Just a Winter Update

It's starting to snow outside. I just got in a bit ago from putting some old hay down for bedding in the Highland area of the barn. They're up in the top field, but I expect they will come down to the barn as we have a winter storm warning and are expected to get 3 to 6 inches of snow tonight. We will get 6 or more up on the ridge here.

Gave the Angus cross steers some extra hay and water as they were watching me from the pen next door, and I could tell they were hoping I was going to add a little hay to their pen too.

We had something dig a hole and get into the chicken coop yesterday. No damage done, but probably a rat based upon the size of hole. It went beneath the cement that I put down in a trough along the base of the wall. I dug it up on the inside and outside of the wall and filled it with Sakrete. Our cat jaguar must be getting a bit soft. We haven't seen a rat since we bought the place years ago.

The chickens got out the past few days. We had unseasonably warm weather lately, and they were out grazing on the grass and whatever else they could scratch up in the gardens and the woods. The yolks will be a bit darker this week because of their forays into the wild. Our eggs are always better than any, including the most expensive, eggs in the stores, but in the winter if we have a long period of snow the yolks lighten up a bit, never as pale as the factory farm eggs, but not the dark orange of spring, summer, and fall eggs.

We have been doing some crop and cattle contemplation this winter. We have been considering some Belted Galloway, Angus, and Hereford. We bought another 15 acres, 8 field and 7 woods, that adjoins our farm, and are thinking about what we want to do with it. There are three springs on the new land, which we really wanted. Two have houses around them, though one is in need of repair. My son Michael has started working on it. We hope to be able to stop hauling water thanks to the new acquisition.