Storm Photos

This afternoon I stepped outside to take a few photos.  The wind was still blowing, but had calmed down a bit from what it had been doing. 

 Looks like the car won't be going anywhere for a while -- at least until the snowplow comes through.

 The hoop house area looks like a real mess.  I need to cut down the leftovers of my elecampane plants and also another bush.  We finally located a farmer who is willing to sell us straw bales.  It was much nicer when we could get them closer to home, but the weather was so rainy this spring that almost no one in the Turtle Mountains was able to plant any crops.  We need to cover our drain field area and my herb beds with straw before the real cold weather begins. 

There's a big drift by our old van. 

I saw the long range forecast, and supposedly a week from now we are to have temperatures in the 50's.  Maybe that will give us more time to get ready for winter.

Jonathan needs to do his egg route tomorrow, and someone is supposed to pick up some other items, but nothing will happen until the snowplow comes through.  I'm thankful we never lost electricity; it's one item I'm very attached to.

It's Here

It seems strange that once the snow starts it's as if it never left. 

By the end of the week we are supposed to have temperatures in the lower 40's, so it could melt again. 

Winter's Coming

It rained most of the day today, and by tomorrow our Indian Summer will be over ...  I've heard we could get as much as 4 to 6 inches of snow in the next couple of days.

(Photo from March 2010)

HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM TO 7 PM CDT TUESDAY.

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BISMARCK HAS ISSUED A HIGH WIND
WARNING.WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM TO 7 PM CDT TUESDAY.

* NW WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO INCREASE TO 25 TO 35 MPH WITH
 GUSTS TO 40 MPH TUES MORNING.THEN STRENGTHEN TUESDAY
 AFTERNOON; EVENING TO 35 TO 45 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 55 MPH AT
 TIMES.

* RAIN SHOWERS CHANGING TO SNOW SHOWERS TUES NIGHT WITH
 CONTINUED VERY STRONG WINDS WED WITH SNOW SHOWERS WILL
HAMPER TRAVEL ACROSS WESTERN & CENTRAL NO. DAKOTA.

Last Week's Activities

 Last Monday Jim, Jonathan and I traveled to Bismarck for an appointment, and also visited with some new friends south of the city.  They did their first year of a CSA, and it went well for them. 

The family just finished putting up a high tunnel, and it was quite the structure.  It was hot in there!  They had just planted carrots, and I can't remember what else they will grow in there over the winter.  Quite impressive.

 It's a good thing the sides roll up from the bottom.  On a warm winter day it could become quite toasty in there for the plants.

 The family also has smaller hoop structures, which will help to stretch the growing season for what was planted this spring.  I think they said there were 50 members involved in their summer CSA, and now they are doing a fall/winter one.  I didn't hear how many members they have so far.

 We believe in making do -- notice the balloons.  They are remnants from Jim's run for state senate!

 I turned 54 on Friday, and the boys make it quite a festive occasion.  I felt very loved.

 Finally each family has a King James Version Bible.  Mine happens to be a large print one!

Jonathan's hoop structure for his laying hens is progressing nicely.  The door frames are also in place, and he's waiting for the company to send the felt needed to cushion the plastic resting on the pipes before installing the 2 layers.  Thankfully it was the company's mistake so Jonathan doesn't have to pay further postage.

 Zoro finally arrived yesterday, via the Stegman family.  He is quite the bruiser.   Hopefully next spring we'll have piglets from 2 of our sows.

As soon as they got him into his pen, he touched the electric fence which is inside the panels.  After being shocked a couple of times they shut off the fence, in favor of allowing him to get used to his surroundings before using electricity to keep him in. 

 It's a bit hard to see, but Zoro made quite a dent in one of the panels.  That was the first order of business -- toughening up the walls.  Hopefully he will enjoy his pen and not make moves to get out.  I'm not sure how we would get him back in!
 

 Andrew and Jonathan working on the panels.

 Funny Face had 5 kittens over the summer.  We were so busy we really didn't take time to tame the kittens, so they are quite afraid of us.  I took one photo of this kitten, and then it zoomed away into the woods.  Hopefully we can get them fairly tame, since a friend in November wants to take 2 of them back to her home in Montana.

Coyotes in Action

Andrew has a video of coyotes he heard a couple of mornings ago.  The one was very close, considering he could capture its voice on his camcorder.  You could check it out here .

You might also be interested in another of his videos, of how we North Dakotans break the bead on a truck tire.  You can find that video here.   We do things in a very professional manner around here!

Turkey Butchering

We were supposed to have had a 60% chance of rain overnight. Nothing happened. And, the day dawned cloudless but with mist rising from the low areas of our farm. It was a good day for turkey butchering.

It took a while for the mist to clear, but we all had chores to do, anyway.

Cowboy David was just returning from feeding the pigs.

Twenty of Jonathan's turkeys went from this:

To this:

We spent all morning doing turkeys, then the guys rushed to do something else all afternoon.  I'll have to report that activity tomorrow.

And, we had a very nice sunset as well.

Turkey Day

Tomorrow we are butchering Jonathan's 33 turkeys. I'm thankful the weather will be around 60 degrees, instead of the 50 degree weather we had the last time we butchered chickens.

I've been concerned lately with how the coyotes have been acting around here. One night last week it sounded like there was at least one coyote near the laying hen and turkey pens (they are shut up for the night in enclosed pens, which are in turn surrounded by electrified poultry netting). Jim and Jonathan drove out there but it was gone before they arrived at the pens.

Even in broad daylight the coyotes have been very active. I don't know if the beautiful Indian summer we are having has caused them to be so bold, but I'll be glad to have the turkeys in the freezer and the laying hens closer to home in a shelter Jonathan is constructing.

Our Lake Will Never Be the Same

Yesterday a friend of ours called to tell me to look out our front basement windows. There he was, talking to me with his cell phone in his speed boat on our lake! He had put his boat in at our neighbor's place. Our two families are the only homes on this lake.
As far as we know, there has never been a motorized boat on the lake. We borrowed a canoe and used that one summer, the boys have used a little twelve foot wooden boat they built while we were still in the city, and two summers ago Andrew built a raft and that has been poled out to a deeper spot on the lake -- but no speed boats.

You never know what's going to happen around here!

A Successful Chicken Season

A couple of weeks ago Jonathan announced to us we needed to butcher his last batch of chickens. So, we spent that day preparing for the big event. The biggest number we had butchered in one day was 104, and this time we would do a whole batch -- approximately 170 chickens -- all in one day.

We started with a little bit of rain, and a high of 50 degrees. That is a bit chilly when you are placing your hands in cold water all day long. At least there were no problems with flies.

This past summer we utilized 5 days for butchering Jonathan's broilers, as well as doing one day to take care of some older hens that were no longer laying eggs. We had some VERY LONG DAYS. I think this particular day we started about 9:30 a.m. and finished up the last of the packaging at 10:30 p.m. And then came the clean up.

Peter looked pretty chipper, in spite of being cold.

David was a bit on the cold side, but did a good job anyway.

Jim was in charge of our newly constructed Whizbang Chicken Plucker. Doing 3 chickens at a time in approximately 20 seconds was a wonderful way to speed up the process. At least it sped up the outside work. Inside, we had our work cut out for us!

Andrew and I were in the house working; Andrew would check the chickens over for pin feathers (he had the tweezers to pull them out), etc. and I finished them off by washing them one final time, drying, bagging, weighing and recording the weights. The Whizbang Chicken Plucker is so great at getting rid of the feathers that this time there were hardly any of the small black pin feathers to pull out.

Andrew and I took turns getting more chickens from the outside barrels filled with very cold water and also bringing the finished chickens upstairs to the big freezers.

I guess Andrew forgot to take a photo of Jonathan doing what he was doing over at the killing cones. But then, maybe that was good!

Samson was very attentive, but stayed out of the chicken guts unless someone tossed something to him. I'm sure he was very full by the time were were done.

Last Friday we were glad to see those chickens being driven away. I am very thankful to have my freezer available for the rest of our garden harvest.