Things I have learned so far - Farm Version

Wood stove heat is the nicest heat since radiator heat. 

EVERYTHING wants to eat your chickens.  (When they can't get to your ducks.)

Goats make a sound that will wake the dead when they go into labor.  They also produce a startling amount of 'birth goo'.  And you really have to have an understanding boss when you call in late because you have to take another shower to the the goat 'birth goo' off your body and out of your hair, and find come clean clothes.

When processing a chicken, if you place the chicken on the cutting board, breast side down and grab the lower leg firmly to sever the joint between that lower leg and the drumstick, as you press the knife into the joint it will cause the chicken's foot to curl up around your gripping hand and make you scream like a girl. You will then drop the chicken and the knife and run hopping from the room shaking the dead zombie chicken foot grossness off your hand screaming, "EEW EEW EEW EEW EEW!"

A baby goat bleat makes everything OK.  As does the sound of horse hooves galloping up the hill for his evening grain.

Never put an egg in your pocket thinking, "It'll just be for a second, and I won't forget." because it won't be, and you will.

February already?

How does this happen?  It was just Holiday and now I am looking at lambing season in short order.  There SHOULD be 7 pregnant ewes here at HasliVal Farm.  We shall see.  We ended up with 3 goat kids, one set of twins born on Christmas morning and a surprise doeling born on the 28th.  They are absolutely hysterical, bouncing and ka-PRANG-ing all over the yard.  Their favorite game is to play King of the Sheep on poor old Spring.  She is a good natured old soul, and takes their antics with resignation.  Spring does not get around as well as she used to, and I fear she will be heading to the Rainbow Bridge sooner than later. 

The woodstove is working better than I ever imagined it would.  It is sinfully warm in the house, and I have not even made a significant dent in the cord of wood stacked on the front porch.  It takes about 3 logs in the morning to get the embers cooking again, and that seems to last the day until I reload in the evening with another 2 rounds of 3 - 5 logs each.  13 logs heats the house for a day.  Of course it has been quite mild this Winter, but if that changes I am ready.

I also learned an expensive lesson this past month.  DON'T leave hay out in the rain under an old tarp.  Old tarps leak.  Moldy hay can kill a horse, so about 2/3 of the load was lost.  I had a sad moment and then had an epiphany:  When God rains on your hay, salvage what you can and make raised garden beds from the rest.  So now I have another load of hay being delivered (and stacked inside the barn), AND 3 large raised garden beds.  Now I just have to set up the beds with dirt and chicken proof them and the growing season can begin!