So it’s December 16th and I’m getting all the fuzzy feelings inside for the holidays, a time when I can set down my work wears, sit back, put my feet up and enjoy some hot coco around the fire.. or can I? Alas it seems life on a farm the work never ceases, however the plus side is in the winter it does slow down, so we intend to take full advantage of this slow period and get to all the many tasks we’ve been putting on the back burner for the past number of months.. Johan’s stacked more wood around the house so we ca easily access the wood to warm our home over the winter months, he’s made some amazing slow feeder boxes for the horses and stream lined our work flow by installing a float system on our horses water tank to keep it fully stoked with fresh clean drinking water all season long, ya hoo!
We also decided after the major interest in our farm fresh free range eggs that it might be a good idea to have some more hens on board, so we’ve invested in 12 more laying hens. Seeing we feel strongly about heritage breeds we found a nice little hobby farm who had a mixure of white speckled sussex, an orpington mix, and black australops for sale. And being that theres always learning to be had, especially on the new farmer side of things, it turns out a couple of the hens we brought home had leg mites, darn it, lessons learned to inspect more deeply before bringing new critters home. So after a nice soak in soapy water, a leg scrub down with a tooth brush, some tea tree oil and a castor oil lathering on their legs and a good dust bath with diatematious earth,they’re finally settling in nicely in the horse barn away from the home flock while we quarantine them for 4-6 weeks before introducing them to their new flock. Looking forward to seeing these ladies grow!
So getting back to winter chores, some things on the agenda this winter is to fix the long awaited side gate off the barn that took its fall awhile back, replace the wire fencing with wood railing along that side gate, fill the barn up with hay, prune back the blueberries and rose bushes, finish prepping the garden beds, do some much needed farm accounting, and last but not least finish off the interior on the tiny home to have her ready in the new year for guests.. So much is awaiting our call, so maybe that hot coco will have to wait until after the horses are tucked in, the dogs have said good night and the chickens are in bed and my day in done, until then stay tuned we’ll see you all very soon!