Another day, another 6″ (15cm) of snow. This time, it came down in a proper, visibility-reducing mini-blizzard for just a while. I haven’t been listening to the news, which includes weather news, so I’m not sure whether we’re setting any records for early, wintry behavior, but compared to the last five-six years, this is something different. White Christmas, coming up!
Weather
Barn shortcut
A rear-end view of the cows leaving the barn has become a familiar every-morning sight. For the last few weeks, since the weather took a turn for the freezing, I’ve been walking through the dim lower barn, toting buckets of warm water and feed, on the way to the chickenhouse. In nice weather, it’s easier and more pleasant to walk outside through the barnyard. This route has the advantage of no wind and no icy patches. It’s a bit of a winding road: into the minimally heated well pump room (heated so the pipes don’t freeze) where the 40kg (88lb) sacks of feed are stored, out the inner door into the dark and chilly lower barn, head down past the empty milking stalls (from dairy farm days), straight towards the window into the loafing barn where the cows come in at night, hard left, down another stretch between pens, unlatch a side door, head outside for a short walk, and it’s in with the chickens… A new daily routine for my first winter with the birds.
All-weather chickens
A weird, one-day break from the cold, fully forecast a few days back, that came to pass. It was a little milder yesterday, and this morning, the temperature jumped, hitting somewhere around 10°C (50°F). Pretty tricky trying to walk around on the treacherous wet ice, but the chickens seemed to love it, charging right in! And then, by late afternoon, the heat was gone. Personally, I choose warmth, even for a few slippery hours…!
Road to the Chickenhouse
In bits and pieces, with no one storm to take the credit, the snow has been steadily building up. Regular barnyard clearing is fully underway, by blade-on-truck and then the big tractor, with snow banks appearing in all the usual places, like the ones that form the winter laneway leading to the Chickenhouse…
Chickens in snow
These chickens like snow! The eight remaining roosters have been out and about in some fairly wild weather, making their way through 6″ (15cm) blankets of snow, gusting winds and absolutely freezing cold. They always have the option of heading out of the little door in their half of the chickenhouse, or not. I’ve only kept it closed in the morning a couple of times, when the weather was ridiculously nasty. They’ve only stayed inside once by choice, on not such a bad day, which was a bit of a mystery (maybe snow had built up at their doorway that I didn’t notice). They still roam all over—chicken tracks just about everywhere in the barnyard snow—but tend to hang out on exposed ground, like around the small stand of trees in front of the farmhouse. So far, no frostbite and no frozen feet falling off. They’re pretty tough birds…
Hardy berry
These guys are pretty impressive in the low maintenance department, definitely the toughest, hardiest potted plants I’ve known. They arrived out of the blue last January, about 20 of them. After a bit of coddling under the fluorescent lights along with the spring seedlings, I set them outside in front of the Milkhouse, and there they’ve sat, untended, in 4″ (10cm) plastic pots, for the last seven months. In recent weeks, they’ve been basically frozen solid in their pots for much of the time. And here they are, leaves glossy, setting a couple of berries… Cool!
What are they? Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), aka teaberry, a small, creeping evergreen shrub with minty, wintergreen-tasting berries (the leaves and stems can be made into a medicinal tea, and the plant also produce wintergreen oil, used as a flavoring). They’re healthy, but they’ve only set a couple of berries amongst the remaining six plants (I gave away the rest). Hmmm… I’m comfortable with the many varieties I grow of 40 or so veggies and herbs, I’m still getting used to several varieties of a dozen types of cut flower, and I’m working on ID-ing ALL of the various grasses and weeds around here. WINTERGREEN is barely on the map… So many names, so much to know…! UPDATE: Case in point… Thanks to comments below, these guys were properly identified, I’d thought they were winterberry… I’ve corrected the post!
Change of view
Last month, this month, the seasons march on. It looks farily snowbound, but this could all melt off in a single unseasonably warm day. Like last winter. (Browse through last January if you’ve forgotten the completely odd DOUBLE melt-off we had back then…). There’s never a dull moment with our thoroughly modern weather!