There is this shift that happens every year, sometime in early December and we are juusstt abbouuttt there!
For most of the year, my weekly calendar is chock full of tasks that involve moving animals and maintaining our pastures. We move the laying hens, the pigs, the turkeys and the chickens so frequently that it would probably make your head spin (this is called rotational grazing and it’s one of the reasons our food tastes so delicious). Along with the animals, comes the water lines, the feed totes and all the movable fencing.
But in the winter, the grazing season is over. The grasses and legumes we’ve been nurturing in the fields all summer long are dormant. Grazing these fragile grasses now would damage our pasture and set us behind for next summer.
So instead, we bring everyone up into winter paddocks closer to the barn and to our house where they will stay until the fields are ready to graze again in the springtime. The laying hens are up behind the barn and will soon be moved into the house our Fairy Godmother helped us build and the pigs are moved into their winter area, which is a series of winter paddocks beneath a long tree line.
Besides a few little loose ends, our farm is officially buttoned up for winter and we can finally exhale. It’s not like we don’t have work to do (we still have our flock of laying hens and at least 40 pigs on the farm right now with new piglets on the way every couple of months)…. but the transition to winter time is complete. We’re ready for the 4-foot snow falls and the strong gusts of wind, whenever they make their appearance.
This also means I get to stay inside more, spend a lot more time cooking new recipes, read plenty of books, and plan for next year… you know how much my I love spreadsheets!
Your Farmers,
Greg and Jenney