Happenings on the Ranch

As a farmer, it becomes second nature to pay attention to the weather and its patterns.  Current weather conditions are usually a predictor of conditions to come.  I kept saying all summer and fall that we were going to have a wet, nasty winter.  Considering we are in the fifth snow storm in three weeks and it has been bitterly cold, it looks like I may have been right.

Mind you, I love the snow.  It’s beautiful and usually gives a little bit of an insulating layer for the animal shelters.  This winter so far, though, has turned out to be one of the coldest we’ve ever had.  The high during this time of the year is usually right around freezing or just slightly above.  Today the high will be around 19 degrees (which is an improvement over the past few days) with a cold blast coming in that will make the high on Friday around, gulp, ZERO.  And nevermind the overnight lows that are frequently below zero, not including the wind chill.  Yipes.

In most instances the shelters we have built for the animals are adequate for winter weather.  In temperatures like these, though, we’ve had to make some adjustments.

First things first, the rabbits have all been moved from the Bunny Barn into the basement.  Although the cages we have them in now are a bit more cramped than they are used to, they are all staying toasty warm by the word burning stove in the newly christened Chateau de Rabbit.

Secondly we’ve added extra wind blocks for the hogs, goats and chickens.  Especially since the potbellies have newborns and two goats will be giving birth soon, we want to make sure they don’t get chilled.  Chester, our boar, has been moved to a pen with a much larger shelter where he can dig and make his nest area to his hearts content.  The poultry and pheasant houses have extra tarps added to block the wind and most of them are very happy to just stay inside all day at this point.  In fact, they look at us like we’re crazy when we open the doors in the morning to let them out.  The only ones who seem to be acting like it’s no big deal are the geese, who wander around in the snow the same way they do in the rain.  Of course, since they are all white it’s often hard to see them sometimes unless you catch a glimpse of an orange beak.

The horses don’t need any additions to their shelters but I feel for them because they seem truly bored.  Horses naturally spend 90% of their time slowly grazing.  Of course with the snow cover on the ground we are feeding them a daily ration, but that doesn’t last them very long.  With nothing to occupy their time,  they’ve taken to pulling dead branches off the barren trees on the property.  They even chase each other around with them in an equine version of keep away.  Occasionally one of our dogs, who often plays chase with them during nice weather, will head out their direction and they happily participate in a game of cat and mouse for a short time; but it’s too cold to do that for very long and the dog gives up and heads in the house.  When the weather breaks, I’ll have to give the girls a well deserved trot around the property – as long as the ice is melted.

As you can imagine, nothing is growing.  Actually we do, surprisingly, have some surviving spinach under the a-framed raised beds but not much to write home about; I doubt it will survive much longer.  Not to mention it’s just too darn cold to go out there and dig it up.  Seriously, I’m not craving spinach salad that badly.

Unfortunately we haven’t been attending our winter market in the last few weeks due to a combination of illness and lack of items to sell.  We do still have whole free-range chickens available if anyone is interested.  They are $3.85 per pound and average around 3.5 pounds.  Once these are gone, we won’t have any more available until late spring.

CSA sign ups are still going strong.  I have managed to fix the website link to our CSA contract so anyone who hasn’t signed up yet can now download with no problem.  Of course, if you have any questions you can always feel free to email us.

Until next time, stay warm!

~Karin