This snowstorm was a major one! 14 inches is more that I ever remember seeing as a child, growing up in Greensboro. I’m glad that Uhtred got to see another year of snow before Christmas (that’s the right way to ring in the holiday season!).
He spent part of one day sledding and exploring deep snow, and the next day we threw snowballs and watched the cows. Overall, it was a great few days of rest and relaxation!
This has been an intense winter, as many of you know from first-hand experience!
We’ve had to make a few fence repairs from the wind, and “pick up the pieces” after winter storms came through and dropped inches of snow.
Here’s our adventure in picture form:
A few weeks ago we had a wind storm that blew gusts around 50 or 60 miles per hour. We never, in our wildest dreams, would have thought that the chicken fence would act like a sail and fold up onto itself like a fan:
Where’d the square-shaped fence go?
An airborne fence? Whoa!
Stupidly, for the most recent winter storm we didn’t prepare for a power outage at all. We over-prepared (is there really such a thing?) for the one before this last one, but not for this one!
Since we get our water from a well, our water doesn’t work when the power doesn’t. We utterly forgot to worry about this, and so when we woke up yesterday to find that our power was out, we realized that we had to find a way to get water for our ducks to drink. We decided that melting snow next to the wood stove was the best bet…
Jason scooping snow into “the bathtub” to put by the wood stove.
And we also forgot to remove the netting from the chicken pen to keep the snow from sticking to it…
The netting became so heavy with snow that it deformed the fence!
Luckily none of the netting ripped!
Yes, that’s a blanket of snow on top of our bird netting!
Even after all the cleanup and repairs we had to do, it still is lovely to have a blanket of snow on the ground. I’m still not sick of winter yet, not when we have views like this…
And of course, the geese were not phased by the situation at all and continued to bathe throughout the freezing temperatures!
They don’t look quite as white as they used to, do they?
.:.
Yesterday and today have been pig-filled days… Tonight we ate pigs-in-a-blanket while watching an awesome video about butchering pigs, but not until after we finished creating the wind-and-snow-proof, new pig hideaway. Our original fence was working just fine for mild weather, but we knew that we need something a lot sturdier and weather proof considering the incoming 6+ inches of snow!
The side of the shelter. Old doors we found in the barn are lashed down for sturdy wind breaks… Emma’s idea! The 2 perpendicular sides of the shelter are situated like this.
The 3rd side of their shelter… A partial cattle panel with a tarp wrapped around it for blocking the wind. This side runs diagonally across one corner of their pen… This was Jason’s idea!
Looking in at the pigs from a little peep hole in the opposite corner from their entrance… We’ve stuffed it with hay so they can fully bury themselves if desired (since they love this so much!).
Pigs in the hay! Stay warm tonight!
.:.
currently at our house in stokes county, it is snowing! it has been snowing for the past few hours and we’ve already accumulated 1.5 inches.
our expected snowfall total: 6 to 10 inches, with perhaps a layer of sleet to top it all off. extreme! at least for central north carolina.
today’s snow storm, in progress
so far this year we’ve gotten a few other small snow storms, but nothing that can compare to what weather sources anticipate we’ll see today and tomorrow.
emma checking on the chickens after the snow 2 weeks ago
a few chickens come out to explore the winter wonderland
and while jason and i read, watch the snow, and research more plants that we want to plant in the spring, we’re also preparing in case of a power outage.
what we’ve done so far today:
collecting water in tubs and buckets in case of a power outage
storing drinking water in gallon jars
later today we plan on cooking a few more items to have some ready-to-eat things available. some of these include:
animal tracks on our frozen pond from our snow 2 weeks ago
otherwise we plan to lay low, watch the olympics, and read. the dogs and cat are spending time with us, sleeping and playing with (or thoroughly annoying) each other. the chickens will be fine in their house and since the wind isn’t blowing as of now, they will remain dry and warm. later today, we plan to go for a walk and check out our snow-covered pond to see which animals may have been walking over it lately.
so, if it’s snowing where you are, think of safety and prepare, but don’t panic (no driving to the store now!) and enjoy your hibernation vacation!
.:.
Let it snow!
We got our second snow of the winter, and it stuck. It stuck to the chickens, the bird netting, and basically everywhere on the homestead other than the driveway. It looks great to me (as I’m sure Sean Law’s messy lawn looked great to him), but we’ll see about travel conditions tomorrow.
The chickens are Snow excited!
Today we pretty much lazed about, waiting on the snow to start. Emma whipped up some sweet potato ginger soup (Yum.) and I mulled over some seed catalogs that recently came in the mail.
I focused on perennial plants today, and the lists and descriptions of exotic edibles and unusual varieties guided my thoughts to our backyard, and our plans for next year.
I’d like to put in a food forest.
A food forest is basically what it sounds like, a forest of food, and can take many shapes and sizes. Cultures all over the world, and throughout history, have tended forest gardens. Some of these gardens are obvious and some are so embedded in the landscape that they are hardly noticed.
For example, I spent many days wandering my great grandparents’ small lot in Moca, Puerto Rico, walking in the shade of a huge bread fruit tree while picking the sweetest grapefruit, oranges, and bananas I’ve ever tasted. An avocado tree nestled on the sunnier side of the tall tree, and in its shadow was a chicken coop with a small flock of hens and the first rooster to start crowing in the valley.
Bananas in the understory
Also in the shady understory, as almost an afterthought, were a couple dozen coffee plants and a few herbaceous “weeds.” Pigeon peas flowered along the driveway, fixing nitrogen and waiting their turn in the next pot of arroz con gandules, and a tall annatto tree soaked up the sun behind the house while ripening the red colored seeds used in almost every dish Mamá prepared.
Pigeon Pea or Gandules
That’s a food forest. Plants occupying every layer and interacting with each other by providing shade or nutrients, chickens foraging beneath and cleaning up fallen fruit, stopping the pest cycle, and fertilizing the entire system all while providing eggs and meat.
Instead of focusing on annual production, row cropping, or cash crops, food forests are small, diverse ecosystems that are greater than the sum of their parts. As self replicating systems, they are the epitome of sustainability, soil building, wealth, and resiliency as they age. There are some food forests that are over 2,000 years old.
So you can see why one would want a food forest on their homestead.
Most of the undergrowth at the forest edge has been cleared in preparation for a food forest planting next spring.
I’d like to put the beginnings of one in next year in our backyard. The spot I’m most excited about is the edge of the woodland that surrounds our yard and makes a small southeastern facing glade. I’ve begun clearing the underbrush of small oaks and pines, and would like to integrate our edible forest with the maple and oak regrowth forest surrounding us.
It will probably look nothing like the forest garden in Moca, but it will be built on the same principles and interactions between species, and will hopefully be a place where our great grandchildren will walk through, reach up, and take a bite out of whatever piece of abundance is at peak ripeness that day.
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