March 20, 2008

ello!! I think it is time I quit taking a vacation from blogging, so I am back! It was something I had to cut out with a few other things in order to get any chance of rest I could. The last two days have been 'easy' comparably and I have tomorrow off, so it feels like my brain is functioning again instead of being Jell-O. I think that tomorrow will be the 19th day I have had off since November 27th. I have lost count now. Three more weeks and I have two days off a week like a normal person. I knew it would be a tough 7 months-go, and I actually have held up better than I thought I would. If I only had one bad day out of all of them (2 Monday's ago), I am happy with that.

Updates on what has been going on around the farm...

 M-e-l-t-d-o-w-n! Though it has snowed off and on, the temperatures are warm during the day and well below freezing at night. Two days ago I had a 2" inch dump of  chicken feather sized wet snow. Where the southern exposures are, the ground can be seen, but where the snow has been untouched (and that is most of it), I still had 27" of snow in most places.

Picture Above: 27" of snow in most places still.

This weekend I am starting the rest of my seeds. I only had a flat of herbs on the go as it is foolish to start your main crops any sooner than St Patrick's Day up here. Even if one does start them earlier, you still need heat in a greenhouse to keep them alive. It can and will freeze clear into May.. or June.. July.. August. One year I had it freeze 5 times from June 15th to September 1st.

Picture Above: 2" of snow came down on St. Patrick's Day.

The greenhouse is staying warm during the day and reaching about 25C. I have no idea what it is doing at night. But many of the herbs came through the winter and are starting to kinda sprout.

The chickens are laying well and I am usually always sold out of eggs. I had to save back 4-5 of them for my own use this morning. When the flock is in full lay I should be getting 17-18 dozen a week to sell.

"Crystal" the milk goat and "Blossom" the calf are doing well. "Blossom" is growing like a weed and still as sweet as ever. I tried to sit on her the other day, she was not keen on it, but she was ok with it. My horse "Dixie" has also come through the winter looking good. When the snow fell off the shoppe roof, the round bale was buried and so it was easier turning everyone loose to the hay then attempt to fight to get the hay to the animals. I am surprised "Dixie" did not beat up the littler animals as "Dixie" is at the best of times... a HAG when it comes to food!!

My wood is holding out in the woodshed. I have one row left. It was looking touch-and-go there for awhile. As warm has it has been during the day I have been letting it go out during the day, but get it roaring when I do laundry on Mondays to get my clothes dry before the next morning. As soon as it dries up out in the back 40, I will be falling and cutting more wood and bringing in what was cut and left out there over the winter. I want to have a full woodshed for next winter. It is ridiculous not to have a full woodshed for at least a year supply in this country. There really is no excuse for not having a full woodshed as wood (and dried at that) in this area is basically free for the taking. "Cyrus" and I am now only bringing a load of wood down with the dogsled about every 2nd or 3rd day now. I should bring a schwack of it down before all the snow is gone though, as I currently do not have a wheelbarrow.

Picture Above: "Watson" & "Cyrus" hanging out together in the livingroom.

My four gallons of wine is still on the go. The bubblers are merrily bubbling away. When the dandelions come around, I will be making about 10 gallons of that for cooking. The last batch from 2 years ago was quite good. I tend to use white wine in my cooking, although I do not drink.

That is pretty much it for now. Thanks for being patient .. I know 291-ish people are checking my blogs daily. Thanks for hanging in with me!! Soon my life will be all back with its ducks in a row.