Winterizing

 We had a lovely Thanksgiving day here at This Old House with the kids and my parents.  As most of you know… you cook and clean for two days and the entire meal is consumed in about 15 minutes. Permit me to brag for a minute?  My pies were divine and not hard to put together, so I’m going to share the recipes with you….

 
I’ve seen some awfully pretty pies… mine are not so fussy though. 
Their taste makes up for the lack of eye candy 🙂 
Kate the Country Girls Favorite Apple Pie recipe HERE
The only things I did different were.. I used four different kinds of apples..
Honeycrisp, Empire, Macoun and Pink Lady
And I used Pillsbury pie crust you simply roll out. 
It might be cheating, but boy it sure came out good regardless.
The most decadent chocolate pie EVER  recipe HERE

  One serious game of Uno

  My son announced during dinner last night that in just 16 hours or so our house was going to look
like Christmas threw up in it.   TSK!

 And.. I promised a Bunny Tale…

There once were two young bunnies….Their names were Cloud and Harley.  It was hoped that they were both the same sex so we wouldn’t have MORE bunnies shortly after.  I noticed a particular behavior not too long ago that meant they were either gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that).. or heterosexual.. but it was important to know WHICH.   So off to the vet we went.  Turns out Cloud is a girl and Harley is a boy.

 It’s much easier to neuter a boy than spay a girl bunny.
So Harley went under the knife, much to his chagrin. 
 
Meanwhile.. back at the Hutch… 
We’ve had some very cold nights already and I couldn’t
stand the thought of those bunnies out there with the wind coming down off 
the hill and into their hutch.  They use the side rooms as a bathroom only,
go figure.  So I clean that out daily and stuffed one of the outside compartments
with lots of hay, which they tunnel in to keep warm.  I also cover
the hutch at night with two old waterproof horse blankets.  
This seems to be keeping them comfortable. 

 Nextdoor in the coop, the girls have a water heater  and a red flood lamp that keeps the temps above freezing in their coop at night.  This seems to work better than an actual heat lamp, with not as intense a heat source, but enough to keep them comfortable.  Not everyone feels this is necessary, but it sure makes me feel better and the critters seem happy and look healthy.

 
 If you’ve got outdoor animals, what precautions do you take to keep them
safe and warm in winter months?  I have yet to figure out how to keep
the rabbits water from freezing during the day.