I like this weather

I am looking out the window and it’s nearly the winter solstice and the grass is green. I love it. It will get colder of course but the longer this milder weather goes on the less there will be for the whole winter. And the days will soon start getting longer—like after tomorrow and the sun brighter and stronger- hurray! I don’t need snow for Christmas.


The water in the hoses to the barn ran today. The temps are falling through the day but the hose will still run tonight. Filling buckets up gives us water that doesn’t have to be carried for a few days. That’s one of the worst parts of winter for me. Driving on bad roads is the very worst part and shoveling a path to the barn is another bad thing. So far the roads haven’t been that bad and no shoveling has been done. And while I have carried water a few times it also hasn’t been that bad. Hope it keeps up this way.

I haven’t brought the horses over to the main barn yet and the birds still can use the back part of the barn for roaming around in. I’m keeping an eye on the weather forecast so I can get the horses over there if I have to before I have to lead them through drifts. They like the freedom of the larger pasture better anyway. They have a deep run in barn for shelter. They don’t mind this weather and are very frisky. Lily hasn’t had any trouble with her feet, maybe having Chance with her keeps her more active.

We butchered two turkeys, young toms. They weighed out at about ten pounds each, nice size for us. I was supposed to bring one tom to a friend but that has been postponed. The bronze tom has been being a bit of a bully, it’s strange they are all related but the red turkeys separate themselves from the bronze most of the time even inside.

If I was sure the weather would stay mild most of the winter- we are talking Michigan here- it could be -20 degrees and 3 feet of snow next week- I would turn the birds out to roam again. I’d have to clip turkey and duck wings or I’d have them all over the yard again and I’d probably never get them caught again. The Guineas would probably never come in again and roosting outside in the winter wouldn’t be good. If I had to bring the horses over then leaving a door open would be a problem. The horses would be after the bird grain all the time too. They would try to push through even a small door. The doors all face north- and that would be bad for birds to leave them open although the horses come in and stand to the side and are fine. I guess I’ll leave them locked up; there isn’t much to eat out there anyway. They do have their big “greenhouse” area we made by covering the fenced outside run.

The ducks are trying to nest already. Guess they think its spring. I don’t think I’ll let them hatch eggs this early though. We have 7 ducks left- soon to be 6 as I give another away and even that few make a big mess in the coop. Hurry spring.