Tough Day

The chickens don't even want to come out and eat with this snow on the ground, and O don't blame them a bit. There are days when I wish I could just never set foot out the door, but even on a small farm like mine, that's not possible. I have to bust the ice on water troughs, with a hammer, 3 times a day in weather like this, and if you've never done that, it's a lousy job. Oh well, this should make for good rabbit hunting anyway.

Snow and Wind

It's cold and windy and it snowed all day, so I really didn't get much accomplished. The goats hate snow and rain so they never left the barn from what I could tall, and my old deer hound stayed inside, stretched out on the couch under a blanket. The older she gets, the less interested she is in chasing rabbits in the snow.

The weatherman says it's going to get down to 3 tonight, but then the cold spell should ease up and maybe I can at least get back to splitting some firewood. 

Cold Weather

 Supposed to be a bad cold front moving in tonight, so I spent most of the day preparing for it. My small cold frame is still holding on, so I covered it with another sheet of plastic, hoping it'll withstand single digit temperatures. The spinach plants are not making much progress, but the turnips look good so far.

 I always drop extra hay to the goats before bad weather come in, because you never know when you may not be able to get to them. Chickens and cats all get extra feed too, but just for the heck of it really. It helps them keep warm, I suppose.  

Throwing Cats

I started pruning my 2 year old peach trees this morning. Cutting out some of the limbs allows the tree to grow faster and gives you fewer but larger peaches. The old timers say, you need enough space for a bird to fly between the branches, but not enough room to throw a cat through. I have 3 cats out in the barn, so I should be able to get it right.

No Holidays West Of Omaha

 I never was the kind that could just do nothing, even on holidays, I have to get something done. Today, Christmas Eve Day, I took a little time to mark off my crop sections. I used a compass this year and for the first time, I believe I'm going to have perfectly straight rows. It's mostly just for appearance sake, but I who knows, it may make my life easier.

 I'll probably try to force myself to take tomorrow off.

Young Chickens

I let the young chickens free range a little bit today. They're still young and don't know how to take care of themselves, so I'll just give them a couple of hours a day until they get some experience.

Owls and hawks will swoop down and grab a young chicken before it can react, so it's always best to have your chicks hatched and raised by a hen. She keeps an eye to the sky and will alert the young ones if there's a reason to hide. Most of the time I use an incubator, so I have to stay near a window when they're out for the first few weeks

Billy Goats...

 I knew this day would come. I also knew this day would be cold, wet and lousy for outside projects. 

 Last spring I picked the strongest, biggest baby buck to keep as a breeder. I knew someday he'd grow into a fence killer, but I need him. A doe will hit a hot wire one time and leave the fence alone for months, but a buck has dung for brains, and he'll test a hot wire about once a week.

 Buford, who's 7 months old now, has gotten to this stage. The little jerk decided to push himself under the fence and managed to never touch the hot wire on his way, so I spent the morning adding a lower wire to the entire pasture. Fun stuff in the cold, drizzling rain.

Loafing

 Some days the air is so cold and damp, it's just miserable being outdoors. Today is one of those days. It's not really cold, maybe 30 or so, but it's damp and cloudy, so I decided to do my minimum daily work and call it quits.

 Coming inside to a fire in the wood stove and a big pot of coffee seemed to fix me up, but I'm still going to take it easy today. All I have left is the gym, and then drop some hay to the goats and then I'll be watching movies on the couch and loafing, so not much to write about today.

A little Snow and Ice

Well, it looks like my small cold frame survived the snow and ice last night. The temperature didn't get much below 30, so my turnips and spinach were unaffected, as I assumed. I'm note sure how long  I can hold a temperature suitable for them as winter progresses, but so far, they've withstood the upper teens several times.











My young chickens don't look like they're at all interested in the snow. I finally moved their feeder into the hutch with them, because I'm not sure if they're mature enough to be walking around in snow and ice. 

                                   

Hard Work Is Good For You

  Splitting firewood with a maul is great exercise. Although I allow my extremely concerned neighbor to split large stumps with his gasoline splitter, I still use the maul on anything of moderate size or smaller. I enjoy it, and it keeps me in better shape than most people half my age. 

                                       

                                                                  A few mornings work... 
Putting up firewood in the winter months breaks up the boredom that will inevitably set in after the holiday season, but seems to lead any observers to believe you're insane. To me, on the other hand, it's insane to pay someone for labor when you're perfectly capable of the task. I live about 2/3 old fashioned and 1/3 modern, and it seems to fit me perfectly.

Already Planning

 I start my first seeds of the year on January 1st, so it's in December that I start planning my varieties and my quantities. Things don't change much, but I learned this year that people are crazy for my Grandpa's pickled okra. I couldn't keep up with the demand once I introduced it into my sales. This year I'm planning to double my okra crop, but honestly, I'm not sure that will be enough. 

I order what seeds I don't save, from Harris Seeds, which is an excellent company, with outstanding customer service. I receive a call every August from a representative asking how production was, and giving suggestions where needed. Try them out, you won't be disappointed.

Just Get Started

 Around the bend from me lives a young man who can talk all day about farming, sustainable living, survival and what not. Problem is , he has NO experience with any of it. He's a keyboard commando if I ever met one. He watches youtube and reads blogs and listens to podcasts, but he's never taken the step of actually doing any of it himself. 

Turns out all he needed was a someone to nudge him, and thats what I did. 4 weeks ago I gave him some turnip, cabbage and spinach seed, and told him to grow something in that cold frame he's a;ways talking about. That's exactly what he did too, he built a cold frame and he's got himself a real good little crop going. I'm kind of proud of being the one who gave him that nudge.

There's an old saying in the powerlifting world, and it applies to just about anything you could be interested in. It goes something like this...“Put down your books, and pick up your weights.” 

Farmall 300

I put new points and plugs in the tractor today. The old girl is more than 50 years old and still runs like a champ. I bought the Farmall 7 years ago and other than a complete rewire, which was very simple, I've had to do very little work on it. Compression is good, oil pressure is spot on, and although there's a small leak, the hydraulic system is still in good shape. With a plow, a disker and a mowing deck, my workload is cut immensely.

Back To Basics

There's been many things and many people that have helped me along the way in becoming a better farmer, and living a more self sufficient life. One of those things is the book, Back to Basics. It's a collection of articles from readers digest, with a focus on a more traditional lifestyle.

 I have the second edition, published in 1981. It is probably the single most valuable book I own, due to it's vast amount of information.

Anything from beer making to gardening to canoeing is covered in this amazing book. Do yourself a favor and buy one.


Back To Basics on Amazon

Molting Hens

 When a hen reaches about 18 months old, she will shut down egg production for a month or two, and sometimes up to 4 or 5, while her body replaces her old feathers with new. Having a hatching and butchering program is the way to avoid long spells of few or no eggs.

                                                        These hens are just beginning to molt. Time for the freezer.

I set 18 eggs on the 25^th of January, which will hatch around the 15^th of February, 36 eggs on the

25^th of March, the bulk of the flock, and another 18 on September 25^th, which hatch out in the middle of April and October, respectively. When these hens reach 6 months old they begin to produce eggs while the previous years hatch is beginning to molt and shut down production. This is the time to butcher the older hens. This is done at 18 months for all three yearly hatches. Don't worry if your April replacements haven't started laying yet when their older counterparts have begun to molt, your February and October hatches will be producing during this time.

Using this system ensures that I have eggs year round and chicken in the freezer. I'm sure there's a million programs out there, but this one works for me.

Cold Frame Spinach

I've never, in my 9 years of farming, tried growing anything in the winter months, but this year, I made a small cold frame and planted turnips and spinach.

I've been getting lucky, with warm days and nights just at, or below freezing. After 8 days, I had turnips sprouts, and this morning, on the 14^th day, I have spinach sprouts. 

 I don't have a clue what kind of cold tolerance I can expect in a frame this small, but for now, it's doing fine. As in every facet of life, I expect the worst and hope for the best.