Brought to you courtesy of . . .

Another beautiful sunrise courtesy of our Wondrous Creator, via my humble, humble camera.


Makes up for what my thermometer said this morning (ignore the clock, I can't get it set to the correct time. It was actually about 7:08 AM when I took the photo this morning):

Winter is here with vengeance today. The snow has cleared out, but without the clouds it is just plain cold!

Happy Wednesday!

Variety

It has been suggested that I not limit myself to the view from just one window in our house, when we have thirteen options! So here is one, more towards the east, out our laundry room window (will have to work on the screen situation, sorry!):

A view of our building in a box hay shed, 6' x 6' poultry shed, O'Hara garden shed, and our various junk. Imagine that, a farm that has junk . . .

Out this way, you can see the other part of our property:

A sleeping garden, the clothesline, empty meat turkey pen (occupants now in the freezer), grape arbor, compost pile, straw-covered strawberry bed . . . this part of the property feels pretty neglected this time of year. We don't spend a lot of time with our plants in the winter, and through experimentation, I found that clothes don't dry very well outside below about 45 degrees, so the clothesline just hangs out with itself until spring.

Mostly this time of year, its just making sure that all our outside critters have enough food, water, and dry bedding to stay warm and maintain enough energy to grow or lay eggs as is their job. Much to my chagrin, we found out that the calves drink more water when its cold, in order to process more food to help stay warm . . . more watering hauling for us . . . just part of the bargain huh?

And inside, we eat warm food, wrap up in blankets and wear fleece and flannel.  Craft, work on house projects, play games, and cuddle.  Enjoying down time that doesn't exist during the busy spring, summer, and fall.

So even if the calendar says its still 14 days until winter, I'm going to go ahead and welcome in the season a little early. Happy winter!

When the weather outside if frightful . . .

As you can see, the lake effect snow fairy has visited our house. It's snowing, and blowing, and cold, cold, cold. 11 degrees when I checked the thermometer about 7:30 AM this morning. When I went out to do chores, the calves could barely be convinced to come outside to see if it was me bringing them breakfast that was making all the noise.

So here on the farm, it will be a day to get down the Christmas decorations, get the tree ready that we  got this weekend:

And do some bread baking, online Christmas shopping, and staying inside!

Never a dull day

Quite frankly, a lot of these "picture window" views will probably look boringly (is that a word?) the same, at least during the winter when there's no snow. Our yard can be rather dismal place in the dark, cold days of winter. That is until you start observing the little things.

Some how the snow has managed to disappate; it doesn't really seem like it has been warm enough for it to melt. Anyways, its gone now. The critters evidentally developed cabin fever after 2 days inside, because today they are all over the pasture foraging and just hanging out.

 

If you look closely, you can see the 2 large black spots in the far background of the photo. That is Hamburger and T-Bone on their way out to the North end of the pasture. My camera is kinda old school, and leaves much to desire in the zoom department, so black dots instead of actual cow butts is what you get. 

Everybody else was being less than photogenic, hiding behind the chicken house. The new trick for the day, both Ginny, the drama queen turkey, and our fabulous outdoor cat Henry have discovered that they can jump up on the stock tank box and get themselves a drink. Which is good for Henry because we don't have a heated water pan for him, but with Ginny, makes me a little nervous. It is way too easy for her to see how she could just flap her wings a little and be over that fence. Didn't have my camera with me when Ginny was on the box, but here's Henry:

Though I didn't catch him drinking (need to be quicker with my camera). And had attracted the attention of Herschel who was wondering, as usual, why I have any right to be near his barnyard. But that's a story for another day.

Happy Friday!!!!

"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.