We're expecting multiple days above freezing this week, and that will turn our sleeping farm into a cold, sloppy mess. Manure piles that froze before I could scoop them are exposed as the snow melts.
The sheep pen will become a river, and we'll have to see how bad it will get, and if we have to move them early before there's grass. We don't want the whole flock to get foot rot. The ground will likely be too frozen for step-in posts for the electro netting, and might be too frozen to pound in any t-posts to a safe depth. Who knows what spring will bring! Although it doesn't really feel like spring when the nights are still -14C.
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| Our loss is the chooks' gain! Thaw on low in the oven and serve it up! So I suppose we're getting all of that great vitamin A back in egg form... |
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| A balmy morning for this winter. |
The first year we were here there was little snow cover, and suddenly it warmed up to the low 20s and we were outside working in rain pants and t-shirts, our sun-starved west coast skin loving it! Until the freakish explosion of mosquitoes that came shortly after....I'd only had Oakley for a month, and certainly hadn't ordered a fly sheet for him, and the tack stores weren't stocking fly spray that early in the season. Poor Oak--he had a horrible allergic reaction to the mosquitoes, and he looked like he had bubble wrap for skin....I suppose anyone would have a reaction after being bitten a thousand or so times.... Then came the gnats, which I certainly didn't know to watch for or protect against. Oakley bleeding from his ears. Then Oakley biting at his tail dock. Good thing I found out early from the clinic that I should be looking for ticks there...sure enough, they were right. Nasty creatures! And people wonder why I love winter so much.
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| Paddock ice melting and running into the barn today. |
So as you can tell I'm a little nervous about spring--mostly how much work it will be. I haven't exactly had a decent winter rest. I'll try to document the changes I see as they happen. It will be fun to compare them to the past two springs.
Frost killed the apple blossoms the first spring, and last year they narrowly escaped the same fate, and we actually had apples! We had snow into the second week in May. That's the part that G is in denial about, I think. That we might have another two months before he can really get in the garden and get things rolling...The soil will be workable in the poly tunnels, and the greenhouse will be pumping out arugula, leeks and radishes before we know it. But that still doesn't beat digging in the dirt with the sun beating down on your shoulders while you watch the chooks' and ducks' daily dramas. I love smelling like tomato plants, and having my hands stained green after spending hours tying them up. Maybe this will be the year they don't get ahead of us. We're still astounded at how quickly things grow here compared to back home. Perhaps that will console G a little. We may have six months of winter but when it's growing season the explosion of growth is truly awesome.
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| Our visitor yesterday...We really need to stop meeting like this Possum!! |
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| This afternoon--now I know for sure where she was getting in! |
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| Sorry possum...hardware cloth up now so you won't be getting in any more. I know it's a fine house that's warm and has great eggs to eat, but you're not a chook, so you can't live there! |
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