As Nate and I have settled into farm life we have begun to establish our routines, chores, and projects to be completed for the coming year. Fortunately, Nate and I are pretty organized and like to lay our plans out before we get started. Funny thing about “planning” on a farm is it is better to call it a “wish list” and sometimes just “a wishful thinking” list. Soon your list is full of different tasks that need to be completed and if you are lucky you can pick which one you would like to focus on for the day. Realistically, you do what needs to be done as dictated by the weather, animals, broken equipment, or whatever else heaven & nature throws at you at the moment.
…Which brings me to this “Arctic Blast” business we have been having recently. Upcoming plans of building the sea crate house, pole barn for hay, & barn for animals have been blasted a few notches down on the list. Instead, I have been running around winterizing & re-winterizing chicken coops, lugging hot water to frozen over buckets, scooping up eggs before they freeze, tending to frost bit chicken combs, chilled animals and making sure pregnant goatie mommas have enough to eat. Nate has been at war with frozen pipes, heat tape, broken water pumps, fixing a fussy Ford truck, getting firewood, keeping the fire stoked, building a birthing shed for our very pregnant goats and installing heat lights in the coops. We have had a few lucky warm days and have been able to sneak in some of our planned items on our to-do lists, but we are coming to terms with the fact that during the winter our list should be written in pencil.
OR
We go with “Nate’s Plan” for next winter…
Sailing to Mexico!
Are there any takers on babysitting some goats & chickens next winter?
Thanks for visiting us on the farm! Be sure to check out our next blog about gifts, visiting, & the dreaded butchering day.
Nathan, Lily & Our Critter Crew
