Fifteen minutes of extra day light may not seem like a lot but at the end of yesterday it was just enough to finish everything up in daylight with time left over for the dogs and I to walk around the perimeter.
The cold has broken for a few days and I think that today we might even get above freezing.
It is milking day today. Lady still comes in to milk every other day. I went down to every other day expecting her to dry up but she has been giving exactly 30 pounds of clean healthy milk every time with no trouble at all. Del looks to be dry. For the two full days I have been home I have watched her udder and the calves and there is no sign of her having milk at all. This is a surprising result for her but last season she did not milk very much anyway so maybe I should not be surprised.
Txiki is a lovely wee heifer. Running to fat like her Dexter mother. I won’t sell her. Now that we have Inky I have a shot at beginning my miniature herd as planned.
Inky is already much shorter and stockier than her cousin.
Still holding the brown curls in her ears. Still friendly.
It being a lot warmer yesterday than the last few weeks Wai was out long enough to have his photo taken. By the look of him he is still managing to get right into his pile of straw and keep warm. Like Sheila, he spends time arranging his bed each evening.
There is a snowfall of 5 – 8 inches going in and out of the forecast for Thursday night. It comes straight after a very warm few days with rain (Wednesday 51F, Thursday 56F) so we will see. We don’t usually have that much snow here so I will be surprised, however we need to be prepared. Snow in top of frozen rain is not pleasant.
Yesterday I went out and brought extra feed for the stock and vegetables for me (there was not one vegetable in the fridge).
Today hopefully things begin to thaw and we can clean out these cow pens and get the hoses out to fill the water troughs. John had to carry a lot of buckets while I was away.
The chickens stopped laying altogether. As the days lengthen I hope they will begin to lay again and soon. No eggs for breakfast is a bit sad. It was very cold plus they had also run out of their favourite feed and they are a fussy bunch.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Love celi
WEATHER:
Tuesday 10% Precip. / 0 in
Cloudy skies with some morning fog. High 36F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
Tuesday Night 30% Precip. / 0 in
Cloudy with drizzle developing overnight. Areas of fog with some patchy freezing drizzle. Low around 30F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.
The Kitchen's Garden 
37 responses to “FIFTEEN MINUTES”
Have a smile on my face about there being ‘not one vegetable’ in the fridge and you having to buy some for yourself! Is Big John a totally meat-and-potatoes guy then? And surely am not used to you having to purchase the most necessary of foodstuffs . . . the sooner that spring arrives on the farmy, the better . . .
Snow reflection and shadows – the first abstract art? Beautiful but brrrr. Each day a little more light – and it does make a difference
Isn’t it funny that Wai and Shiela attend to their beds and the kune kunes don’t? Roosevelt was a pot belly and would spend hours ripping his blankets into pieces and then arranging and rearranging the pieces in his bed. Percy just dives in nose first, if I didn’t pile up his straw he wouldn’t be able to dive in.
I love the photo of Wai. Seeing him look so good is amazing. There’s just something about that pig….
He is rather special and this morning he is sharing a slice of hay with Tane which is s new development
It’s lovely to have gradually longer days…each evening I close the curtains later and later!
Nice isn’t it- even though usually the cold weather is coming after we move into more light
True 🙄