It's been pretty chilly out. Like, when I went to do chores Wednesday morning it said -6 degrees Fahrenheit on my thermometer. Now, I actually adore winter and the snow, but when one has livestock to care for, any time the mercury dips below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, well, it makes one a bit tetchy. Okay, not one, I won't speak for other people, just me, it makes me a bit grumple-rumpled.
You see, I want the animals to be comfortable and I am a bit maniacal about water. I have my own well and an assortment of water faucets around the farm. They are all frost-free hydrants, but still, one (I) do not want to dig up a broken frost-free hydrant in sub zero temperature because of lack of attention to detail.
That means in order to avoid frozen water or uncomfortable animal disasters, hoses need to be disconnected, tank heaters need to be maintained, troughs checked twice daily, heated poultry waterers need to be inspected. The list goes on....These chores are even more intense once the temperature drops.
Hence.....the tetchy.....
However, I've got winter livestock care down to a science, so, so far, so good on the cold animal care front. Everyone's doing splendidly. My wooly mammoth of a pregnant heifer is gestating comfortably, the ducks are looking at me with only a modicum of judgment, and the chickens appreciated the leftover stale granola treat I threw at, er, to them this morning.
Since it's been cold and I am still in illness recovery mode, I've been limited to light duty for the most part, so experimenting with my sourdough starter has been a kick! The other day I made a lovely bit of dough with some of the starter and baked it in my cast iron Dutch oven in my new oven. It turned out soooo good!
That said, I am going to limit baking a loaf of sourdough to one time a week. The way that loaf was devoured makes me think that our butts would expand to an ax handle in width in no time if I kept cranking out loaves on a more than one time a week basis.
It's probably my fault because I also roasted a turkey our friends raised and gave us at the same time I baked the bread. Oh drooltastic! I still have fond memories about that sandwich....
Due to the cold snap, my pepper sprouts are a touch behind. They are coming along nicely, just a teensy bit delayed. Not that I mind though, I am a bit delayed too thanks to my convalescence, so I'm more than a bit thankful to the sprouts for taking their time.
However, just looking at these little babies starting to grow gets me all excited for spring! In fact, one day when I was feeling all energy deficient, I sat next to the wood stove, my little Cora shadow at my feet, and made a list of what herbs and medicinal plants I had and needed to add to my homestead.
Living in the Pacific Northwest, I have a bunch of awesome herbs to wildcraft right out of my front yard, dandelion, plantain, Nootka rose, yarrow, red clover, and Oregon grape are just a few. One of my goals is to do better about sourcing most of my personal care stuff right off of my farm. I do this in the food department and am somewhat good about it in the body care department, but I definitely need to do better.
That said, here are a couple of healing plants that I am going to cultivate this year and will be starting in the next week:
Calendula: I've grown and used this lovely herb lots of times, but I need to have a larder full of it for salve purposes. Nothing beats a comfrey/calendula/plantain oil infused salve for bites, bruises, and healing abrasions. We get a lot of that stuff happening around these parts.
Echinacea: My grandma had a huge plot of echinacea and I would get my supply from her, but she moved to Arizona this past year and I need to get my own bed going. My taxed immune system keeps reminding me to get my rear in gear with regards to getting this immune supporting herb growing!
Arnica: Arnica is supposed to be good for healing wounds, burns, and the like, and I just want to give it a go. We'll see how it does!
There's other cultivars that I want to experiment with, but those three are definitely getting added to the around the farm plant flock. This year you all will probably see plenty of posts about my expanded rose and herb garden that is in progress and located between the pizza oven and my front deck. I have dreams of breathing in basil, roses, and rosemary as I sit on the deck listening to my inherited collection of big band era records while sipping lavender iced tea.....sigh....
And that brings me to the grow shelf. Whenever possible we repurpose or craft the tools we need rather than buying them. Mainly because I am more than slightly frugal, and secondly, because there is a lot of waste in this world and why bother buying something when you can most probably throw something together with what you have lying around the farm?
A few years ago the hubs took an old plastic shelf, drilled a few holes in it, and hung some florescent light fixtures from adjustable hooks and chains on each shelf. All of these items were things we had lounging around the farm. The only thing I bought were the grow light bulbs for the florescent housings.
The reason I built the grow shelf in the first place was purely financial in nature. In order to start my plants I was having to heat the greenhouse, as cultivars like peppers and tomatoes need a high germination temperature. Well, that was expensive and frankly, kinda wasteful in the electricity department, so I tried to think of a better way.
I have a pretty good sized bathroom due to it being handicap accessible. It's always kept at a pretty nice temperature, so I thought Why not put a seedling starting shelf in there?. It's amazing how many seedlings you can start when you stack them vertically, and by the time they start taking up space it's warm enough out for them to go live in the greenhouse, so my repurposed grow shelf is super economical and useful.
That said, after a year in the storage shed, it definitely needs a cleaning. Last year, I took it all apart to store it because I learned the hard way that each late winter when I take it out, it so needs a cleaning. That is a much easier thing to accomplish when it's not all together in its working form.
So long story short, that's my weekend project, to clean the grow shelf, re-hang the grow lights, and prep the planters for the pepper sprouts and upcoming herb, flower, and tomato sprouts.
So even thought it's a touch frigid outside, inside my home there's more than a few signs of spring's imminent arrival. I'm so excited!
And on that note, it's time to get to work. I'd love to hear what herbs or vegetables you are excited to try out on your homestead this year or what pre-spring chores you are working on!
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's gluten and mostly soil-free iPhone.