Winter Chickens, Pagan Christmas Origins, Rescued Beagles

                         

I let the girls out a bit today. It's been really cold, 20-ish, so I let them stretch their legs out in the backyard since it was sunny. They've been pretty much in the fenced veggie garden area outside the "sunroom"after we get home.

Sweetheart Ellie, who I bonded with during her recent wormy illness. I love the photos of her on my chair looking out the picture window! I found 2 very petite eggs, from Buffy and Ellie today, in the same nesting box! Finally! Dave kept calling them "your defective chickens". Now all 3 are laying, with shorter days, a bit off cycle. We got the 2 close to summer, so I figured they might not lay much til after winter.

                                         

 Pagan Christmas Origins-                                                                                          

Anthropology has always fascinated me, and here's a good book that will spin your head around, in a good way- Pagan Christmas: The Plants, Spirits, and Rituals at the Origins of Yuletide                   Available at- Amazon.com  Really fascinating info on the very ancient, pre-Christian origins of most of the Christmas traditions. Who knew??? 

Get Out the Hankies, What a Miraculous Ending!

These beagles, who spent their lives in metal boxes in a medical research lab, see sunlight and feel grass under their paws for the first time-

More information of these wonderful dogs and their rescue workers here- blogs.discovery.com

Tiny Houses and Free Techy Fun!

                                  

Tiny House Film- While it's not for everyone, I find the tiny house movement really interesting. Amidst the materialism and McMansions, it's great to see people willing to push the boundaries of what makes a "home". Tiny, The Story of a Small House is a short documentary about Christopher Smith’s process of building a tiny house from scratch with no building experience in the mountains of Colorado. The film also follows the lives of other families around the country who have downsized their lives to less than 400 square feet. This is from Tinyhouseblog.com

What are your necessities for a home? How much do you need? I think I could do 500 feet maybe. I also love home made out of alternative, recycled materials, like these-

grain silo

Shipping container or "ISBU’s" inter-modal steel building units 

Techy Free Fun-                                                   

Want to watch the sunny tropics at home while you look at the snow flying in your yard? Or see what's going on all over the world? Try Earthcam.com

Animal Helpers

                

This article was so touching I had to post it-

Lean: Seeing-Eye-Goose Befriends Blind Dog

Take a gander at this animal odd couple!

A blind Boxer named Baks has gotten a whole new lease on life thanks to a good samaritan goose named Buttons. Yes, you read that right. This is not a joke. 

Baks has been taken under the 'wing' of Buttons, a four-year-old goose who now leads her vision-impaired pal around everywhere either by hanging onto him with her neck, or by honking to tell him which way to go. How hilarious is that?!

Owner Renata Kursa of Lublin, Poland, was heartbroken when poor lil' Bak was left blind after an accident last year. But gradually Buttons got him up on his feet and starting walking him around. They're inseparable now - they even chase the postman together,' Kursa tells the Telegraph UK. Go Buttons! What's good for the goose is also apparently good for...the...boxer.

Original source-blogs.discovery.com


Make me wonder sometimes if humanity doesn't have an awful lot to learn from the earth's creatures???