January 2010 Archives

Seems like it's been cold and cloudy since before Christmas. I'm probably exaggerating a bit, but on the whole, it's been quite dreary. Today, it's cold (hey, it is January!), but the sun is shining brightly.

The goats are out on in the pasture instead of hiding out in the barn, and the chickens are actually venturing more than a couple of yards from the hen house and barn. In fact, Mike, the rooster, was at the front door a little while ago, along with 3 of his hen harem. The fowl DO know where I live, and since I am "She who feeds us, yet steals our eggs", they often hang out waiting for me to bring treats from the kitchen (vegetables past their prime or if it's really cold and awful out, I cook oatmeal with molasses for the chickens).

I like it when it is sunny out because I feel happier and more energized. I'm much more likely to spend more time outside doing chores and preparing for planting veggies and herbs for canning and dehydrating once spring rolls around.

Last year, I had an awful, awful growing year. We had too much rain and the ground was so saturated that my green onions and potatoes all rotted and many more veggies never got going at all. I think I need to go back to raised beds (as I did the previous year). The raised beds are a lot of work to start out with, but the improved drainage really helps my onions, peppers and potatoes. I need to start putting together supplies to build those beds now.

I also need to get some soil tests done. I have some very, very rich soil where the previous landowner fed his calves - it's so rich, though, that I might need to add some sand or something to the loam to make it better for growing things.

So, hopefully, I'll be updating my blog more often and getting some pictures up and preparing my gardens for a successful year, no matter how much rain we might get!

There is a nice woman whose husband is going through CGSC at Ft. Leavenworth. She likes my eggs, and calls every couple of weeks to buy a couple of dozen. Typically, I just meet her at the PX.

Well, she called on Tuesday, and we agreed to meet at the PX at 10:00 AM yesterday. I was there at 9:58 and waited until 10:25, and the nice woman did not show up.

When I got home, after giving my eggs away to some friends, there was a message on the phone that she had waited at the Commissary for me and then realized she was supposed to meet me at the PX.

Now, I'm not really mad that she made an error. But, that was 30 minutes of my life that I will never get back for $6 worth of egg money that I won't get. I'm thinking that from now on, if someone wants eggs, they can call, and if I have some, they can just drive out to the farm to get them.

Honestly, I'm not making a penny on the eggs in the winter. I'm not even sure that the little bit I make during the market season even pays for the chicken's feed during the non-market season.

Most likely no one will bother to drive out here for eggs. Ugh.

I could just get more egg recipes and use them up and freeze the culinary results until we get around to using them.

Comments, suggestions?

This winter, we have had more than our normal share of cold and snow. Don't get me wrong, I love snow, really, I do. And the cold ... it's not bad, especially if the sun makes an appearance now and again.

In fact, come to think of it, its the wind that has been bugging me. We have had a whole lot of wind. Until we had a thaw last week, we had snow drifts that were over my knees - because of the wind! We had a drift, a huge drift, that blocked the front door for 4 weeks.
We almost always use the garage door to enter and exit the house, so we didn't bother with shoveling the humongous drifts around the front door. The only ones it bothered were the dogs, and the County guy who drives the plow on our road who sank in that drift up to his butt when he came to check to make sure he was not going to plow up John's body - see John's post!

I ended up making paths through the snow from the garage door to the henhouse to the barn, and every time the darn wind blew, I had to forge through the new drifts all over again.

Because of the deep snow, our Colored Angora Goats had little reason to leave the barn. The chickens would barely leave their house unless it was to run to the barn. I have a lot of mucking out to do once all that chicken poop thaws, let me tell you! In the meantime, I put layers of straw and pine bedding on top of the poops in the henhouse.

For the moment, the snow is gone. It's cold, but so much easier to work outside.