We have spent the last couple of weeks finishing up some odds and ends that needed to be done before winter. First off, we got a start on putting in the winter's supply of hay. Check out Mom positioning bales so I could haul them in with the wheelbarrow--she never could have done that down in NC!
We put in about a third of what we need and will get the rest a little at a time, as usual. We're stacking the hay on the ground floor of the barn because I didn't have help throwing it up in the loft this fall, and had a lot of trouble with the stairs toward the end of last winter. We'll see how it goes this year--already Bella has broken in and stolen hay so I suspect I'll have to come up with another solution for next year...
The pasture grass is gone for the season, but I never got around to mowing the back yard before it got cold so we let the Barn People mow it for us. It gave them another 2 weeks of fresh grass and saved me that much on hay.
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| Al has a nice shaggy coat coming in for the season. |
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| My southern belle, though, is still working on hers. She looks like a giraffe in places! |
One project I wanted to complete was an insulated contaner for my water tank. Running the electric heater last year to keep the animals' water from freezing really had an impact on our electric bill so when I saw the plans for this thing in one of our magazines, I jumped on it! I'll still need to use the heater in the really cold weather, but this should save us quite a bit.
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| 3/4" plywood and 2" rigid foam insulation should help! |
While I worked on that, Mom got Mr Trailer all set for the cold and snow:
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| Looks like we're leaving with the next wagon train, doesn't it? |
She also spent a day painting the south barn door, which we build last year but never sealed against the weather. I like the green we picked out! The barn will someday be white with that green on the doors and trim, to match our outbuildings. Someday...
Once it was dry, we used a few inexpensive rubber doormats to keep the cold winds and snow out. All of our heavy snow comes from the south, so it's good to have this end of the barn buttoned up.
I finished my insulated stock tank just as the first snow started falling! I wasn't sure the animals would drink out of an opening that was so much smaller than they were used to, so for the first few days I left the other, open tank sitting there to help them ease into the transition. All of them are now using the new water tank.
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| Just in the nick of time! |
We ended up getting about 4 inches of snow that day. It was beautiful!
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| Here's how the open tank looked, the next morning. |
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| The new one, though, only had a tiny, thin piece of ice where the hole is The rest was just fine. It works!! |
The snow was gone by the end of last week and we had some warmer weather (mid-40s) for the week of Thanksgiving. Mom cooked up a storm for two days and we had enough Thanksgiving dinner to feed the whole family! It was just the three of us, though. We had a very nice holiday dinner.
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| Lots of good stuff! We're still eating leftovers a week later! |
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| Hadjo and Bones thought they were invited to celebrate too. |
It's been a busy time, but we're all set now for the winter weather. My next project is the tiny front bedroom, which I'm going to use as my office and temporary studio (I plan someday to build a small freestanding studio for all of my spinning and weaving equipment, but for now I will just use the smaller loom in the house.) I hope to do a lot of weaving this winter!
We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We are very thankful for another year up in the big woods, for our little farm, for our friends and for our family, both 2- and 4-legged.
