It’s officially WINTER, finally, and now the days get longer… Yay. Chickens and snow are the only real farm action around here at the moment, although things are going to get real busy really soon! Meanwhile, there’s always CHICKENS. On one hand, the 25 girls are productively laying away in the chilly but still kinda snug chickenhouse. They do eat eggs, with gusto, but I don’t think any of them have turned into egg-breaking fiends, although the investigation is ongoing. And then there are the guys, past their meat-bird prime, and now a bit of a puzzle—if you’re not gonna eat ’em, why are they here?—but fun to watch, especially on ice (and still really economical on feed). Every day, they come up with a new, apparently random decision on whether to head out into miserable weather, or not. Today, they decided to exit the coop, but then made straight for the main lower barn door, where they’ve been trying to get in for hours. If they want back in, why wait till dark, why not GO HOME NOW? Do they expect me to lead them? Carry them? (Can chickens really play checkers?)
Demo to go
The plan was to spend tomorrow at a nearby, soon-to-be tiny farm, helping build a winterized seedling room in the barn. Day 1: a little demolition and clean-up. This didn’t work out because of a snow storm warning, so after an overnight visit to a nearby town, we returned and I unpacked. False start. Still, this was another mini milestone for me, a first, loading up my tools for an off-farm job! This is all gear assembled bit by bit while working on projects here on the farm, guided by the tools I’d borrowed from Bob. Every purchase, I knew exactly what it was for and how it would come in handy again. Although I’m far from an experienced rough carpenter/farm fixer, choosing tools yesterday made me realize how much I’ve learned. The feeling of place and context really struck me, how the little memories of using each tool tied into the overall tiny farming fabric. It may seem ODD to be celebrating such basic stuff, but it reminded me how unsettlingly disconnected things can get: the job you go to every day, the weekend shop project at home, the weekly grocery run, endless other routines that have no real connection to each other, except in your head. Not like on the tiny farm, where one thing leads another… Hmm. :)
Snow days
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!
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.
Visiting down the road
Ryan, Corrie and their girls moved onto their farm this summer, new to the experience, and they’re already eating their own chickens, turkey, lamb and eggs, and managed to get some veggies out of a late-planted garden. CSA members last year, next year, they’ll be growing their own. Pretty cool! Yesterday, Lynn came by, and we dropped in for a visit that included home-baked muffins and bread, pots of coffee and tea, seed catalogs and my first encounter with The Lorax. Hmm… A lot different than the usually high-octane “visiting” from big-city-living days not so long ago. More and more over the last couple of years, I’ve realized how much tiny farming is actually about people, and simply farming a piece of land is only the half of it (of course, the all-important “we need to eat” half!). It’s exciting. Change is in the air. Something is happening… :) (I forgot to take photos, so today, Ryan sent along one of his.)
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…!
The goats
Haven’t been paying much attention to the goats lately, so I checked ’em out for a while this morning. They have absolutely no problem with the cold, eating hay and hanging out pretty much as usual. Of course, serving them is a lot more work when it’s freezing, lugging buckets of hot water from the main barn, since the pipe to the convenient goat barn tap is frozen. I did goat chores for a winter, but right now, it’s Bob’s thing. Oh, well. :) This gang of girls has had the same line-up for the last couple of years, and some I’ve known since birth… Familiar faces. A couple even have names…