Working the Snow Flies List
There is never enough time in the window between the colors turning and winter’s first blasts. I don’t know why it seems like a vortex appears, but each year we reach September only to find it’s suddenly New Year’s Eve. The days blitz by as they grow ever shorter and that before-snow-flies list grows ever longer.
Each year, we strategize, working to stay one step ahead, but there’s always something that comes up. I know you may be thinking that this is awful early to be discussing snow, but October on the farm is never too early for working on that before-snow-flies list. Never. No one wants to get caught in a hard place with bad weather on the way.
That is one of Steve’s early memories of joining us on the farm, before he also joined the family. One day in late autumn, he stopped in at Farmstead and announced that snow was on the way. Snow! We had hens way out on pasture yet and all kinds of things needed putting away. We scrawled a sign to hang on the door of the Cafe, locked up, and headed for the fields. We split up the tasks, some of u going with Steve to gather the stack of wood that was still unprotected, while small equipment was pushed into any available shelter and the hens brought into the safety of the barnyard. We worked well past dark, well past midnight, and Steve stayed in step the whole way (though he later admitted he thought we were a bit crazy…in a lovable way).
This year, parts of our snow season preparedness are well underway, with the winter squash picked just in time and stored away in the root cellar basement of the farmhouse. With the full moon at the beginning of the month, we managed to harvest all the tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers from the high tunnels before the big freeze. This morning, those delicate plants were frozen solid, even inside the shelter of the high tunnels. Their fruits, however, were safely stashes in crates inside, ready to finish ripening.
The irrigation to the garden is all disconnected and the fragile parts stored away. Some of the hoses have been rolled up and hung in the garage. Somehow, there never seems to be enough winter homes for hoses! Don’t forget to bring those in on a warmer day. I’ve had my share of wrangling cold garden hoses that refuse to coil and want to act like a brittle anaconda instead. Yikes!
Wood. There’s always so much wood work to do before snow flies. The pile is mounting by the shed, ready for a splitting party. One improvement this year was to create a wood box near our back door, so we can stash more wood than we can place in the holder inside by the wood stove. This will be handy when it’s 30-below and windy at 9pm at night and we’ve burned the last piece. Now all we have to do is duck out the door instead of pile on 20-plus pounds of extra clothing and trudge across the barnyard for another sled-load.
Today’s project for me was prepping the studio yurt for winter. Because of the rodent attack and the aging of the sidewall fabric, I have new exterior canvass sides on order, but they may not arrive until after everything has frozen. We’ll wait for a sunny-warm day, but it won’t be weather for washing, that’s for sure! Today I scoured the wooden front door and screen door, which will receive a fresh coat of stain tomorrow, then scrubbed up the still-in-great-shape top cover so it’s all ready for winter and easy to handle when reworking the sides. Much of the scrubbing was with a long-handled brush held over my head. I can hardly lift my arms tonight!
Meanwhile, Kara was out building more winter pig houses. Our portable tractor pens for the younger pigs work great in summertime, but there’s not enough protection from snow and wind. She worked well into the evening by headlight, screwing together pallets, boards, and tin. Mom cleared out the toasted, limp tomato plants, so we’re one step closer to either being able to do soil work before snow flies or right away in the spring as the ground thaws (depending on how fast the first of those events arrives).
I have to finish cleaning and preparing my coops for winter occupation. In the summer, they serve as brooder coops for young birds, so it’s a bit of a makeover before moving in the adult, laying birds for the cold-months duration. The hens know the time is coming soon as they shed their old feathers and work to grow new ones in the annual event of the molt. Even chickens know they have work to do before snow flies! I’ve been offering them blocks of ground fat we have our butchers save for us from processing our animals, which is not only giving the girls great energy in the colder temps but also helping them have something useful to peck at (rather than each other’s new feathers).
The list, of course, could go on for another article, but you can see the trend. There is always, ALWAYS something that becomes a last-minute before-snow-flies emergency. Last year it was digging the potatoes as the ground was trying to freeze (hopefully we get to that sooner this year). Another time is was bringing in the ducks from their summer A-frame houses (that was right in the middle of the snowstorm). Never a dull moment! Are you preparing? Don’t wait too long! See you down on the farm sometime.
