covered by an ancient Live Oak tree. I'd planted several hundred narcissus under the tree, and had a large collection of dwarf narcissus in pots around the edge of the path. The phloxing squirrels had dug up several one day and I was spitting mad shaking my fist at their nest up in the tree. As I was doing that, 3 babies fell right at my feet. Well, as mad as I was... they were *babies*.. I put them on a towel in a box and called Wildlife Rescue.. They told me they were full up with baby squirrels and I could either take them to a vet and have them euthanized, or raise them myself. As much of a pain in the ass as they were, I couldn't kill them... So, I had a room mate at the time, and she agreed to help me raise them. I had a black one and a grey one, and they were actually kind of fun.. When they got old enough, I took them to a squirrel half-way house, which was a large aviary outside in (thankfully) another neighborhood in town. All I could think of was that I was glad I didn't live next to a crazy squirrel lady who was releasing them into the wild from her back yard.. Other than that one interlude with the squirrel babies, I still hate them

Some more new names for irises...

"Hematoma Cowboy" or "Chicken Chaser" Maybe even "What the Phlox".

I hope your leg is ok!

Sherry, that was nice of you to nurse the baby squirrels. However, my hate for squirrels runs deep. I would have fed those babies to my cat.

Loved your squirrel story, Sherry. Loved it!

Tom! I hope your leg is getting better. Herding chickens! In the snow! Trying not to laugh.....
(damned trailer hitch).

Ouch Tom! Sorry to hear about your encounter with the trailer hitch. I hope it heals quickly! Thanks for the laugh though...I can just imagine you running around with a broom in the snow chasing chickens!

I would guess Hematoma Cowboy would have to be a red an purple blend

Jan, thanks for the ideas ..... I like " Herding Chickens by Tom"or "For Chickens' Sake" or maybe "Chickens wearing Tu -Tu's". (Sorry Tom and I hope your leg is better)
Tom, when I was a child I fell off a horse trailer and had 3 stitches put in my chin.

Friends of ours raised three pigs, their names were Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

Glad I could bring some laughs to you all anyway. Last night it really hurt to walk and climb stairs, but this morning it's much better. I should be OK doing chores this morning. The snow and wind has stopped for now.

Don't let the chickens out, Tom! It does not get very cold for many winters here but occasionally we have a brutally cold one. Once when I was a girl we had one of those really bad winters where the ground froze. As night grew near I went to shut up the chicken house. The chickens were not there. I hunted and found them silhouetted against the darkening sky roosting in a bare tree. The were Rhode Island Reds so I do not know how they managed to get so high up in the tree. I knew critters would climb the tree and get them so there I was, just a small thing, with a long cane fishing pole poking the chickens out of the tree. As they would sail down to the dark ground I would pick them up and put them on the roost poles in the chicken house. I got all but the two that were too high for me and the cane pole...... those two did not survive the critters that night. It was a puzzle to me why of all nights ALL of the chickens would decide to roost in a tree????

I don't let them out when there is snow on the ground, as they become snow blind easily, and they are easy prey for hawks. Plus there's nothing for them to forage on. They always do go back into their house though ususally.

I'm glad that your leg is feeling better, Tom. We aew on the edge of the snowstorm tomorrow. Grand kids are arriving from college tonight. No chickens to deal with.