1st snow

We're experiencing our first winter storm of the season. Plenty of snow and wind. I never seem to be ready for this or maybe I just try to deny the inevitable. I got a kick of watching the chickens deal with their first snow. Daisy was the first to fly out of the hen house this morning and land on the night's before snow. She would try to put her weight on one foot to take a step, sink into the snow and squawk. It wasn't until this afternoon that they seemed to figure out how to get around in the snow, or maybe they just got hungry enough to venture out. I made sure they had water in the hen house along with a light bulb for heat.

Speaking of chickens. We moved the henhouse-on-wheels into the garden for the winter. So instead of tilling in the remains of the crops and planting a cover crop, our chickens will hopefully take care of the garden for the winter. The barn cats had thought the garden was their venue but have seemed to accept their new partners.

If the snowstorm was not interesting enough, today was the day we scheduled to break up the breeding groups, loan one of our rams to a friend for their breeding program, and transport sheep to the butcher to fill our holiday locker lamb order. This is all pretty challenging in its own right, but add a blizzard to the equation and now we had a real challenge. We got it all done and everybody has seemed to settle down in their new pastures and barns. In fact, we saw Arthur (our loaner ram) getting down to business as we drove off after dropping him off at our friends' farm. And Jan and the dogs are taking a nap in front of the fireplace.

Now its time for the winter rhythms to set in. The rams are in the ram barn and the ewes are in the ewe barn. I have a pile of fleece left from last year's shearing to process and I'd sure like to clear the project table by the time we shear on Feb 12th. I'd also like be able to spend a little more time at the feed store and/or the coffee shop.

WINTER ON!!!