Missing Willow Farm

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It was ten degrees when we got up this morning.  It hasn’t been above freezing for the past five or so days.  When it’s this cold out, the dogs are extra happy to see me come into the pasture to feed them.  The sheep are like ‘meh… whatever’.  They have their own woolies to keep them toasty while they graze for the last tidbits of grass.  The goats are huddled up in the barn – ‘bring us more hay, woman!’ and the chickens are thankful for last night’s dinner scraps.  They ran back into the little barn when these were gone, and I ran back to the house when I was done with morning chores!

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We had our barn built last Summer to our specifications.  Actually, we bought a book called ‘How To Build Animal Housing’ which is full of basic plans.  We selected the most obvious, ‘sheep shed’, and showed it to our fencing guy.  6 weeks later it was done.   Well, they put up the structure and ran an electric line and water to it.  We stained it a color of green that was hotly debated within the family but ended up blending pretty well with the surroundings, and my husband is handling the wiring himself.  He’s a genius, just so you know.   It’s got four ‘rooms’.  The tractor bay, the large loafing area where we feed, our feed room where we keep feed in metal garbage cans to keep out the mice and what we have been calling the milking room which is currently hay storage and has housed baby goats in the past.  It’s super functional for our needs and coveted by the neighors.  One has contacted our fencing guy to ask him for a duplicate.  I wonder what color they’ll stain it?

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Around 15 degrees to be exact.  My husband started his work calls with the Orient way before daybreak this morning so it was up to me to get morning chores done and open the gate.  Today’s the day our contractor comes to fix the wall tile in our new (very expensive) master bath shower that’s cracking after just 6 months.  Of course, the Mule wouldn’t start with it this cold out so I had to bundle up and walk the half mile out to unlock our gate.  The lock was frozen, of course.  I almost had to turn around and walk back to get some warm water to de-ice it then figured out if I breathe on it, it would warm up enough to get the key moving.  It worked.  All of our waterers except our new heated one in the big barn were frozen solid.  The chickens have a saucer of water instead of a waterer to drink out of today.  Hope they figure it out!  I broke a shovel trying to clear the ice from a pasture vessel.  Milos and FiFi were very anxious for me to get their breakfast out of our feed room.  When I finally got back inside, I had an email from our contractor saying they wouldn’t make it out today, of course.  They’d be by on Thursday to fix our floor tile.  Lovely.  It’s wall tile and grout they are supposed to be fixing.  I think I need to bake cookies today because I need a cookie!

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And our driveway isn’t paved.  Big shock.  The new date is the 15th.  It was in the 90’s outside when we signed the contract to have it done.  sigh.  The driveway washes out when it rains so we have both deep ruts and dead grass.  When we finally do have it completed, I’m going to need new shocks on my car!

We got about two inches.  It started while I was at the Mistletoe Market vending soap, jewelry, assorted crafts and lamb.  I sold a bit of everything.  As soon as I got home from the market, we jumped into our jacuzzi to enjoy the falling snow.   It’s kind of a tradition.  The first snow gets enjoyed from the spa (with champagne).  Good thing it happened on a weekend this year!  The first two photos are from our front porch.  Don’t we have a view to die for?   When we bought the place, our insurance company asked how far away we are from a fire hydrant.  Uhh… 50 miles maybe?  But a tanker can draft from the pond in our front yard!

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Jenna lives to fetch our sheep.  We ask her to do it every day because it’s her job.  It doesn’t matter if we need them or not, we ask her to bring them.  It makes her happy. Our giant ram visitor evidently doesn’t enjoy this daily event because he knocked me down a few mornings ago after Jenna fetched them.  Got me right behind my knees when I wasn’t looking and sent me flying.  I’m sure he backed up to get a good start before he rammed me and it looked pretty comical but the livestock were the only ones who saw the show.  I only suffered a skinned knee and have not turned my back on him since.  I think it’s time he went back home, don’t you?

You don’t see this very often – a lone sheep.  They have a strong instinct to stay together in a group.  This is what protects them from predators who go after the outliers in a flock.   If we need to move one sheep into our little pasture for whatever reason (illness, separating the males from the females, etc), we always bring a buddy along so it doesn’t get agitated… and a guardian dog.   Everyone stays happy if they have a friend to hang out with.

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We picked out our Christmas tree this past weekend.  For those of you who don’t live where you can do this, which is pretty much anyone South of us, it’s an adventure.  I think we’re right on the edge of tree farm country.  We live about a mile from a Christmas tree farm that we tried two years ago.  Even though it was freshly cut the day after Thanksgiving, the needles fell like rain to the point it was basically a stick and a pile of needles and we had to take it down on December 23rd as it was a very sad fire danger.  Last year we cut down an evergreen that the prior homeowner planted too close to the house.   We just let it grow until it was tall enough to be our Christmas tree and last year was the year to bring it inside.  It had the sharpest needles of any tree I’ve ever seen and gave a puncture wound any time someone got near it.   We couldn’t wait to get that one down.  This year we went up the mountain to a spruce tree farm.  They are at a much higher elevation even though just 20 miles away and sell the real deal spruce.   Here’s hoping this one’s a winner!

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We stopped heating the greenhouse last night.  It’s been in the 20’s overnight and doesn’t pay to keep heating it for just a few things.  It has a propane heater and its own tank.  We picked the meyer lemons and brought the lemon tree inside to live with our other potted citrus for the winter.  We picked the hot peppers and have them air drying to end up in hot pepper flakes.  We brought the cucumber plant and the ghost pepper plant inside to see if we can continue to force them to yield.  We got a really late start on the ghost pepper when we received seeds in July so it’s just now flowering.  They are the world’s hottest pepper at a million scoville units.  A farmer has been selling them for $5 per pepper at a neighboring market.  I have one I am drying for pepper flakes and seeds and we’ve got the plant so there’s that.   It’s incredibly expensive to heat the greenhouse in the dead of winter.  It’s pretty huge, 16′ by 40′.  We tried the first year we had it and lost power around midnight that January in below zero degree weather.  By the time we woke up and realized we had no power therefore no heat, everything was frozen.  We lost all of our potted citrus, vegetables, hibiscus, herbs, saffron.  Since then we don’t even try.  The tropicals come inside and the cool season crops stay down there for an extended indoor season.  We also entertain in the greenhouse.  We’ve got our old dining room table set up there permanently.  We had guests over for dinner this weekend and had dessert in the greenhouse.  I call it destination dining on the farm.  With the heater going we had gingerbread, sour cherry pie and blackberry wine by candlelight with the moon glowing through the covering.  It’s hard to believe a commercial greenhouse setup can be magical, but it can.

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We’ve got our clay pots and tomato cages moved off of the back deck, although they haven’t been scrubbed clean yet… We’ve stockpiled some compost for next Spring and are getting ready to shut the greenhouse down for the winter.   The fleece by the door is actually what’s called skirting.  It’s the poopy part that gets removed after shearing because fiber artists don’t like to have to deal with it.  I collect it on shearing day and stockpile it for the garden.  I’ve used it as both mulch and to line the bottom of clay pots.  Think about it… it’s all natural and full of fertilizer and is compostable.  It makes our gardening containers lighter than if they are filled completely with soil and nurtures our plants at the same time.  I should bag and sell it at the farmers market!  Sheep Sheet.  Skirt Dirt.  Dung Fluff.   BM (Baa Manure)…  The possibilities are endless.