Yipes it’s been cold, especially at night. The livestock are all doing well with it, though. Valentine the bull woke up with ice on his fur this morning, which didn’t seem to bother him a bit but made me giggle when I saw him. He’s a Scottish Highland and they have very long coats. Great for the cold weather, not so good for the frost when it’s damp! I don’t think he knew why I was laughing at him.
The bad thing about the cold weather is the predators have less to eat and are now starting to prey on our animals. Sadly, we lost two of our ducks this week to some sort of animal. Ricky, our male mallard, was found by the creek. All that was left of one of our pekins, Lucy, was a slew of white feathers. Ethel, our other pekin, is now wandering around the farm a bit lonely. Some of the hens have befriended her, though, so I think she’ll be okay for now. I’ve posted a picture of the three of them when they were ducklings. I’m going to have to keep a close eye on the chickens and be sure I’m counting them each night as they go to roost to be sure we’re not losing any to hungry animals.
As I wake up in the morning to heavy frost on the ground, I think forward to spring and the anticipation of turning the soil, working in the compost and setting the new seeds in the ground. We are working on building a heated shelter to get an early jump on planting, with some seeds going into pots as early as February. This will let us provide an early and longer harvest of many items that usually wouldn’t be available until later in the year. I really hope we can pull it off – I’m already anxious to start planting and it’s not even Christmas yet!
-Karin
My name is Karin Nead Velez and my husband, five children and I run NV Ranch in Peculiar, Missouri. Peculiar is a small town of about 2600 people in a rural area southeast of Kansas City.
I’m starting this blog to keep our customers updated on what’s going on around the ranch especially during the growing and harvesting seasons. We are beginning our first year of CSA in spring 2008. CSA is community supported agriculture. The consumer signs on to the program to support their local grower. In return, they receive their share of the weekly harvest during each season. If you’d like to know more about our CSA program, click here.
Right now, things have turned quite cold around here. We were having very spring-like weather and then, boom, the cold weather hit. Most of the animals are adjusting well to the sudden temperature change. Our broiler chicks have had a bit of trouble, though. Unfortunately, we’ve lost several of them over the last week. Our chickens are allowed to roam and even though the youngest ones are fenced in for their protection it seems some of them just couldn’t find their way back into the warmth of their coop when necessary. I’ve started keeping them locked in the coop on the really cold days to prevent losing anymore for now. When they get a bit bigger, they should do just fine.
We didn’t get nearly all the winter prep chores done before the weather changed; there was just too much to do. So Arcenio and the kids and I are frequently outside during the midday warm-up mending fences and reinforcing shelters for the winter. I hope we’ll be done soon; it’s time for a break!
I’m new to blogging, but I’ll try to keep everyone posted at least a few times a week if I can. Even though it’s winter, there is always a lot going on around here. At least two of the goats are pregnant for sure and I think the other two are, as well. I’ll try to get some “fat girl” pictures of them posted so you can all see. And, of course, I’ll let you all know when the first kids arrive.
-Karin