Cold Day Mish-mosh

It has been a busy two-ish weeks since our last post.  There has been a flurry of activity here as we have been preparing for the arrival of winter.  The gardens are all settled in until spring.  We planted several pounds of garlic and mulched the beds with straw.  There are also some hardy greens planted under some low tunnels.  The low tunnels are something of an experiment that hopefully yields some early salad in the spring.  Fingers are crossed that they work out, no thanks to Harvey who gladly put a hole in some of the row covering within five minutes of them being placed.  The animals are also tucked in for the winter.  The early stages of a high tunnel are also now complete.  Come spring, we will convert some chain link fence posts into a 12 x 40 foot production structure.  We hope that the chickens can maintain their excellent egg production through the winter.  Silver the rooster met a peaceful end this morning in preparation for Thanksgiving.  We mourn his loss but are grateful for his sacrifice.  The pigs are growing like gangbusters.  They have been enjoying all manner of different snacks in addition to their standard ration.  They eagerly consume several apples a day and have sampled many different vegetables and even peanut butter cookies and apple crisp.  Cutting, splitting, moving, and stacking firewood has also become somewhat of a hobby.  The rather large pile of logs that was delivered in late summer is now considerably smaller.  We should have at least two to three winters of firewood stacked under cover and ready to warm us by next year.  In the meantime, I had a cord and a half of dry wood delivered which is now stacked in the barn.  All of that needed to be finished before things freeze up and we get covered in snow.  I think that happened today.  We have had sustained temperatures in the 20s with gusty winds and there are two inches of white stuff on the ground.  With all of that hard work done, we can relax by the wood stove and plan for our upcoming adventures.  Maybe we will soon get some more snow to play in?