Around our little homestead, there are certain yearly rituals that seem to happen. The breeding of the sheep, the raking of leaves, gathering of apples and pumpkins for the livestock and then of course, there is the application of the plastic!
Hardly romantic, it’s something that we really have to do. Our screen porch is a very important part of the homestead during the winter. Once it is all covered in plastic, it provides a windbreak and fairly tolerably warm area to do prep work in, store some feed and also keep our bunnies much warmer. It is really remarkable when you are doing the plastic work in the cold, how much warmth is caught in the area as you finish up. When that last wall goes up, the whole place becomes very tolerable, almost comfortable!
It’s also where we milk our goat and also will bring any animal in that needs any sort of attention. Heck, we’ve even had a pony and a goat spend the night for one reason or another. With the concrete floor, we just throw down a little straw and bring in a water bucket and some hay and we have a special suite for a critter in need.
In the house, we also have several awful windows that need to be covered up in good thick plastic. If we didn’t, that room would be almost unbearably cold. We would love to replace those windows, but it’s not quite in the budget yet. Hopefully, soon!
I removed my heavy curtains from my office window after we doctored it up. I want as much light in there as possible in the morning, even if it’s diffused light. It’s kind of ironic… during the spring and summer, I want to block a bit of the light, especially in the morning and have these dark heavy curtains. Yet come fall and winter? I want all the light I can get! I also have hung curtains in the openings into my little office and with a good little space heater going, that space gets so nice and toasty warm!
And last but not least, Duke Kitty got a new warm fleece blanket in his cuddle basket in the mud room. I would love to have him indoors but he is a barn cat and just hates to be inside and even when he is, he is not very good at knowing where the potty is. I think he would much rather be outside, roaming about, checking on his farm. But I do know he likes the fairly warm mudroom and his special basket to cuddle up in and snooze away the really cold nights. He has his food bowl and water dish and is pretty content.
The good thing is that plasticing up the homestead, including all the barns and animal shelters, marks the end of our major outdoor projects. It’s just too cold and too hard to do a lot of things out in the weather. We went around, picking up things and gathering fallen branches or raking up the last bit of leaves this week. All the orphaned tools and things got put away. I was very surprised to find that I left one of my nice hoes in the garden! Yikes! That got put away. All the animal water troughs got dumped and scrubbed good and then refilled. We fixed a couple weak spots in the paddock fence and just finished up everything we wanted to accomplish. Now we just have to keep the animals fed, watered and comfortable through the winter and do basic chores and occasional must do maintenance from damage or weather. In a way, it’s an easier chore routine, but the weather just makes things a little harder all the way around. So, removing the projects helps to make it easy and not too hard on everyone.
The animals miss romping around, I’m sure, but some are quite happy with the winter schedule. Miss Ebony and her daughter Cheyene are very very content in the hog hut with several bales of straw to make their huge nest in, as well as the warm hut, food delivered to them in there and time to take a long winter siesta for several months! They only go outside to get a sip of water and do their bathroom duty and then they rush back in to the warm hut! We would give them their water in the hut but they are so messy that they make a big wet mud wallow and that can get nasty and freeze up. It’s good for them to get a little fresh air and helps to reinforce the potty corner. All good.
The ponies would rather die than spend too much time inside and they have grown incredibly thick wooly coats to support their decision. It’s kind of funny, they have the nicest barn, thickly bedded and warm, yet they prefer to be out in the paddock and pasture. Being Shetlands, they think nothing of a cold stiff wind with icy rain beating down on them… in fact, I think they relish it. They turn their little butts to the wind and just munch away at their hay and feed, enjoying the brisk feeling!
The sheep and goats have a lovely barn as well, and when it is all covered in, it can get very cozy as well. Of course, there is plenty of good ventilation in all our buildings. It’s not a good idea to make them totally weather proof, because many farm animals will get sick in too warm of an environment in the winter. They need protection from the rain and snow, and a wind block, but good ventilation. Thankfully, all our buildings fit that bill. Comfy, but not too smothering. We use the deep bedding method of heating our barns. Instead of mucking out the areas during the heavy cold, we just add more bedding every week or so. The animals like to paw through and dig in the bedding, making nests and wallows to stay warm in but also turning over the material so that it composts. The heat rising off the compost helps to warm the space naturally.
I was suspect at first… I thought, this is just the lazy person’s excuse to stay in the warm farm house and avoid mucking out… but after the first winter here, I learned. Every building was at least 20 degrees warmer than outside. Sometimes even 30 degrees! There was no smell, no bugs because of the cold. And in the early spring, when you finally dig out the barns you are gifted with the most beautiful rich, dark, fine compost! The gardens love it! Sure, it does take a week to get all our spaces cleaned out, but the weather is usually beautiful and you get such lovely compost as well as keeping your animals warm and content all winter long. It’s one of the best things about homesteading!
Now that all our outside projects are in the dreaming of spring parking lot, it’s time to turn our attention to the inside of our farm house. Hopefully this season we can get some much needed cleaning and painting done, as well as some serious organizing and some other repairs. I can’t wait! When it’s nice outside, we just want to be outside! So the house gets a little neglected. But now, the fixing and decorating bug has hit and we’ve got a few fun ideas to spruce up the joint! We’ll see how it all goes! Can’t wait…
That’s our fall round up report. Done outside for awhile. Ready to regroup and start on the inside! Hope all is going well with you all! What are some of the fall rituals you have around your place to get ready for winter? Would love it if you’d share a few with us!
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