Spring's slowly coming!!

Despite the fact that we just recently had some snow again, I just KNOW that spring is right around the corner! And I've been doing a lot to prepare for it. . .

First, the snow beat me to my first "preperation." Among all this lovely 3 inch thick snow that fell then melted overnight, one of my PVC Hoop-Houses got crushed by the weight, and collapsed inward. Sadly I'll have to start over, but at least I now know that plan isn't strong enough for our weather. . .





Rest in Peace, hoop-house.

We had some very nice snow that night though, I'll admit. This is looking out to the "Tolbunt Pen," an enclosed area of grass, shrubs, and an apple tree for all my Polish.



And this is looking at some wood laying around. The snow stacked up to about 3 inches. Not much, I know, but for out here it is impressive.



This is looking out to the "Breeding Pen," what you're seeing is snow piling up on poultry netting.




But, INSIDE the house, is a whole other story! Here's the Shamo eggs and Marans/Shamo eggs we're incubating. All of them are fertile. The Marans/Shamos will be our meat project. They'll be a wide, muscled, long lived breed with decent growth rate and amazing size.



And then, there's the plant life! We've been planting hundreds of Tomato and Pepper seeds indoors to allow them to grow ahead of time, then get transplanted out to the Greenhouses around May when all is ready. But for now, they'll be carefully watched over and babied in here. There are a total 220 seeds in all, with a total 24 varieties of Tomatoes and Peppers total - All of them heirloom, too. ( Non-GMO, Non-Hybrid )





Next to all these seeds are three grown pepper plants I started last year. Last summer I brought them in, and they were only inches tall. They've been living indoor throughout the time, and this summer will be a year old when brought outdoors again. They're also an heirloom variety, however I have little clue on what variety they are. We planted a lot of peppers last year, a lot didn't make it, and these popped up later on in the garden as an unknown group of triplets.





So, with the tomatoes and peppers ready, we've also been planning out large areas for crops like Quinoa, Amaranth, Tef, and heirloom colored corn. This will all be for both the livestock and for us. We want to go completely self-sufficient! We also want to go Gluten-Free, too, so all four varieties of "grains" will help that.

And to add on, we'll be ordering nearly 40 different fruit trees to plant in the back of our pasture, splitting it off to the "West Pasture," "East Pasture," and inbetween will also be our new orchard.

This won't distract me from our current trees though. . . We still do have some extremely old pear, plum, and apple trees here as well as some newly planted peach, plum, apple, pear, and almond trees from last spring.

COLD outside.

George, our one and only buck, says - "Happy New Year!!! It is FREEZING so far!"


Yes indeed, it is freezing. . . That photo and the following is really what it looks like throughout the farm lately. It has been beautiful, sunny, and clear. . . But also freezing, frosty, and completely shaded. Across from our farm, on the other side of the road, is a huge line of tall trees that always blank out our sunlight for the winter, and so in tough times like now, the only areas that get sunlight are the far end of the pasture and little tiny temporary strips through the Bachelor Pad, the Polish Pen, and the main lawn. Anywhere else, it is an almost eternal darkness, constantly coated then re-coated with thick blades of frost.







Even our Yak is frosted! And no, this isn't snow. .. It's frost. It doesn't bother him though. Yaks are originally a species originating and toughing out the cold Himalayan mountains.





And yes, he had the opportunity to sleep in a warm barn. . . He tends to enjoy the cold weather we don't often get, and spends a lot of late night time out in it.

But, in the short moments and small spaces of sunlight, even the least cold hardy animals survive. . . Our Shamos, for example, are naturally a desert-type chicken, and do not do well in cold, however our pair is doing pretty well.





And, the next breed of chicken to not like the cold sadly doesn't get much of a chance to get out in the sun, but when they do, they really enjoy it. . .




Well, I hope you're doing well and warm wherever you may be reading this! It normally isn't snowy or icy here, but we do experience what you're seeing for a few days to a week per year. We normally get frost, yes, but not this heavy except in a coldsnap or two per year. This is our second one. Well, technically half of it is in the new year, but. . . I count a whole winter in one year.