Warm Muddy Midwest Winter
It is Wednesday – the weather is grim here on the Farmy. Not freezing though – not yet anyway.
But how much mud do we really need?
The dogs are heartily sick of having their feet washed so frequently.
The weather occasionally drops below freezing but mostly it is a drab grey January.
Eerily warm actually.
Here is a shot of the pig food. Grains from the fields cooked overnight in the slow cooker with all the kitchen scraps of the day. Plus I drop in some eggs to boil in there as well. For the protein. As you know our pigs are all vegetarians. We only have one plonker this year and he is having the time of his life with the run of the barn.
I don’t often photograph him though – him being a plonker and all.
We still collect buckets of kitchen scraps from the local restaurant. So even though things look drab they all still get lots of greens. Recycling the restaurant scraps instead of having them throw the food in the dumpster always makes me feel good.
Third son in California tells me he is taking all his light bulbs down to Home Depot this weekend. Did you know they recycle lightbulbs? Nor did I.
I have a friend who is researching these things for me (and tracking the journey of the recycled stuff) and he also told me that Staples recycles your dead devices, like old laptops and things. They fix what they can and re-use parts or something for the rest. I think they take batteries too. I need to find out more.
I wonder if they take old printers that mice made nests in?
Maybe not!?
I placed the bird bath (with local seed in it) outside my office window for amusement during my day. I have two cardinal pairs here this winter and I figure if I see that damn cat sneaking up on them I can rap on the window. Cats are no good for the native birds!
Do you feed your birds?
What a nice ordinary post!!
I hope you have a great day!
Cecilia
32 Comments on “Warm Muddy Midwest Winter”
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thekitchensgarden 
Still nice to see farm life plodding on through the dreary winter! I feed the birds on the balcony, and the cat can only stare longingly at them, and occasionally forget herself and be stopped by the unyielding glass. The birds pretty much all have her number.
I used to hate to have cats inside now I hate having them outside killing our dwindling wild bird population. Love that your cat only gets to stare longingly at them!
…and Nelson’s back again with his pet dog! Someone ought to be recycling printers – a lot of them only last a year or two.
I know! Printers are rubbish!
I had one which broke, about 5 years ago and tried 4 printers from FreeCycle – not one of them worked! In the end I bought a new one, as £1 a print (from a shop on the corner) wasn’t economical.
No. I am resisting! But it is hard to teach without one. Not impossible. But not convenient.
1 pound a print is crazy!
I know! In the end I saw a decent one for £38 and the cheap ink is £10 a set.
In Barcelona I can get a page printed for 10¢…
I don’t know if either of these places still does so, but when I lived in the Chicago suburbs there was a store called Batteries Plus where you could recycle batteries. (My husband works in theatre, and he used to haul in five gallon pails full of batteries from the mic packs to recycle!) Also, Whole Foods used to recycle the corks from wine bottles. When we lived in Iowa, there was a local food co-op that used to do the same.
Corks at Whole Foods! Very apt.
Local food co-ops are great! I don’t know if I knew that your husband worked in the theatre! I have such fond memories of my time in the theatre!
He does–both educational and professional theatre. He has an MFA in Technical Theatre from UVA and then we have moved several places with his work Chicago, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin). He is strictly behind the scenes–lights, sound, and set.
Love those guys!
I am impressed. He must see some amazing stuff!!
Winter heading into spring, is a time of mud and snow. Now if you could teach the dogs to wipe their feet. One plonker, but are the other cast members passed on? Nothing stays the same.
I’ve been recycling the electronic stuff at our municipal depot and local electronics store. I haven’t done it with lightbulbs yet. New mindset. Have a peaceful day.
There are no more breeding pigs. when I was at the mill I just could not do it. And no dairy cows of course!
Even now tied to the desk for hours of teaching it would be difficult. John bought this plonker while I was away. And as his family grows we might do a few more.
It will be all big gardens this summer!
We could hang up bird feeders in super cold weather when the urban bears might be snoozing (some under neighborhood porches), but it is mostly warm here too for deep hibernation. My bird feeders have all been torn down & broken through the years since the bears came down from the over developing mountain sides & settled right in among us. They pass through our driveway & front yard regularly. There is a bear care wildlife unit that counts about 350 plus black bears live & in roam around Asheville. They are large, fat & over productive from eating garbage & bird food. It has become a real thing in the last 7 or 8 years. I love your photos today, though, I always do of course.
Wow! That is an amazing piece of info. Bears in your backyard! So sad when they get into people food and get fat on the junk! Yet another reason not to throw away food.
Merciful heavens. Thank you for this comment!
Lovely interesting farmy post, thank you for that. Love that bunny girl!
She is totally fearless – she will eat her dinner with two large dogs sitting staring down on her.
I say to her; Nelson you know those are predators right?
She ignores me and keeps on munching.
The bunny is such a sweetie- does she use a litter box? Or ? Cute photo with the dog!
She lives in the glass house and has her own raised bed for her lavatory.
awww she is so darn lucky! Thanks to you!
I love these nice ordinary posts… I have a nice ordinary life, and relate.
Recycling or lack thereof has been big in the news in Australia… it’s just not working for us… the term “wish cycling” is being used instead. Basically our discarded items aka waste is shipped overseas to be someone else’s problem, and that’s also thankfully coming to an end. Article here if anyone is interested/has time https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/not-sure-what-can-and-can-t-be-recycled-here-s-how-it-works-20191204-p53grj.html … However, there are a few but not enough workable schemes like Planet Ark for recycling printer cartridges, and old electronics, spectacles etc can be dropped off at various collection points. And there are unworkable schemes: Redcycle soft plastic recycling couldn’t cope with the volume; and charity shops are unundated with second hand goods and now have limited capacity to accept more. The message is out there to reduce consumption but other than a too-small network of die-hards who were already moderating our consumption, from what I see the uptake is less than optimal hence the “wish cycling”.
We feed ‘our’ small wild birds… just seed, and provide water and habitat for the rest. Diesel-dog makes sure they don’t need to worry about cats in our yard… although we wouldn’t mind a cat but they can be problematic. Another message that gets lost in good intentions; to not feed wild birds human food.
Looking forward to chatting more via Sustainable Home Zoom.
One of the items on the agenda is how to stop using the recycling bin. I have no faith in them at all. PRECYCLING is where I am going!
And yes! I am so looking forward to it!
I believe I’m on the third mud season and it’s January! I do hate mud seasons in January. The horses churn up the mud, then we get a light freeze and all the humps and bumps make walking hazardous It’s been one strange winter.
That!!! Exactly that!! For us it is the cows – I have what I call a sacrifice field that the cows are pugging up. It is designated to be resown in flowering feed in the spring. And the pet pigs turning the lawn into a grater!!
What a mess!
Love the pictures ~ especially Nelson with Boo!!! Now that’s Farmy Kids!! I’m thankful for our weather here compared to those tornadoes in the South, and that terrible flooding n mudslides in CA and the horrible hurricanes in FL. And now a tornado over the snow in Iowa!!! Can you imagine?!!
Hugs to you and Boo! Carol
Tornadoes over snow! That sounds like a horror story – does it suck up the snow as it roars along? I must investigate that further. And yes. We are too warm but it is not violent weather at least.
Not sure why my comments aren’t getting into the lounge? I’ve commented on the last two posts, but they don’t appear… So, I’m trying again! We have already begun planting crops for our spring garden! Very exciting. They are inside under lights now and will soon go into the greenhouse!
I was just thinking yesterday that I should come looking for you! So glad you got back in!
It is wet and still above freezing here! Though I fear that might mean some late frosts in the spring!
My parsley is up but I grow that all year round!! I never have enough parsley.
Yay! It worked! I’m back in!!! I so love being a part of the Fellowship of the Farmy!!! 🙂
Okay, feeling really not Farmy at the moment… what is a “plonker pig”??? inquiring minds want to know… p.s. love this post.
Plonkers are the pigs we grow for food. Great question !
Thanks! That’s a much better name than “dinner” lol