January 18, 2008

riday again? Where did this week go? It is currently mildly snowing, but I don't have to deal with the driveway quite yet... I think... although I have not stepped foot off the porch yet today. 

Someone was asking why I gave away all those roosters the other day, instead of butchering them. Well I have been trying since November to put the 14 of them into the freezer and it just was not happening either due to time constraints or weather. So the very nice family took them and will butcher them and give me a share back. Works for me and cuts down on my feed bill. In the spring I will again set around 200 eggs for butcher purposes, some get sent as day old chicks to a friend up north. By then I will actually have 2 days off a week. There is nothing like home grown meat for your table. All six people who have come over in the past week, were amazed at the difference between store bought and farm raised pork. 

With the warm weather, I have been letting the woodstove go out during the day. It still looks like I will run out of wood in the woodshed come March. The next free day I have I have to start hauling that cut wood in with the dogs from the back 40. Even if it is with a headlamp in the darkness. 

Yesterday I knocked about 24" deep of snow off the east side of my house with a board as far as I could reach. It was quite scary when the ice and snow came rushing down past me. I can't ever imagine wanting to even see an avalanche on anything but television. I have trained in Search and Rescue for 15 years for such things (although I never had to do a real avalanche rescue, just mock searches with snow pits), but I did not fully understand the impact and weight of the falling snow until yesterday. The weatherman is expecting us to have 10-15 centimeters (4-6 inches) more of snow today. If I get off a packed trail here, I will sink to almost my hips in spots. Snow can fall here clear until late April or May.