January 5, 2022 - Day 34

Well, we thought that the high winds were behind us.

NOPE.

This week I ended up waking up around 3 a.m. because of the wind and started to worry about the ducks and their house. They have the worst shelter of all of the shelters we have slapped together around here. Surprisingly they were just fine. This is what I found when I was out doing chores...

Poor Skinny Momma, she was probably sleeping pretty soundly when this happened. This was the only thing that happened, the tarp over Big Daddy's shelter was blown off, the zip ties were torn apart. Not only that, the big ol' door to the big shed was blown over again. 

It was an eventful morning so far. 

After I saw the shelter I texted our neighbor Bobby, mostly because his is the number that I have and Brian was at work. Within a few minutes he was on his way over on his little tractor and he was able to get the shelter back over the fence without hardly any effort from the forks that he put on his tractor. So good! We chatted for a few minutes and then he went back home and I went back to work. 

So the next thing I thought I would do is get the tarp reattached on the Big Daddy Shelter. When I first took a look at it I noticed that the pallets were askew so I grabbed my drill and some screws and fixed that before getting the tarp secured. 

The last thing was the giant door - that was down on Skinny Momma's hog netting. It's huge and I wasn't 100% sure that I could do anything, but it needed to be moved. With my luck she would have gotten brave and decided to escape and run over the metal door. So, slowly, but surely I was able to scoot the door over and off the netting. Then it took another couple of minutes to get the netting nice and tight again. No sagging anywhere.

There is a reason that we call our place Windswept Farm. Wind is a constant here. However, the wind usually doesn't blow things over other things or end up busting other things. 

This winter has been stinky so far. Ice, high winds/rain and then more wind. What else could possibly happen? There's a lot of winter left and I don't even want to imagine what else is in store for the Pacific Northwest.

Winter Mode

It has been a few months since my last post...and to be honest, I don't feel so bad about it.

The ladies on the garden.

A lot of life has happened since that last post, the garden has been cleaned up and the chickens are now working their magic for the upcoming season. Honestly, the chickens LOVE the garden! There is so much for them to do...there are all sorts of treats to be had in there.

Ms. Fiona 

Fiona is quite possibly pregnant. It has been a while since we last witnessed Rex hassling Fiona, so she might be with bacon bits. So for the past couple of weeks I've gone out to the pig pen to observe the two of them and really study Fiona. It's hard to say, kinda like the first time she was pregnant - I just stood there looking at her and wondering until all of a sudden there she was putting herself in an impossible situation. So the answer for now is a strong possibly.

Seed catalogs are slowly trickling in the mail...oh how I love a seed catalog! I have received catalogs from Seed Savers Exchange, Baker Creek, Territorial, Johnny's and a couple of others. My favorite is Seed Savers...love everything about that company! Check them out!! I want to love Baker Creek, but the seeds just didn't work for me for some reason. They do have a really nice Whole Seed Catalog that I purchased last year, I don't think I'll be getting it this year. Johnny's is great for garden tools and cover crop seeds. Territorial is local (Cottage Grove, OR) and I would LOVE to visit their store. That would be quite a trip though, just far enough away to not be a day trip. It would be more of an overnight trip. Overnight trips are out of the question right now - we need a farm sitter.

And I'm starting to do a few more indoor activities. Last week I broke in the new kitchen work table and baked some cookies. Last night I watched a quick tutorial on crocheting and learned how to do a single crochet properly. This coming weekend I'll be baking something and sewing.

the addition of this table makes the rest of the kitchen look really bad!

So yeah, I'm settled into winter mode alright.

As I look back on last year's gardening effort, I feel pretty accomplished at all that went well (beans squash and tomatoes) Then I think of what did not go well (onions). As I start planning for the next garden I am thinking about doing more - nothing new there. However doing more requires more time, and I don't have more time. This year I will learn time management!

I'm also thinking about how I need to replace some of the laying hens as they are starting to really slow down with their egg laying. The original girls are nearly two and a half years old and even though they are still laying, it's not nearly as much. In fact, we had to suspend our egg sales to our few friends due to the girls starting to get broody or just not laying much.

We have already got some chicks back in September, Sicilian Buttercups...

These little girls are so cute!

Also, there is an opportunity to gain a few young hens from one of my co-workers who lives not far from us. He and his wife have quite a flock of chickens and they have experienced some loss due to a predator and he is thinking of downsizing. This will be a good thing even if we have to pay a little bit of cash-ola for them. He said that they haven't started laying yet, so this would be perfect! We'll see though...nothing is for sure.

This winter I'm going to try to rest up for all of the activities that I have on my agenda for the spring and summer. Lots of things are on the list already - Freedom Rangers will be on the farm again in March, new hens, need to build another chicken tractor...chicken harvest in June. Hopefully there will be a puppy in May. All that AND getting seeds started for the garden and possibly for sale.

AND there needs to be time for....

POKEMON!