Hurricane Farm

Winter has set in and we have a solid covering of snow.  Looks like we'll be covered until the maple sap is running in March!  It snowed earlier than usual and has been colder than usual.  Such a combination has resulted in a nice white blanket throughout the state.

Neither the cold nor the snow seem to bother plant and animal life here in Scotland, CT, however.

The geese are still strolling around as if they own the place...That is, until the turkeys emerge from the wooded wetlands and take over.

The turkeys still "free-range" all winter, but there is little for them to eat so we offer them some grain each day.  This helps to keep them from "running away," as well.  In the summer and fall they eat entirely what they find in the woods and the fields, but the pickings are a little bit slimmer this time of year.

Even in the middle of a cold winter, the poultry prefer to remain outside.  The turkeys can enter the barn and roost within, but unless it is snowing outside, they still would rather sleep in the trees and atop the barn and sugar-shed.

These heritage toms and hens will be our breeding stock and hopefully provide us with all the poults that we'll need for this year's Thanksgiving.  We'll see how their production is in the late winter and then determine if we need to supplement our needs.  We're once again planning to expand our turkey operation and raise more birds.  We've been selling out faster and faster each season!

Here's Bertrude:

Here's Hiram:

Even though it's frigid and the water for the animals needs to be changed and dethawed several times per day, it is NOT too cold for a RED SOX cap!

And speaking of the cold:  check out what Erica and Liev dug out of the snow in the garden.  The kale is STILL growing, even in 20 degree weather!  This stuff sure is hardy!  It's now officially a year-round crop for us.  Hooray!

I can't believe that this stuff can still make it through this weather.  AND it's tasty!

At last!  Click, click, click.  Tap, tap, tap.  Peep, peep, peep!

Hey, what's that sound in there?

Hey look!  That one is trying to escape!  Quick, catch it!

Here is our nice, clean, and organized brooding area.  It stays nice, clean, and organized for about 36 hours once its new tenants arrive.

We ended up adding another section to keep the goslings from wetting everyone else as they splash around in the water.  The dividers worked great--for three days--until everyone thought it would be great to mingle with their neighbors.  I've been finding countless uses for what little excess sawmill cut-offs we have left from sugarin' season.  They make great "poultry dividers."

Believe it or not, those little guys number somewhere near 200 birds--I think!

They grow fast, too.  We have spaces already established elsewhere around the farm for the geese, turkeys, and egg layers, but I'm hard at work completing a new outbuilding to house the meat birds. 

Here the kids and I have set out the sill to see how big this thing will be when it's done.

The next step was to do a little excavating...

...and leveling.

I can tell you, the first block is a piece of cake.  The next three...not so much.  But we managed to get it all leveled out eventually.

I think that I bought way too many blocks.  But we used them to make a much needed (and curiously missing) step for the workshop doorway.

Next we added some floor joists and cross braces and finally put on the floor.

And here is where our construction stops for the time being.  Next we'll put up some walls...but, as mentioned before, it was a busy week.  Did I mention that the silo came, the bees are just about set up, and loads of firewood have arrived?