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Fall chores of construction and bed prep continues while the cold of winter creeps closer and makes outdoor work a little harder and a little more urgent. Each step gets the chickens a little closer to being completely warm and dry for the coming winter. There are still dried flowers from summer left that get turned into wreaths to enjoy in the winter and with the shorter daylight for outdoor work come more time for indoor weaving work. Those crafts will be available this weekend at the Heritage Museums Holiday Bazaar and more events (TBA) throughout the coming holiday season!  The gold of fall has come and gone with heavy winds last week taking most of the larch needles with it.  The huts and runs are nearing completion but can be slow going since most wire work requires dexterity which is hard to keep in near or below freezing temps. Cold hands call for many tea and coffee breaks with a few cookies for good measure!  And then the real cold and snow came. It is almost gone but the chickens and ducks got a little taste of what is to come and I got to scramble to get heat lamps temporarily in place and top up water dishes as they froze solid in the -2F.  Hella is all ready for Halloween with her very own dragon costume even if it is a little snug!  These wreaths and many more will be available this Friday and Saturday at the Heritage Museums Holiday Bazaar. I'll also have some handwoven scarves, dragon hair clips, and a few dried flower barrettes! Stop by from 4-7pm this Friday or 10-4pm this Saturday at the museum! Eggs are coming soon!
The yearly molt is almost done (just a few stragglers are fluffing out) and then the winter lights get turned on to give them more daylight hours and then they start laying again!
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The spring flowering bulbs and garlics are all planted. Most of the equipment has been cleaned, dried, and stored away from the sharp teeth of little rodents. And the construction of the many huts and runs to help keep all the feathered farm helpers warm and dry through winter has begun in earnest, starting with sealing and painting as much of the wood before it gets too cold for it to dry properly. There is still some of this seasons garlic available, as well as plenty of the dried flower wreaths. They and I will be at the Fall Bounty Market in Troy on Friday from 330-630 as well as some of the other seasonal indoor markets, which ones are TBA. A few of the young ducks have just started laying (!) soon there will be of good enough quality and quantity for the weekly Egg & Microgreen Delivery to begin (I'll send out all the deets on Facebook, Insta, email, etc once it starts up!) and by then the hens will have hopefully be done enough with their molting to start laying again. As the season winds down and ends, these newsletters will become fewer and farther between as the farm work becomes more of a few larger projects to keep me going through the winter season and planning for the next!  The tulips and daffodils sit comfortably in their trench about to be covered in their winter blanket of dirt so that they can reach their roots down and get snuggled up before the deep freezes come.  In goes the garlic! Each clove pushed down into its own little home.  And then covered in a thick mulch! It doesn't look like much but a good 6 inches of cut and dried grass from the spring is carefully placed and layered above the little garlics to help them through winter and suppress weeds. The ever helpful Hella was a constant companion while drying the agribon (frost fabric), folding the wind break cloth, draining the hoses, and drying all the flats that will be filled with soils and seeds come early spring! Part of prepping for spring is mowing down the spent crops before tilling and tarping to keep the beds weed-free and hopefully banish the pasture grasses for good! 'You shall not pass!' - what I imagine the tarps say to the weeds as they try to germinate  The fall color of the cottonwoods and aspens had been dampened by the early temps in the teens, but at least the larches can be counted upon to give a decent show!  The beginnings of the purple hut to house the guinea fowl aka the purple pupae eaters!  The snow that came is now gone but it will arrive soon and it will bring friends so here's looking forward to dark days with warm fires and crisp sunsets with lots of cheerful twinkly lights. What's available this week?
Where to find it all?
I'll be at the Troy Farmers Market, this Friday from 330-630pm indoors at the Baptist Church! It was one of those weeks where you do a lot moving here, doing there, but it feels like nothing got done. A lot of projects and tasks need to get done before snow arrives to stay and a lot have been started but not many done yet. This is the last week of the regular Farmers Markets, with only the Fall Bounty Market in Troy on the 18th followed by the possibility of some seasonal craft fairs and bazaars. With the end of the markets and their accompanying routines, I have more time to finish the big projects and make sure everybody is planted, mulched, and prepped for winter. The hens have slowed down to minimal egg production so the winter egg/microgreen delivery will not begin for a few weeks, probably in early November. But the young ducks have laid their first egg and soon the others will follow and the duck eggs might outpace the hens before they finish molting. The shipments of Tulips and Daffodils have begun to arrive and with each one the Quality Control Officer does a thorough inspection. There was a few favorites form this year that I got more of and a few new beauties that will hopefully become favorites as well!  The tulip/daff trench is nearly finished and with so many arriving I may have to trench part of the next row too since I will be moving last years one to be with their new friends.  The very last of the fresh flowers. All others succumbed to the frost and snow, but these cold-weather-lovers were happy under their tunnel, which has now been removed to let them feel the cold enough for the annuals to die back and the short-lived perennials/biennials to push their energy into their roots to last the long winter. The chilly mornings spent inside are not wasted as I make more and more wreaths until the dried flowers run out. The very last of the fresh flowers. All others succumbed to the frost and snow, but these cold-weather-lovers were happy under their tunnel, which has now been removed to let them feel the cold enough for the annuals to die back and the short-lived perennials/biennials to push their energy into their roots to last the long winter.  The weather is a fickle creature in fall and most outdoor tasks take his cue, but at least the early snow flurries help quicken the step knowing that more will come and eventually it won't leave for a longer time.  Another task that has to move indoors is the cleaning and storing of the tubers & corms that can't overwinter in the ground. These are the Ranunculus that were dug up last week and started to sprout again before I could wash and dry them. They are like little delicate octopi. The anemones are next, followed by the dahlias. What's available this weekend?
Farmers live by the weather. For as many tunnels, row covers, and other gear we use to protect plants from that weather, it eventually gets the better of us. (I do have a new heater for the Dragon Dome™ to get its residents through any inclement cold, like the 11F freeze that happened two nights this last May and froze a few flats of seedlings, but it isn't set up yet). Some plants are brought inside to weather the weather in a more sensible fashion. Some are harvested hard to beat the weather. Others are left to their own survival skillz, which some are better at than others. The cold means the end to most flowers, as even under their tunnels they cannot cope with it. The ones that can are slow to bloom, since why bother when most pollinators are frozen in place or hiding in crannies. But there are lots of flowers stored inside, either dried or drying. More wreaths have been made and more hoops have arrived. An exploratory committee is working on developing some new floral hair clips and barrettes. And wintertime weaving work can begin. There is still lots to do outside to get everything ready for heavy snows and make spring planting as smooth as possible. Plus lots of more huts & runs to build to spread out the chickens during their cooped up winter season and keep them comfy cozy as they get another year older. There are still two more markets in Libby and all the upcoming seasonal fairs and markets! Stay tuned for updates and which ones you can find me at! The snow came (only a few inches) and then it went, melting under the just-above-freezing air. There was a flurry of activity before it arrived: bring all fruits (ripe & unripe) in from the greenhouse, covering the carnations & dianthus, bringing tools undercover to reduce the rust, removing and draining hoses and sprinklers, clearing the porch to make way for the coming parade of firewood, and on and on. And then it arrived, followed by temps cool enough to seep into tunnels and greenhouse both. At that point there wasn't much to do except enjoy the reminder of what is to come (winter is coming, as ever) and give the chickens extra grubs so they don't get too droopy in the early cold (their coops don't get winterized for another month and these temps aren't cold enough to normally bother them, but the first day or two of it you can tell they find it dismally damp)  The Golden Girls are especially leery of the cold and they didn't leave their hut all weekend. To raise their spirits they got breakfast in bed of some squishy tomatoes and bread butts along with some tepid water. A feast fit for old chickens! As there wasn't much that could get done outside while there was snow on the ground, the work moved inside, but Hella (also uncontent with the outside conditions) made progress slow. At least she let me drape her with her new kitty cape (aka tie dye baby bib) for a quick photo shoot and took advantage of some sunshine by lounging with some of the orchids who have residence in a southern window.  It may be easy to get your ducks in a row, but even Galileo and Copernicus would admire the ability to get the chickens in a row, all lined up like Jupiters moons as they orbit around the hen house.  Their orbit had to shift as it was moving day for the coops. The snow and sogginess pushed it back a few days so the grass took more of a beating, but the roots of pasture sod runs deep and with all the fertilizer the chickens freely provide, it comes back lush and full.  With the new slab settled and firm, the barn chickens were let free to roam. RiRi took the opportunity to check it out from a higher vantage point while the rest of the flock first discovered the moved but familiar compost pile followed by a look through the remains around the edges of the old one. Not a one set foot on the slab. What's available this weekend?
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AuthorI'm Farmer Megan with a life full of cackles, clucks, quacks, weeds, crazy kitten, and one tiny, senior, blind dog. Archives
February 2021
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