Today, the striking comparison of this winter versus last winter really hit home. Today was the day that I tidied up all the loose ends in my Project Life album, before smugly putting it on the shelf. Project Life or Project 365 is a commitment to take a photo a day for an entire year and place the photos in an album, along with all the stories. (My album every year looks like a cross between a seed catalogue and a poultry show!) It is the perfect place to showcase all those beautiful farm photos, my garden and pets and to document the farming year. I use it to settle arguments when our memory fails... "When did we seed last year? How many ton of hay did we take off that quarter?" Everything is documented in my "photo diary", aka Project Life. As I was finishing up my 2016 version, it became very clear that this winter was setting up to be a real old fashioned, Canadian winter!
Last winter, I had the peas planted before the end of March! I noticed photos of myself, cleaning out flowerbeds in February! We only dropped the blade on the snowplow one time in the entire winter! But, not this winter! We have been digging ourselves out for weeks!
I have been trapped in the house much more than I care to be. There is something exhilarating about working out in the fresh air, but it has been CRAZY WINDY here in Pincher Creek this holiday season. Like, knock you over, kinda windy. I am pretty sure that I saw a chicken blow away the other day! It has been making things really exciting around here, not in a good way. The girls have been hanging out in the barn, to get out of the wind, but they are cozy and warm and laying eggs like crazy!
I am pretty sure that the builder of this barn would be impressed if he knew that his beautiful log barn was still being used to this day! It was one of the original buildings on this farm when we bought it and we had to do a lot of work to save the old girl! The bottom logs were rotted out, you could not even get into the barn, for the depth of manure that had built up. Five to six feet down, we found the original wooden floor. A lot of jacking, tons of cement (for a new, solid foundation) and weeks of setting the building straight, a new roof and exterior to protect the hand hewn logs - voila! A barn that is stunningly beautiful and oh, so appreciated by our animals! On a cold winter day, there is nothing like spending some time in the barn with the gang.
Little Sunflower is still hanging out in the greenhouse - where she is known to nibble on the fodder that I am growing in there. After every strong wind storm, I travel the country roads around our farm and collect all the "lick tubs" that have blown away from other farms. The heavy duty plastic tubs come with a mineral block inside and obviously are popular with our fellow ranchers, but they don't ever go looking for them after they blow away - score!!! I just drive around and roll them to the truck, add a little dirt and some seed oats or wheat, a sprinkle of water and line them up in rows in the greenhouse. By rotating the harvest, I have a steady supply of greens for the quail, ducks and chickens. I may also have stole scored the grain from some spillage around a certain grain auger, back during the harvest. (I admit nothing). Totally free food for the gang and they are paying me back with loads of eggs, for a little work and no cost! When I am ready to use a tub for feed, I pull out the grain (roots and all) and feed it to the animals- in less than five minutes, I can have the tub planted again and I sprinkle some fresh soil on top to make up for what was lost. The only downside of the whole operation is the look that I get when my husband has to pull over so that I can "pick the ditch". My way of thinking of it is that I am saving the environment - one lick tub at a time! LOL
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year of peace, love and chickens!
P.S. Do you know what I just noticed? My plaid flannel pajamas poking out from the bottom of my ski pants! There is nothing better than flannel pyjamas and chickens! ROTFL
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