So I waited to post this to be sure that the smallest hen I've ever met was going to be able to hold her own with the other girls. And it seems that she is. Meet Phyllis (going by Phyl for short).

I got Phyl as a trade for my two roosters (Mary and Maggie). She's really, really tiny. About the size of a large pigeon, so she won't lay worthwhile eggs. But she's so cute and spunky that I took her anyway. She seems to be holding her own with Aggie and Pru and may even be at the top of the pecking order (it's hard to tell with only 3 birds and as little daylight as we've got).

I'm now planning to add 2 full size hens when I can find them for a total of 5. Seems that the coop should be more than big enough as a couple of my girls are so small. And that way we can have a full brood without overwhelming ourselves with eggs.

In other news, we had a tremendous windstorm here last Thursday. We survived pretty much intact, losing power for about 6 hours overnight and having it back by the time we got up Friday morning. There are still thousands without power in the area and it's slowly coming back on. The only damage we suffered was that the wind moved the girls coop about 9 inches off the foundation. But a couple of good shoves and it was back where it belonged. Now it's gotten cold again so we're again struggling to keep their water thawed, but that's minor compared to what could have happened.

And then there were two.

Here I sit at 12:30 in the morning. My stress level too high to sleep. Oh well, I get an awful lot of work done this time of night. On to other, much more interesting news.

The snow is gone, except for a few last snowballs hiding in the really shady parts of our yard. But really, while they look like snow in the dark, it's probably more of the paper Jake has been stealing out of the recycling bin and shredding all over the place. Bad puppy!

So, what does the title of this post mean you ask? It means that Mary finally started crowing. Of course, I can't change her (um, his?) name as I'm so used to calling him Mary. So we've been using Mr. Mary since Wednesday. I'm pretty sure Maggie is really a mister too. That'll learn me to buy unsexed chicks. Oh well. I found a nice guy with 12 acres on Ebey Island to take them both tomorrow. Hopefully his place isn't as ghetto as it sounded on the phone. If it is, then off to the Marysville Co-op they go to be rehomed. I could hear Mary all the way down the block this morning. I'm sure the neighbors are NOT pleased.

David, the gentleman that's supposed to be taking them, has agreed to trade me 1 of his 30 bantam hens. I'm hopeful that I can talk him into two, even if I have to buy the second as I think even numbers are better. He thinks he has a Serama (called it a Japanese bantam), if so I definitely want her as she would be Agnes' size. Then a second more Pru's size to round it all out. And the chicken drama continues. We'll have to dream up more names tomorrow afternoon.

Speaking of tomorrow, we're going to see a Silvertips game tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to it. Hockey games always remind me of growing up in MN. And then Sunday M's company has it's first ever real holiday party. Normally the owner just takes them all out for drinks the Friday before Christmas. But this year he's springing for a nice dinner out for all the spouses. Sounds good to me!

More to come tomorrow, including pics of the (hopefully) new hens.