All Hillbillied up The last few weeks have flown by, as usual. We worked right up to the Christmas holiday, then took a break to spend time with family (they came to us, as we can't leave the sheep for more than a day). Our main focus was to get the rest of our hay in the loft, which we were eager to do because the bales were being stored in our neighbor's hay shed and getting torn apart by the hungry deer. We get our hay from our neighbors just a mile up the road, which is really convenient, since we don't have a trailer to haul it with. Our method is to just do what Bill calls "getting all hillbillied up" in the old Ford F150. We chug up the road with it and load it to the gills with hay (we can get about 35 bales at a time), then slowly creep down the road with our heavy load, turn the sharp corner into our driveway and hope that the top bales don't fall off, and gun it for the final little slope up to the barn. (It's not usually such a precarious ordeal, but this year we are so late that there is snow everywhere and the old Ford is only 2WD). Normally we would be doing this during the summertime when the hay is cut.) Once there, our new barn design allows us to back right inside, put the hay elevator on the tailgate of the truck and send the bales straight into the loft! It's slick as a whistle. We spent two weekends doing this, for a total of 497 bales.
Barn doors are closed Work on the barn itself has slowed, as it's done enough to get through the winter. We just this weekend put the remaining siding and the last door up so that we could keep the ewes outside during the day. They get spoiled sitting in the barn all day and make a big mess. All that remains to do now is get the last of the framework up for the upper sections of clear siding, and then put the siding on. And of course get some electricity in. But all that can wait until Spring. We have a temporary electric cord strung up that supplies the trough heaters and a string of lights, which is all that we need for now.
Deer outside bathroom window Winter has been pretty gentle to us this year, with only some brief periods of severe cold, and even then the temps barely dipped below 0 degrees. It's mostly been hovering just below freezing, which is nice for all the animals. The chickens get outside in the snow and peck around, although I don't imagine they are finding much to eat. And there is a little family of about 4 deer hanging around nibbling on anything they can get to. It's pretty slim pickings, but they are finding fir needles and digging through the snow for leaves and such. Our group of chicks that hatched just after the fire are all grown up now and starting to lay eggs. There turned out to be 6 roosters in the group, which is just too upsetting to the hens. There is always a ruckus of some sort between them, and the crowing is enough to drive one crazy, so we butchered them this weekend. I saved the meat and am going to make some chicken sausage, and the bones will make plenty of good chicken stock. Not much goes to waste around here.
Now that the barn is usable, the hay is in the loft and the sun is starting to peek over the hill to the south, I finally have time to actually do something with the few fleeces that I managed to save from the fire. I started washing them this past week, and will be doing some dyeing when that's done. I'm also devoting much of my time to helping plan the Fiber Festival that will take place in May at our local fairgrounds. So things are starting to feel like normal again, and that is good.
Stay tuned for more updates in a few weeks, and Happy New Year to all of our readers!
Now that the barn is usable, the hay is in the loft and the sun is starting to peek over the hill to the south, I finally have time to actually do something with the few fleeces that I managed to save from the fire. I started washing them this past week, and will be doing some dyeing when that's done. I'm also devoting much of my time to helping plan the Fiber Festival that will take place in May at our local fairgrounds. So things are starting to feel like normal again, and that is good.
Stay tuned for more updates in a few weeks, and Happy New Year to all of our readers!
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