Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures in The Good Land is largely a fish out of water tale about how I eventually found my footing on a small farm in an Amish town. We are a mostly organic, somewhat self sufficient, sustainable farm in Ohio. There's action and adventure and I'll always tell you the truth about farming.


Monday, January 14, 2013

Three Things About Winter

For the last couple of days we've had weirdly warm, spring-like temperatures. It's more like April out there than January. I was a little disappointed to tell you the truth - being out there in shorts.

It hasn't looked like this very much.

There are a few things that I like about winter:

* The rare opportunity to sleep in on these long dark days.
* Winter chores are much faster and easier - no goat milking and fewer bodies.
* Sitting around eating carbs and all kinds of baked goods because what else are you gonna do?

So while having the windows open was an opportunity to air out the house... unfortunately it wasn't as great as it sounds. It's muddy and I think it's harder on the animals when we have these kinds of odd temperature fluctuations.

Haven't seen this either.

We went out to find the meat chickens panting the other day. It was 60* when we did evening chores. It's easy enough to keep the chicken coop windows open but golly, I'm not sure what to do about the dogs. We've noticed that Zander's coat is getting shaggy.....even tho he and Kai are built for cold weather, I'm not sure it would be ideal for Zander to "blow his coat" when we still have a couple more months of winter. He'll need his thick undercoat for a while yet.

None of this...

Today our temperatures will be dropping thru the day and so I think we are getting back to winter. Today, after I got up way to late, we will be to hurry thru chores, and so I can get back inside and bake something.

I'm kind of hoping it will snow again but there is none in the forecast.

Happy Monday everyone! Are you back to winter?



12 comments:

David said...

After a warm spell, it's a frigid 13F here in Chicago-land. No snow cover though...

Traci Sumner said...

Back to winter and Brrrrr!

It was a chilly 2 degrees out this morning and it's up to 13 right now - but that doesn't take in to account the wind chill, which is chilly and below zero!!!!!

Stupid weather. We had ran Friday and got up to 45 and now we're at this - this is where we are supposed to be.

At least my driveway isn't a skating rink anymore, but the critters sure don't like this crappy up and down.

Which it would snow.

Provender Place said...

Two days with a balmy high of 40. Now the last couple of days we've got highs in the single digits. I hate the fluctuations as well.

Carolyn said...

Yep, back to winter after some nice 60'ish days. No snow, just darned cold. Had to break out the ice chipping equipment to break out the water buckets. Looks like it's a soup-day with the wood stove cranked like it is.

Kaela said...

We had a major temperature drop yesterday. We've been saying, "It's wet, but at least it's not cold." It got cold. Make you just want to crawl back in bed.

Weekend Cowgirl said...

You are so right about the animals. Last week it was in 70s and this week 20's and I always worry about them with such a big change. I always do extra hay and give them extra attention, but hate getting out in the cold!

Vera said...

We have had a wet and mild winter here in SW France, which in some ways is nice, in others, not. It's the mud! And I don't think the animals do so well either.

We had a great Monday, hope yours was too.

Unknown said...

We went into the deep freeze recently- snow on the ground and a low of 5 today (Boise), high of 17 or so. Brrrr....

Ohiofarmgirl said...

Dave, i have to say... i dont think the drought is over. zoikes!

Traci, that COLD. we'll get that extra cold next week.

hey PP! the temp swings are just hard on everyone. i think one of my trees was trying to bud.

hi Carolyn! a soup day sounds great..

i hear that, Kaela! especially with all these cats snuggling with me.

70*s, WCG? wow that is weird..and yep. tough on everyone.

hi Vera! my friend Ken is there near your region - you've had a ridiculous winter for sure. welcome as a new follower - i'm really interested to learn more about what breeds of poultry you have. i'm going to pop over to your site in just a second...

Nancy that is crazy cold! zoikes!

Rae said...

There are many many things I hate about winter (never seeing the sun, for one thing), but LOVE one big wonderful thing about winter... When everything is frozen... There's. No. MUD! Yay!

AZdesertFarmer said...

While over here in AZ we have hard freeze warnings for the past week. 14* at night. Not the typical desert winter.

Ohiofarmgirl said...

No mud is the BEST thing about winter, Rae!

Larry - did you get back to your normal temps? we are all over the board. its kind of hard to keep up. sheesh!

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