Winter is Waning

It's been a long time since my last post; just one example of how time slips away. This has been a long winter. We got our first snow before Christmas, which is unusual these days. Then it was a winter of deep freeze and extreme thaw. It's been a challenge in the barn yard.

This year we built an insulated box for the big water through and painted it black. The hope was it would hold enough solar energy to keep the water mostly thawed. It might have worked if we had any amount of the sunshine throughout January and February. We had weeks and weeks of endless gray days with no sign of the sun at all. So it was back to plan B, chopping ice out of the opening and filling with hot water. It works fine with only two animals... in future years we may need to look at other options.

We overwintered turkeys this year. A broad-breasted white, two royal palms, a bourbon red and eastern wild. The broad-breasted white, a congenial hen, lost all the feathers on her back and chest around early January...just when the mercury dipped below minus 10 Celsius and stayed there for weeks.

Miss Maple in her red sweater.

I found a couple sweaters at the second-hand store and adapted them for her to wear. Miss Maple looks stunning in red. The challenge was keeping the sweaters on her. The boys found it very attractive and we finally ended up moving her to the chicken coop because she was getting scratched by their constant attention.
She's only just now starting to show signs of growing her feathers again. We hope to hatch a few turkey eggs this spring and raise our own.

Here are a couple images of the toms; they are quite handsome when they're all puffed up:

Royal Palm



Bourbon Red

Last fall I built a cold frame and planted Mache; a hardy, cold-tolerant green. In January, during one of the mild spells I harvested some and took a couple pictures as well. It was wonderful to have a crisp, fresh green during the deepest part of winter. The cold frame spent a lot of time under snow, so I didn't take advantage of the greens as much as I wanted. I am excited about using to get a jump start on the spring planting season. I expect in a few more weeks I can start some spinach or chard in it.

Cold frame in January with Mache greens.
 

 I already have the seed catalogues out and I'm planning this year's garden. The garlic did well last year and is already in the ground. This year I'm going to try kale as my new crop. I really like the idea of having some cold-hardy greens to eat late into the fall and the early winter. I'm planning on experimenting with row covers and other season extenders.

We take possession of this year's pigs in a month. The meat chickens are already ordered and we're looking at potential mates for Dahlia the Dexter cow, who turned two in February and is ready for breeding.

Last year's pigs. Berkshires are extremely friendly and very tasty.

2014 is shaping up to be another busy season on the farm as we continue to move forward on the path towards self-sustainability.