Resolutions

New snow this morning made the gray day bright. I spent the morning cleaning the house. Later, I put together a seven shelf metal unit using the 18v cordless drill driver I got for Christmas. Boy, is that tool nice! I can't wait till the temperature warms up a bit so I can use it to start putting together my high tunnel! Resolution 1: Put up the high tunnel. Anyway, I was able to put all my canning jars on the two 7 shelf units and put most of the "stuff" in boxes that was on the floor up on the larger 4 shelf unit that the canning jars used to fill. I feel MUCH more organized. Now I will start going through all of the "stuff" and select the items I will sell this summer with my produce. By the way, I don't have a picture yet of this year's snow yet so I thought I would post an old picture taken on my Dad's farm of winter time. The ice on the trees was really beautiful.

I went to Fleet Farm after I drove our Sarah to the Amtrack Station to head back to college. I bought (I hope) enough supplies and tools to finish the fence. All I will have to build then is the gate. I should have enough insulators to run one hot wire between the top of the lower woven wire level and the first strand of smooth wire that is already tacked up. Right now the deer just go sailing between that area. Resolution 2:Finish the fence.

I've ordered more currants, gooseberries, horseradish and rhubarb roots to plant. Bought some more organic wheat from Johnnies in Maine. I still have some more seeds to order and need to get the seed potatoes. I like to get mine from Ronnigers. They are a small family potato farm. They are organic and have a nice heirloom selection. I will have 1/2 acre in vegetables, and 1/2 acre in oats, wheat, peas, and sunflowers. I don't have any harvesting equipment so I have to keep plantings small enough to handle by hand. I will sit down in a few days and work out the garden plan and finalize my rotation. I am really looking forward to planting! Resolution 3: Finalize the garden and rotation plan.

So far my tiny flock of Dominique chickens are tolerating the cold pretty well. I lost one hen. She was my tiniest hen and I think the roosters may have killed her. She was the hen that always laid the double yolk eggs. I think she was the one that laid the triple yolk egg, too. I took a picture of that egg and will post it when I get the roll developed. Perhaps laying those double yolks all the time was a defect. I don't really know. The rest of the chickens are doing all right. I have three brooder lights inside the coop for heat and turn the bedding over every day. When the days are warmer, the bedding really starts to cook. It can be almost balmy inside the coop. I leave the outside door open to help freshen the air and lower ammonia levels, and I toss around a bag of wood shavings to absorb excess moisture. We have a nice big picture window that we scrounged and put in the south wall of the coop. It helps the coop warm up on a sunny day. I really like having chickens and am thinking about ordering a few more. I'd like to keep about 50. Resolution 4: Order more chicks -- from a different source than last year.

I received a comment from a forest ranger in West Virginia. He invited me to read his blog, which I did. It's nice to read about what other people think and do. It's sort of like mini-histories that document the era.

I'm fixing rhubarb grunt and venison stroganoff for supper so I have to leave off for now. Until next time. . . .

Looks Like Winter

Well, the first snow of the season fell on November 15. We had about 3 inches. It stuck to the trees and according to folk lore, next year should show a bountiful harvest. The ground started to clear but a winter storm blew in for Thanksgiving and we have a couple of more inches.

The chickens weathered the -18F wind chill from the other night all right, but they don't like going out in the white stuff. They are perfectly happy to stay in the coop. I put a thermometer on the wall to monitor the temperature and go out a couple of times a day to check for eggs and keep an eye on the temp. It was about 10F in the coop with the -18F wind chill factor, and after I gave the bedding a good turnover, the temp actually climbed. When the sun shines, the coop can be quite cozy and seems to average about 20 degrees difference between inside and outside temperatures. The chickens all look good and seem to like the two additional heat lamps I put up. When I go into the coop I pick up each chicken and hold it inside my coat to warm it a bit. They actually line up to get picked up and some of them try to fly and perch on my shoulders. The water in the waterers is frozen each morning, so I put one waterer in the coop with hot water in it in the morning and again last thing at night. The chickens like the warm water. I have been rolling oats for them to add to their feed and find that they eat more oats if the oats are rolled. I add oats 1:1 with the layer ration. The hens lay very well for me. I get between 4 and 8 eggs a day and I only have 8 hens. One of them consistently lays double yolk eggs. I don't know if that is good or bad, but our very first egg came on October 24, the Feast of St. Raphael the Archangel, and it was a double yolk egg, so I consider it a good omen.

I went to the Price County Direct Marketing banquet and meeting on November 17 and it was a lot of fun. The food was all locally produced and tasted GREAT. There were reporters there from The Bee and The Country Today and an article in the following issue of that paper, but all she seems to have done was talk to the caterer. What a missed opportunity for a good sized newspaper to bring some attention to a blossoming, regional local food ring with high tourist potential in the Northwoods area! Hopefully this coming year we producers can increase our advertising and get some more tourist dollars to boost our direct marketing efforts. As far as I can ascertain, we are the only local food ring in the northern half of the state, and we are located in an area that the U.S. Government still considers "rural". All of us in the group produce items that do not duplicate anybody else in the group, which is really great. I am -- so far -- the northernmost farm in the ring, but that doesn't bother me. I am very excited to be part of the group and can clearly see the potential benefits for the local communities served by such a direct marketing group. I hope we can keep everybody communicating and working together.

Well, it's about dark and I need to check the chickens one last time so I'll leave off for now.

Feeling Squirrely

Went out to the field after lunch today and painted the fruit trees below the first branching on each with white paint to protect them from sunscald this winter. I am waiting for the tree wraps I ordered from Jungs to come so I can finish wrapping the trees, mulching them, and putting my wire cages around them for the winter. I am debating adding an additional wrap of wire window screen over the tree wraps and may go ahead and buy some screen when I go to town this week on errands. It was so nice out in the field. It seems like the minute I go to the field traffic picks up and people s-l-o-w down and crane their necks to see what I am doing. Some wave at me. I wave at some of them. I wish I knew their names. The air felt warm and the wind is picking up warning me that rain is on the way. The trees are peaked in their fall colors and beautiful in the bright sunlight, and the leaves are falling like rain. The orchard area looks pretty good now that I have finished the final hoeing for the season and cut the grass. The gooseberries, currants, raspberries and asparagus need only their winter mulch. I took some pictures. Hopefully I'll have enough pictures to choose from soon to put together a farm web site.

This week I have to go to Phillips and pick up my 4-H truck order of fruit for canning and the freezer. The Bayfield Apple Festival is this weekend; I am itching to go and get my yearly fix of apples, pears, and pumpkins there. When the cold weather finally sets in I am ready to bake and can! Nothing beats the smell of apples, pumpkins, and bread cooking in my kitchen. This time of year brings out the squirrel in me! I can already picture my basement shelves lined with shining jars of new jams, apples for pies and applesauce, spiced pears, and pumpkin puree. Yesterday my sister, Mary and I, went to Dad's and all of us made sauerkraut the old way in the crock; 22 gallons worth of Bohemian style kraut that we will go back and can probably the first week of November. Dad sharpened his homemade krauter slicer and it only took us about 3 hours to get it all done. He taught us how to make it the way his mother did, and he oversees how much salt and caraway seed and onions we add while he slices the cabbage on the krauter. My arms ache from tamping the cabbage down in the crock, but I can't wait to get some of that kraut with a duck in my big crock pot with some potato dumplings.

Saturday I also have the Landowners Tour with the Price County Ag Extension. These kinds of educational trips are my "vacation" days. I get to socialize and stimulate my intellect. I am already making mental lists of things to do inside the house this winter.

The chickens are getting big and all of a sudden I find I have a choir of roosters that sing all day. I am somewhat angry about having this many roosters because I paid for female day old chicks. The company I ordered my chicks from guaranteed 90% accuracy on the sexing and even as bad at math as I am I don't think 8 pullets out of 25 chicks ordered makes for 90% accuracy. I will find a different hatchery for next Spring's order and the next cool weather we get I'll do some butchering. My pullets will then be able to mature in peace and feed costs will go down.

Well, I better get going and fix supper, so I'll leave off for now.