Wednesday, February 8, 2012

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!

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