I’ve been keeping the eight guys indoors most days lately, opening up their door only when the sun is out. They still seem little worse for the wear after weeks of roaming around in the sub-zero cold. They’ve suffered a little frostbite to the tips of their combs, likely from the severest cold nights in the coop, and there’s no sure way around that short of insulating and heating the chickenhouse (Bob said that happened even with 300 layers sharing body heat). Some days, they seem to like just standing around in the snow, even when there’s feed, warm water once or twice a day, and comfy dry litter at home. They often stand on one leg at a time, keeping the other one warm…
Barn work continues
Momentum is slowly building at the new farm. The trusty Kubota compact tractor is on site, there to help out wherever it can. Today, we just about finished the demolition in the barn, which included a small room on the upper level (pounded together with a million 3″ nails), and a stall area in the lower level that looked good maybe for goats. Below, Michael uses a sawzall (reciprocating saw) to cut things up. The sawzall is my favorite power tool of the moment. With a heavy duty demo blade, it sails through wood and nails no problem (you can see the stall poles sawed just above where they’re set in concrete). Sometimes, you have to tear down in order to build—with the right tools, that can be fun. We’re moving along—the new seedling room is on its way!
New year, new farm!
It’s a new day rising in a new year, perfect timing for Tiny Farm Blog to officially become a tale of TWO (tiny) farms: where I started out on this surprise growing adventure six seasons ago, and what comes next. There’s a long and complicated story here, not without its drama and prickly points, but luckily, all that is really beyond what TFB is about, so I don’t have to go into it here! Yay. The new situation is as much of an unusual and unlikely set-up as the current one was unexpected, a more or less instant meeting of minds. There were more, well, logical options, but this feels right. It’s very real tiny farming, with all of the hard (though fun!) work and financial challenges to face, PLUS, the prospect of a whole new start-up in the field…which is the really exciting, critical part.
The new farm is just down the road, only about 30km (19mi) away, but with the many lakes in between, getting there by road doubles the distance. I won’t lose touch with the PEOPLE I’ve come to know and the friends I’ve made, but it means a complete change in my I-don’t-drive local. The garden and facilities are also nearly starting from scratch. I’m going from a farm refined over several generations for this one purpose—a fantastically practical agricultural infrastructure, you could say, with Bob a living part of it, carrying forward a couple of centuries of classic farm maintenance skills—to loosely tended hay fields and a small, bare barn.
I guess for me it comes down to challenge, perseverance and a self-test (although I really don’t like…testing!!): How transferable is the “tiny” spirit, how much have I REALLY learned, and how far can tiny farming go, without becoming just another small business (let alone, just another mortgage payment)? I’ll include more details of the old and the new, as they fit. In any case, this should make for interesting times on the blog. As I understand it so far, tiny farming is about growing, about people as much as crops, and it’s about change… Let’s see what happens! :)
Winter farm desk
This is my winter desk. It’s the same year-round, but for most of the year, the warmer, outdoors part, it’s just a chair in front of a computer where I pop in to check stuff. In the winter, it becomes a mildly monkish workstation, a place to be a bit of a modern DIY scholar and scribe… To someone who’s loved books and reading from way early on, the Web is a completely over-the-top place. Billions of people surf around, but I wonder how many have a first-hand inkling of HOW MUCH STUFF IS REALLY IN THERE. It has EVERYTHING, just kinda piled up, like an endless, fantastically-stocked, 24/7 garage sale of ideas to put in your head. I don’t know if it’s ultimately a good thing, this type of extreme abundance, but it sure is interesting. And great for looking into things. So, I spend a good deal of winter time online, much of it related to farming. I bookmark a lot, and save (as in, download) pages that I think I should have around if the Net somehow went away. I seldom print, or take many notes on the computer, steno pads are perfect for all that, writing things out helps keep the volume manageable. And that’s about it, the modern, simple (but tech-entangled), tiny farming research station. Handy…! (Bonus game: What makes this not just any computer station, but a GARDEN station? Can you spot the soil thermometer? :)
Wrecking and building
Made it back to the new farm to start demo for the new seedling room. I don’t get to do much bigger construction work, and this is really just interior framing and insulating, nothing complicated or structural, but it’s a fair-sized project, involving new windows and doors, what I’d still call big rough carpentry fun! The barn is a small one, 24’x30′ (7.3x9m), about 20-30 years old. The structure is simple, basic, easy-to-understand—what you see is what it looks like. The beam in the pic is one of a dozen or so that support the upper floor. What could be clearer! We’re turning half of the lower level, with its poured concrete floor and concrete block walls, into a fully winterized space that’ll hopefully be home to new herb seedlings by the end of January!
A little winter rain…
Just when all the cold was getting a bit monotonous, we get some crazy weather changes to keep things interesting. By late morning, the packed snow on paths had turned to ice and puddles. Today was the first of two days forecast to be “unseasonaby warm,” with rain and 50°F+ (10°C+) daytime temperatures. By tomorrow, most of the snow will be gone… The day after, it’s back to double-digit subzero and…more snow! Meanwhile, this morning I was happily sliding around outside in a T-shirt and shirt…!
Christmas bear…
Hmmm… Christmas. I don’t think I’ve heard more people unenthusiastic about the Holidays than this year. Of course, here in the country, I run into a tiny fraction of the people I used to when living in cities…so maybe it’s different right in amongst the masses! For a variety of reasons, the Farm was extremely quiet this time around. I looked at the Tree—it’s been up since early December—as a sign of the times. Until a couple of years ago, the decades-old tradition was to cut one from the strip of woods at the north end of the farm. Then, suddenly, we got an artificial tree. It’s deluxe, tall and slender, and a perfect fit for the narrow corner between two doorways in the kitchen-dining room. It’s the first thing you see when you enter the house. I don’t remember why the change, it wasn’t me that did it. I think it was just convenience winning out over a dwindling connection to the tree-cutting tradition. In any case, the new guy is a fine looking facsimile tree that needs no watering, poses no fire hazard (I think it’s fire-retardant, you know how crispy these old farmhouses can get), and due to location delivers way more upfront Christmasy ambiance than the real trees used to from their old spot further back in the house. The decorations are elaborate and cheery as well, with a designer old-time feel, the classic balls and streamers and tiny Christmas lights, along with tons of little, antique-looking doll ornaments: puppets and wise men, songbirds and Santa bears. They’re all mostly plastic, but quality, non-plastic-looking plastic. All in all, a beautiful (and practical!) MODERN farmhouse tree that should last for years and years! Great. Then again, it’s up to people, not trimmings, to make the season. Happy Holidays to all! :)