When winter stops you cold...

I was just about to start this post, and I noticed that my previous post was about being unprepared for winter.  Interesting.  Since that first storm, we've lost power 3 more times, and amassed about a foot of snow -- then it was almost 60 degrees today (and we lost power...hmm...).

The latest storm came to us on the day before Thanksgiving. I'm sure you heard about it on the news or were a part of it if you live on the east coast. It wasn't anything out of the norm except that it happened before December...barely.  Anyway, I'm not here to write about a storm, but rather the effect of having said storm and what it does to our life.

Since we've lived here on the farm for the past 2 years, I have really come to enjoy the winters.  I think that many farmers feel this way -- it's a time to reflect on the past growing season, take stock of what worked and what didn't work, and start planning for next year.

That being said -- we had many more things on our "before winter" to do list.  We make a lot of lists in this house, and if we get to everything on the list before the predetermined deadline, then it's a lucky day.

Anyway, the storm arrived the day before Thanksgiving, and we lost power at about 6 pm.  We are fortunate enough to have a wood stove for heating our house and for cooking (though we have a gas range, so we could cook without the wood stove), a composting toilet, and a generator.  Usually, when we lose power, we only use the generator for a couple hours at night to let the water pump more water up from the well, and to use lights for reading or whatever (though we have definitely embraced candlelight).

We LOVE our Waterford-Stanley! In the winter, we cook almost exclusively on and in this stove, and it keeps our house so warm!  It is Dec. 1, and we haven't turned our heat on yet.

It was already our plan to try to cook the entire Thanksgiving meal in the wood stove, but without a back-up, the challenge was even more fun.  We learned with this power outage that none of the outlets in our kitchen is connected to the generator. Excellent. When making the pumpkin pie using our long pie pumpkins, I thought about moving the stand mixer into the living room to blend the squash smoother, but I figured people could handle some chunks -- and they could. Dinner was a success, and everything cooked swimmingly in Stanley. I think we'll do it again next year, power or no power.

It was really the day after Thanksgiving that struck me as wonderful.  I've been making a conscious effort to change my thoughts and my perspective trying to shift it toward the positive, and Friday morning was the perfect opportunity.  After cooking all day the day before, I was tired, and I was looking forward to a lazy day by the wood stove.  The dogs, however, we unfazed by me being tired or by the fact that there was a foot of heavy snow on the ground.  Anna was working, so I couldn't even pawn the dog walk off on her.  So, we went for a snowshoe.

It was glorious.

At first, I was grumbling about being cold and tired, but then I decided to stop and really look at where I was.  This is what I saw.

Clearly, the dogs did not need a shift in perspective to enjoy this walk.

I mean, really? I live here?!?!  How fortunate am I that I get to walk out my front door to this? The vast majority of people have to drive to get somewhere like this.  I spent the rest of the walk marveling at the beauty of the snow on the trees with the sunlight all around.

When I got home, I made some tea and cozied up next to the window for some quality reading time. One of the perks of farming is the off-season.

Wake up. Coffee. Dog walk. Yoga. Read. Dog walk. Read. Bed. Repeat.

Can't complain about that to-do list.








......also we cut firewood at some point...there's that.

Gratuitous dog and snow photos...

Baxter's favorite toy -- Chuck.  He flips it around, does back flips to catch it, pounds it into the snow, and then roots it out with his nose. Best. Day. Ever.

Really, he loves the snow, we promise.  Oliver's answer to this predicament....more rolling in the snow!!!!  As soon as the snow hits the ground, he starts rolling.  He usually doesn't make it 100 yds up the driveway without rolling. Adorable.

The view from our deck. Can't complain about that.

The bridge to somewhere - part 1

Trail maintenance and creation is one of the many things on our winter list of projects (and general all season to do list).  The winter is when we do the most walking, skiing, snowshoeing, etc., so we notice when the trails need some help.

The Grouse Trail (named so because we almost always flush a grouse on the trail) is a short 20 minute loop that starts and ends at our house.  We commonly use it for a quick 'get the dogs outside' walk if we're in a hurry or feeling particularly lazy.  It is also just a nice way to start or end the day.  The one problem with the trail is that it gets really wet and swampy near the field, regardless of the season.  So we decided we should build a bridge over the small 'ravine' to circumvent the muddy area.

When we moved into our house, there were several telephone poles between the house and the river as a small building down by the dock used to have power (for oyster farming).  The poles have long since been disconnected from any power source, but they were still dotting the landscape (and our view).  I looked quickly, but I couldn't find a photo of our field with them still in it.  The short of it is that we spent a day cutting down the poles and removing all the old cables.  We then realized that we had the perfect bridge material -- they're straight, sturdy, and they sure won't rot any time soon.

The difficulty with building a bridge here is that it requires the tractor since the poles are heavy….but….the reason for the bridge is that it is always wet and muddy.  Using the tractor in this location is very much less than ideal because it makes huge ruts in the mud that just don't go away on their own.

Enter polar vortex.

This super cold, snowy winter has provided us with the perfect conditions for driving our tractor through what is normally a muddy mess.

Charlotte's booty in the late winter sun….I mean, the stream bed across which we're building our bridge.  The goal was to use the winch to pull the poles across the bed and let them rest there until the snow melts and we can get them into their final locations.

Two poles chained up and ready to be pulled across.

In the interest of full disclosure, it didn't go as smoothly as this leads you to believe.  We were thwarted first by the tree just to Anna's right of the pole and had to drive the tractor back to the field, pull the poles back a bit, drive the tractor back to where it is in the picture above, and re-pull the pole across.  It pretty much landed right where we want it, though.  We only finagled it a little bit with the peavey.  Also, Baxter is trying REALLY hard to get Oliver to play with him.  Oliver is nonplussed.

Both poles in!  We're going to let them stay there until the snow melts and they settle down -- and, NO, there is no chance they're going to settle into the stream bed….none whatsoever.  Really….ok, I'll admit there's an EXTREMELY small chance.

Even though it's all blurry, there is something I really like about this photo so I'm including it.  Maybe it's the juxtaposition of the dogs, the tools, the light….I don't know.  I just like it.

The plan for after the snow melts is to get the poles secured using stones so they don't settle into the stream bed with shifting seasons.  After that, we'll cut and secure boards all along the top to make a mighty fine bridge.  We'll save that part for part deux of the bridge building endeavor.

Clearly, we made some ruts, but it was MUCH less than it would have been if it wasn't cold and snowy.  And apparently, Baxter really enjoys mud.

Winter projects

Throughout the summer, there were many times when I said, "I am actually looking forward to winter when I can do all these things I want to do but can't because we're in the throws of the growing season."  Talk about not living in the now, but that's another topic…

So, I started writing down all the projects I hoped to get to during the winter (as well as all the books I wanted to read), and what has resulted from that is our giant winter projects list.  Some things are easy (make a wood box), some things are not so easy (business master plan), but I'm hoping we can make a significant dent in the list if not finish it. As I'm writing this, I'm realizing it is now January, so we better get cracking! Nothing like a massive to-do list to kick off your year, right? :)

Here is the list in it's entirety:

• Office organization -- we have a little room that doubles as our 'theater' and office (we are without a TV, so we watch movies on our computer), and it has been the catch-all for the 'I don't know what to do with this' stuff since we moved.  I'm going to organize those things and build some shelving to help organize the place a little more.
• Fire poker -- Anna's dad has this amazing fire poker, and I was going to try to make one.  Turns out, they're manufactured right in here in New England. Considering my metal-working skills are about nil, we're going with purchasing this one.
• Under-counter shelving/cabinet -- our kitchen has no cabinet uppers (I actually really like this about it), which means limited storage.  We have a breakfast bar that we don't intend to use as such, so I'm going to build some sort of cabinet to put under the bar that will serve as a liquor cabinet/glassware storage.
• Over stove shelving/plate rack -- again, limited storage in the kitchen.  We are going to install some shelving and a plate rack (think vertical plate storage) to free up some of our cabinet space.  This will be an 'upper' of sorts, but open shelving.  We're not building this one, but the plate rack does require us to finally make a decision on plates since they're size dependent.
• Wood cover -- we don't have a dedicated wood shed, so we want to make/get a cover for our wood that is stacked outside.  This can be as simple as leftover metal roofing that we put on top of the pile.
• Book shelf bonanza -- we have amassed a number of books over the years, but we don't have a lot of book shelves here.  I'm going to build a bunch.
• Sourdough perfection -- we have a sourdough started that is a few hundred years old.  We haven't quite mastered the art of gluten free sourdough, but we're working on it.
• Organize/clean 45s -- we were lucky to get my dad's turntable and record collection, which includes a fair number of 45s.  They aren't in any order (except for the ones in boxes -- and those have a card catalog -- glad my dad's so organized!), and they could use a cleaning.  I'm hoping to develop a system for them so we know what's where.
• Drying screens -- we need to be able to successfully dry some of our crops -- herbs, beans, etc.  Last year, we just sort of hung them around or laid them out on the deck.  They really need air from all sides, and we lost a number of beans because of this.  I'm going to make some framed screens and a shelving unit to hold them.
• Composting toilet -- we'd like to be able to start making humanure -- yep, humanure.  This involves composting our waste.  It is perfectly safe, we just need to get the system in place.
• Develop a master plan -- this is a biggie, and it will probably be ever evolving.  We need to put down in writing our plan for this farm.  To whom are we going to sell our products?  On what things do we want to put most of our energy?  Where are we going to sell -- farmers' markets, CSAs, wholesale, farm stand, all of the above? Like I said -- this is a biggie.
• Finish caulking -- we had an energy audit a while back, and I'm slowly making my way through sealing a lot of the cracks in our house.  It's a tedious, slow process, but it makes us warmer and more efficient. :)
• Smoking room woodbox -- now that the smoking room looks so beautiful, we need a place to store wood by the fireplace.  I made a super sweet woodbox for our tiny stove upstairs, and I'd like to make one for the smoking room fireplace.  
• Maple syrup plan -- we tapped about 8 trees last year, and we want to really expand our maple syrup production. We need to make a plan for sap collection, storage, and where the heck we're going to put our sugar shack!
• Black trumpet dogs -- this is more of a research project.  We have lots of black trumpets on our property, and we'd like to teach our dogs to find them for us.  I mean, they have truffle dogs, why not trumpet dogs?  I'm confident we can do this.
• Chicken tractor/bachelor pad -- our male ducks are beating the crap out of each other.  This is due to the fact that we have too many males and not enough females.  Since we're vegetarians, we're not too keen on killing our males.  So -- we're building a bachelor pad for them.  It is basically already completed, we just need to order the roofing and put it on.  It is mobile, and we'll be able to rotate the ducks/chickens around the garden when we want.
• Root cellar plan -- obviously, we can't put in a root cellar until the ground thaws, but we WILL have one next year. We must!  So, we need to figure out where it's going to go, and what it's going to look like.
• Yoga room -- we have a temporary yoga space right now, but I'd love to make our permanent yoga room plan a reality.  Some of this is out of our control, but once the opportunity presents itself, we're on it!
• Squash storage -- we're growing a TON of winter squash this year as it is something we're hoping to sell sooner than later.  Squash doesn't go well in the root cellar because it is too humid in there.  Right now, we have boxes of squash under our bed (actually a pretty common storage method), but we'd like a more organized setup.  I'm going to build some shelving specifically for storing winter squash on the other side of our bedroom -- it's a really long room, and it's cold, which is good for squash storage.
• Firewood -- we have an entirely separate list for places in the woods that we want to cut firewood, but I'll spare you the boring details.  Suffice to say, we want to put up enough wood for next year and the year after.  The winter part of this is just felling the trees, we can buck and split it in the spring/summer/fall sun. :)

Maybe we'll revisit this list in the spring -- I'm going to say that the winter projects list deadline is the day we plant seeds.  At that point, it is most definitely no longer winter….we hope!