Getting Ready for Winter

It has gotten a bit cold before we were quite ready. The sugar house is going up "inch by inch", and we were recently reminded that "Inch by inch, life is a cinch, Yard by Yard, life is hard", so Mary Ann is creeping along inch by inch with whomever she can find willing to help and we are hoping to have a roof on the structure this week.

We have added electricity to the pole barn, tightened up the big doors at the back of the barn, and put up new perimeter electric fencing around the new field in the back. We have a fancy new fence charger that has a remote that locates problems in the fence line. We also installed a Nelson waterer (that fills automatically and will not freeze. This replaces the heated buckets that used so much electricity that our bills flew through the roof last winter.

Chores for the last few weeks have included carrying water from the frost free hydrant to the animals in the fields, carrying bales of hay in the wheelbarrow, and carrying small buckets of grain to them. The animals stand at full attention facing us as we move toward them, eager for their food.

Yesterday we finally had everything ready for them to move to their winter quarters, and the move was beautiful to see. Three of us, (Mary Ann, Lee Ann and I) led the sheep with grain from the orchard around the sugar house construction, through the barn and into the pole barn. There was hardly hesitation, and the sheep actually beat us there. Some of them immeciately went to the new waterer, as if they knew what it was for.

The insulation is up around the foundation of the house and the storm windows are down. The woodshed still needs to be reorganized for easy acess to firewood. We have had some fires in the kitchen wood stove that feel really good and will be essential to minimize the use of the oil furnace.

The upstairs storage area in the Tesseract is getting full of fleeces to be picked and washed. The ram lambs have gone to meat this week. They are small again this year, and we have concluded we need to grain them all summer in the future, which will increase the costs to raise them.

We have done statements for our CSA members so they can come to shop and reap the benefits of their investment with beautiful products from our store. Several people are knitting items for us to sell on consignment providing a nice array of scarves, slippers, hats, and other unique itsms in the store. Holiday decorations are up. Whew. What a beautiful time of year!

Hope to see you at the farm this month. Stay tuned.
Warmly,
Marty