"The ground's still white, kids."

While I know that our livestock don't actually speak English, and communicate only in their animal speak way, I often wonder if their minds actually framed words in the way we understand what they would say.

When I took this first photo this morning, the three turkeys were the only ones intrepid enough to brave the outdoors this morning. I can imagine their report back inside the chicken house: " The ground's still white, kids. And forget about checking out the fresh straw next door, you'll just get your feet wet and poopy." After a short walk around the barnyard, the two older turkeys, Thomas and Essy, went back inside; they've done this rodeo before.

Leaving Ginny, who apparently suffers separation anxiety, to wander the cold, white fluff by herself, which leads to frantic, ear-splitting shrieks as she discovers that everybody went back inside without her. I used to think that she did this because she was shook up from being separated from her brothers. But its been almost 3 weeks since she was separated which is a long time in poultry understanding; I'm beginning to think she's just a bit of a drama queen. Lucky for you I don't have a good way to record her "song", but listening to her on your computer wouldn't do her justice. So anyways.

All the other first timers don't seem real excited to get out and cavort around in the stuff. Hamburger and T-Bone are pretty well snuggled down. When they hear me out taking pictures, Hamburger peers around the edge of the door way as if to say "Are you serious?"

And then moseys his way out to get a drink out of the super-insulated stock tank (Just had to slip a photo of Ryan's fine handiwork in here.)

And while it's not his first rodeo either, Herschel the rooster decides he'd much rather rule the barnyard from the turkey roost looking out the window. "Somebody's got to keep an eye on the action while all these hooligans are sitting around laying eggs and eating corn!"

And then there's me in my snow boots, for the first time this year. Noting the quiet, the cold, and the still gray sky.

I think Checkers has it best of all in her throne on the couch . . . though I think she asks God on a regular basis in the wintertime why He didn't have her adopted by doggie parents that live in Florida. Snow is not her idea of a good time. Though I guess I wouldn't like it either if my belly almost touched the ground like hers does.

Hello December!

As you can see, December around here has started appropriately enough with a cold, snowy day. And if you drove past our house this morning during a short few minutes period, you might have seen a grown woman standing in the yard, mouth open to sky . . . eating snow. What is it about the first few snows of the season that inspires child-like wonder? I cannot help but stop, breathe, and be amazed by the uniqueness of each snowflake as it falls on the ground, my coat, or the animals. Feeling like cold fluffy pin feathers on cheeks and eyelashes. Forgetting for just a couple of seconds that the snow will make the roads slick and the chores more difficult this evening.

Light before Dawn

People that drive by our house between the hours of 6:00 - 8:30 AM and aren't familiar with chickens probably think we forgot to turn off our chicken house light when we did chores. But actually there is a purpose behind this light, to the point that there is a timer connected to it, that will turn it on every morning all winter; waking up our birds even when the sun doesn't.

Why? Chickens' internal clocks are very light and day length sensitive. Short, dark, cold days = no eggs. Which if you're a chicken makes sense. Why lay eggs, which equals babies, if the weather is not hospitable or even safe for such fragile little ones? Well, if you're a hen left to your own devices, you won't waste the energy. Instead, you'll molt your feathers, and use the energy you would have used to lay eggs to grow new feathers and keep warm. And then wait until next spring to start laying again. 

Which is all and good if you're a chicken, but not so great if you're a chicken farmer. Each year the thoughts argue in our minds, starting in late October, to light or not to light. As days grow shorter, darker, and colder, we suddenly usually within a weeks time go from 5 eggs a day to 1 or 0 eggs a day. And will continue like that all winter if we don't supplement some light in the coop.


We don't want to force our chickens completely out of sync with their natural cycles, but we don't like to leave family and friends high and dry as far as farm fresh eggs for 4 months of the year. So we compromise, and let the chickens have 6 - 8 weeks of dark, short days as October moves into November and November into December, to quit their egg laying for a while and molt. Some drop their feathers all at once, and look like this gal:

And others have been losing their feathers gradually, and suddenly one day you look at them and go, wow you look nice and sleek and fluffy, and realize they've been molting all along (like the other black one, sister of the partially naked one above).

Then the first week of December ( this week!) we start giving them their warm bright wake up call. Which they seem to especially like on those super cold days, when they huddle under the incandescent bulb to warm up a bit before heading out to forage for a few minutes.  

Outside the "Picture" Window

We're going to try something new around here in an effort to make this a true blog with postings on a daily basis or as close to that as possible. The inspiration coming from our favorite window in the house:

Located over our kitchen sink, it provides a pleasant view while we work on the many household tasks that revolve around that particular area of the kitchen. It is not a large window, but perfectly proportioned for the space, and so much more useful than the drafty, aluminum framed, designed for warm places like Florida, window that used to inhabit that space.

To the West (left) out that window you can see the road for quite aways, and also part of the neighbor's field:

If you look straight out to the North, you see a big part of our yard, the North end of the pasture, the road, and the neighbor's other field:

And if you look to the East (right), you can see our chicken house, calf shed, and South end of the pasture. Which is probably one of the most used views, as we try to keep an eye on our livestock or just enjoy the crazy antics of our critters as they go about their days:

And so the plan is to post every day at least a photo looking out this window; some days it will be focused on a particular thing with more text and photos to illustrate. So here goes . . . the start of our "Picture Window" series. Wish us luck!

A Chill in the Breeze

I know that officially I cannot declare that fall is here for a couple of more days, but unofficially . . . the season known as fall has arrived at the O'Hara Corner Farm. Today it is overcast and blustery, the yellow leaves of the walnut trees are being scattered around the yard, and I feel inclined to wear my jacket to go out and pick tomatoes this afternoon. This amuses me a wee bit, as usually I don't associate wearing a jacket with tomato picking, but hey it is only 65 degrees F.

Sometime in August, picking and preserving became a priority over weeding, and so now we end up with a garden area looking like this:

Which is definitely not pretty, and a little depressing when compared with the clean neat rows of early June. But soon, all the stakes, posts, and trellises will be pulled out, the tall weeds will succumb to the weed whackers, and all will be mowed flat by the mower. Then we dig up the heap that is the compost pile, spread it on top of the whole thing, and call it done until next spring's tilling. I find as the years go by, we seem to take more and more pleasure in the process of each season, and delight in the blessings that each of them bring.

Which brings me to the joys that still abound for us this month:

Late blooming clematis . . . can't you just smell it!

Our new dairy beef steers T-Bone (in the lean-to), and Hamburger:

Growing, thriving meat turkeys:

Our new outdoor kitty Henry, who adopted us a couple of weeks ago. He is incredibly friendly, but not terribly photogenic :)

And having got to spend a very lovely week in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan a few weeks ago:

As you can see from below, its been a dry late summer. Most of our grass is dry and brown, except for the spot in the yard where the garden hose leaks :)

Full Bloom

Just glancing at our blog, I realized that it's been almost a month since I posted last. Total craziness! Things here at the farm have went from hurry up and grow to hurry up and keep up with me in a few short weeks time. And while I always think that spring is the time for flowers around here, I'm beginning to think that summer is just as blooming. Warning if flowers aren't your thing . . . you may want to skip this post because its loaded with them.

We started picking and canning green beans this week, 12 quarts canned, and a pressure cooker full eaten. And don't they look so lovely on the plant:

Scarlett O'Hara morning glories (no, I'm not kidding that is their real name). While the seed package promised a bright magenta color, they turned out to be a lovely indigo with purple veining. Though we should have planted them in a patch by themselves, they daily threaten to take over the snapdragons and 4 o'clocks.

Other things blooming in profusion:

And there are others too, but I'm lacking the patience to upload them all.

And lastly, a chance to get up close and personal with our meat chickens . . .

As you can see, they are growing quite well, and are no longer cute and fluffy. Especially since I've been bitten, not just pecked, by them twice in the past couple of days when I've been putting them away for the night. They are to the point where my interest in them has moved from pet-type animals to caring for livestock to ensure quality and quantity of meat come butchering day.

Hurry Up and Grow!

Ryan has requested that I post photos of the garden for all to see, since the last time you saw any photos was when everything was just starting to sprout. So here goes:

Cole crops . . .

Green beans and lima beans:

Tomatoes and peppers:

Sweet corn:

Sunflowers:

Right now were at the stage where we're not harvesting a lot right now; just weeding a lot and encouraging everything to hurry up and grow!

And to fit the crazy 2 weeks ahead schedule of this summer, we picked the first ripe black raspberries a couple of days ago.