January Recap

 January could be summed up with snow and cold. It really forced us to slow down, hunker down, and wait until things thawed. Actually, it was a much needed breather even if it all was quite the hassle to do anything in 12-18" of snow: barn chores, haul water out to the animals, and taking longer to bundle up to head outside. It was frigid, but it was gorgeous. 

 Of course, Jubilee loved every moment of it. ;) 

 Through the years and as I've been outside more and more, I've found that I love all the seasons for different reasons and how they create a rhythm to life. Winter is a time of rest to brace for the hectic pace of spring, the dragging through summer, and a reprieve after the scurrying through autumn. There is always something to complain about with each season, but each season also has a beauty that the other seasons don't have. I recently discovered 'Winter Song' by Emily Smith, and the lyrics are rather fitting. It encompasses hygge (hue-gah) - embracing each season for what it is. 

"So we'll stoke the fire and light the lamp

Turn our backs in from the damp

Settle down beneath the starry sky

Endure the winter passing by"

 "With carols sung, the trees been taken down

We've passed a dram and the bells no longer sound

Snowdrops rise with promise of the spring

There's talk and wonder

At what the year might bring"

 "The blackbird starts to thicken up her nest

While the early lamb, he takes a snowy step

But the north wind's grip it tightens with his chill

And holds the buds closed against their will"

  "So we'll stoke the fire and light the lamp

Turn our backs in from the damp

Settle down beneath the starry sky

Endure the winter passing by"

Until next time!

SG

Snowy Surprise

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We had a much needed, super low-key day that included naps. Ah yes, glorious napping. 

Today we woke up to smooth gray skies and a chill in the air. The forecast called for snow, but they really down played the whole ordeal. Then, just before noon, it started snowing, and it didn't stop. 

Just as it started to stick

And it kept snowing!

All in all, we got, 2 inches tops. But it was enough to make everything pretty. 

Happy new year!

SG

January Color

Once upon a winter dreary, while it mizzled, bleak and bleary.

There bloomed a witch hazel in full glory.

...

And that's as far as I got. :P I can only manage a parody for so long before it breaks. 

:cough:

Anyways...

While everything else in the garden is still sleeping, the witch hazel comes out and surprises (not really - it's supposed to bloom in winter) you with its burst of color in the dull drab world of January. 

Until next time!

SG

Winter Garden

A long over due post. ;)

Before things got 'colder' in the fall, we were able to get the raised beds into the garden and plant the few herbs that we had. The herbs were then tucked into their beds and now wait for spring to arrive with its warmer temperatures (or now... since we're having a warmer winter).

The 2'x2' beds are actually concrete forms from when we built the deck. All I did was put on a couple layers of paint and a stenciled flourish. To prevent gophers, moles, and voles (oh my!), I stapled a vinyl coated wire mesh to the bottom of the boxes. Now my herbs are safe(r) from root nibbling. Let's hope the mesh holds ;)

As for the longer bed in the middle... it's a crate that was used to transport one of my grandma's clocks across the country. Yeah, they built a crate to haul the clock. It felt like a waste to toss it, so I painted it the same color as the concrete forms, put a chicken wire mesh along the sides and then a weed block behind that. Underneath is the same vinyl coated mesh to keep the burrowing rodents at bay. 

I feel like such a Portlander for not throwing things away and repurposing them. :P

For the stepping stones, I spray painted some pavers a light cream. Once dried, I used a doily as a stencil to paint over. I :love: how they turned out. 

As for the pathway, we just laid down some empty paper feed bags and put bark dust on top. Here's to minimal weeding!

Until next time!

SG

February Freeze

We got a gorgeous blanket of the white stuff and more is on the way! Driving home yesterday when the storm came in was fun. [/sarcasm] But the roads were bizarre. With the wind whipping the snow around, the roads looked like swirling water. Now, we're just hunkered down for the rest of the weekend and making sure that the animals don't have frozen water. Yes, we've been hauling hot water from the bathtub downstairs to the barn and coop. Water likes to solidify when it's 16 degrees outside. ;) Once the wind died down, the cold doesn't bite so much, and you can get out there and enjoy the powdery snow!

Rolled Fencing

Don't worry, we drained all the water from the pipes. 

Morgan isn't so sure about all this white stuff.

The one time every year that the geese are actually camouflaged 

Whee!

Man overboard!

Getting all worn out

Our lovely neighbor

"I'm going to get the other sled now"

Mt. St. Helens

Here we go!

Dramatic minimalist pinecone

Walkin' in a winter wonderland

It's a cold little birdie

I get to wear the Bofur hat! 

This cat has the right idea - stay inside where it's warm. 

Where Have I Been?

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't been around on this blog lately. Things are relatively quiet on the farm this time of year, and there just isn't a whole bunch to post about. Unless you want to talk about all the seed and chicken catalogs that arrive by the truckload or making sure that the row covers in the garden stay on the frames or mucking out the chicken coop or the horrifically dry winter we've had so far. Then we could talk all day! Besides all that action, I've been able to really work through my herbalist program (getting close to completion!) and get some sewing done (okay, a lot of sewing). While we're on the topic of sewing, that's where my writing attention has been focused. I've been working to get a sewing blog up and running! You can go check it out here: http://pintucksandpinafores.blogspot.com/

Until next time!
SG

Baby, It's Cold Outside

You know you're getting used to the temperature staying below freezing if you think that 34 is a tropical heat wave. For the past week, we've been living and working in a Popsicle of a weather pattern. Something about extreme cold just wears you out, and when the wind gusts and swirls around, not much can protect you from its bite.

The best you can do is hunker down and minimize your time spent exposed to the elements. Unless of course you're out doing Christmas trees. ;) I just finished an entire laundry load of thermals and wool socks that we had used over the weekend. When Mom was out running errands, she found some really nice knit wool gloves with a fleece lining. Those were finger-savers. Those and my Bofur hat. Everyone's ears were freezing, but mine were toasty warm. :P

Ice from a bucket that was left outside. Before it was broken, it could have served as a bowl.

At least we can escape the cold by coming in the house and warming by the fire, the animals are out there with not much else besides what God gave them. Before the really cold weather sank in, we did our gosh-darn-bestest attempt to set the farm menagerie up for the weather. Our attempts were not in vain; they seem to have fared well (for the most past, mini chickens seem to have been the exception). We made sure that there was deep bedding, lots of hot water to prevent the buckets from freezing, and heat lamps (very well secured heat lamps, I might add). 

The geese's bucket and the frozen splashes against the back wall

One can't be too cautious when using heat lamps though... You need to be freakishly OCD when it comes to heat lamp safety. Our neighbors just down the road lost their entire barn last week because a heat lamp fell into the bedding. You could see that giant black smoke cloud rising for miles around. Driving past that old barn, all that's left is charred metal sheets left from the siding.


Now, I know that everyone from the NE corner and Midwest is probably rolling their eyes at me right now. Cold this deep is normal for them. It's something that you acclimate to and learn to live with (or you just do as the birds do and fly South). In our lovely, temperate, mild Pacific Northwest, we don't know what to do with ourselves when it gets cold. Give us drippy sogginess any day, and we'll handle it without an umbrella, but throw us into Canada's weather systems, and you just might give us enough reason to hibernate for the rest of the winter.

I think that the garden is done until spring

Stay warm and stay safe everyone!

February Barnyard

Well, someone is strutting his stuff. 

Oh yes, you, sir, are handsome, and you know it. ;) 

Someone needs to lay off the raisins, me thinks. 

And how could I forget our Mr. Collins?

LIZZY! Crazy goat... :D

There and back again

Why did we do it? Because we could. And since we didn't get to dress up to see the Hobbit... ;) But my poor hobbit feet! They're most grateful to be back in their slippers again. We would have taken more had my camera's batteries not been dying.  

Trying not to look cold. 

(In a Gollum voice) I stoled it! I stoled the precious. 

A warg even followed me. ;) 

I'm Dreaming...

...Of a white Christmas!

Actually, I don't think that the white stuff if going to stick around that long, but hey! 

We have snow. :-} 

Our Christmas porch just got Christmas-y-er 

It's a Dr. Seuss tree!

And the chickens were not excited about their new environment. One of the girls flew out of the door only to have a bouncy landing when she found out that the ground was, indeed, very cold. 

What do we do now? 

Mowing season is long past. Time to hibernate.

The one time that the geese have some sort of a camouflage. 

He looks cold. 

I wonder what it would look like if I turned the lights on. Hmm...

The goats don't take 'snow days' like the rest of us. ;) 

'Olo llama. 

And he drew a smiley face on my car. :) 

You will not get me out of bed this morning. 

Pre-flocked Christmas trees. 

"The snow needs some salt. And maybe some Montreal seasoning. It doesn't have much flavor."

Uhh...