Most years we have a frost in September, warm, sunny days in October, and then a grey month of November before winter arrives. This year September was warm and very wet, October cloudy and rainy and now in November we are experiencing typical December or January weather. The geese pull up their feet and sleep in a group. Here is the view out my window after our first snow!
This morning I awoke to snow. It was dark later than usual, so I did chores later than usual. It was that beautiful blue winter morning light. Geese love this weather. They were waddling, chatting, flapping wings and saying it’s party time. Since it is above freezing now, there is rain. So we will not get the one foot of snow here; maybe someone elsewhere will. Oscar is glad to be outside, but he wonders …
Ken has been moving portable shelters and coops to the garden. Why? Well, it is not only easier to feed everyone in one location fairly close to the house all winter, but also each of the poultry breeds by their nature will help us grow vegetables more easily next season! Geese will take out weeds. Chicken also take out weeds and weed seeds and any remaining insects. Turkeys will scratch the soil and …
We are low tech here whenever possible. For laundry Ken runs a wringer washer while I hang the clothes on the lines. In winter we wait for a sunny day. The clothes freeze on the line. They are “boardy” and stiff. After a while they become limp and that means the moisture is out. Once they get past the boardy stage I bring them in by the cook stove on a bar …
Winter returned this week, and it looks like it is here for quite some time. After a beautiful warm fall that forecast of -11 for a low on next Tuesday sounds pretty cold! We got some snow, and Ken and I would like more. the snow acts as an insulating blanket to slow the frost going deep into the ground. One year we got early snow and the ground really did not …
Dogs and Cats live outside here. They are an integral part of the team: cats eat mice and voles when they are on the move at night, and the dog keeps nocturnal animals like deer and raccoons away from the garden and poultry. Ken creates a winter dog house of straw or hay bales for lots of insulation from cold and wind. The space is small so Oscar’s body heat keeps it warm. …
After the last harvest on November 16th we saw that cold weather was coming. One of Ken’s late fall tasks is to move the hens into the garden for the winter. This year he has two groups of hens, and they seem happier in their respective coops, so he moved both portable coops to the garden. He also moved a portable structure I call teh hog hilton into the garden for the …
