Happenings on the Ranch

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