New Kids, New Digs

The chicks continue to do well and are growing at the rate that only chicks can! They are now about 11-12 days old and already shedding their baby fluff in exchange for feathers.

Check out those new wings!

We started them in three tanks in the sunroom.

But already they have graduated up to "The Chick Corral"

They're Here!

The post office called at 6:15 Friday morning. The chicks had arrived! Though we have done it nearly every year since coming to the farm, it still tickles me to pick up chicks from the post office. It tickled me a little less this time, though. We've never ordered chicks in mid-January and it was COLD!  Day-old chicks don't withstand cold very well and when we opened the boxes, there were at least 15 that appeared dead. I hate it when that happens, its not unusual to lose one in transit, but 15 was more than a little depressing.

We got them home, hand-dipped each little beak into the waterer so they would understand what that "stuff" was for and tucked them into their pre-warmed tanks in the sunroom. As they warmed up, some of the apparently lifeless birds began to stir a bit so we quickly got them under the heat lamps and hoped for the best. (lesson learned...when its this cold, always get even the limp ones warmed up, you just never know.)

We spent the next 24 hours, hand-watering all those weak little birds, hoping some would make it. So far, some have rallied and others were just too far gone. As of today, we've lost a total of 10 birds from the shipment...better than the original 15 we thought were dead, but still far more than we are used to.

The remaining 120+ birds are doing well, peeping, pooping, running about and sleeping. They are oh-so-entertaining at this stage. Tiny little, beady-eyed fluffballs on toothpick sized legs.

Sorry about the red tint, that is the light from the heat lamps, and using the flash to lighten it up scares the begeezus out of them.

Let's Start at the Very Beginning...

No, we are not talking about The Sound of Music...or The Sound of Mucus (as it is referred to in some theatre circles). We are talking about a chicken coop. After some delays, the building of the replacement coop is finally underway. This is a good thing as the day-old chicks are due to arrive on Friday!

Here is the stack of newly purchased lumber complete with tools all ready to become a 10' x 16' mobile range coop. It will be moved around the pasture with the tractor.

 The cutting of the skids is underway. These are 18' long, treated 6 x 6's.

The skids are trimmed up and framed in square and the first of the floor joists are in place. Note the increasing snow on the ground and the fancy wind break in the background. Our timing might be a little less than perfect.

More to follow when we get it dug out from beneath the snow...

A Philosophy to Live By...

Words of wisdom, found on the office door of our favorite bakery, the Pagosa Baking Company

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.
Concerning all acts of initiative there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and endless plans.
That the moment one definitely commits oneself then providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never have otherwise occurred.
A whole stream of events issue from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents, and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way.
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When the Snow Flies

Most of you know that we do quite a bit of season extension on our farm. We use low tunnels in our South Garden to extend our field harvest and also have the two high tunnels to get us into the back-side of the growing season. These are amazing tools, but they are not flawless. If the ambient air temperature isn't above freezing, then we can't harvest (especially leafy greens). Now in the tunnels, it doesn't take much sunlight to get the temps above 32° but heavily overcast days can still delay the harvest. One of the other tricky things about harvesting at this time of year is that even when the tunnels get warm enough to harvest, we still have to get the vegetables into the house without freezing.

We've learned a few coping techniques over the years. If you're just harvesting enough for supper, then you can tuck your harvesting bag into your coat and make a run for it, though tripping with a coat full of kohlrabi can result in some very some ribs.

When harvesting for larger numbers though, a little planning is required. Our best technique is to haul our big market coolers out to the high tunnel and allow them to warm up a bit before packing them with vegetables and dragging them to the house.  Best of all, though is when there is a little snow on the ground, then we just load them up and ride 'em home! We'll try to get a pic of this crazy fun sometime yet this season ; )

End of an Era

Hmmm, what exactly are we talking about here? Looks more like a crazy technicolor hurricane than an era or anything else for that matter. So any guesses as to what exactly this is? Come on, share...you guys are creative!

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So the picture above represents an accumulation of more than six years worth of crochet cotton. Why in the world would anyone need such a thing? Well, for the first 5 years we were at the farm I made crocheted market bags. I made a lot of market bags...A LOT! HUNDREDS...literally! And sold them at our booth at the market. They were a nice complement to the vegetables, they were bright, pretty colors and they didn't wilt in the sun.

But then the re-usable grocery bag trend hit and anyone could pick up a perfectly usable, sturdy bag at their grocery store (or Menards, the state fair and just about everywhere else). And thus the bottom fell out of the of the "Market Bag" market . But that was ok, really! I was tired of making them and I had learned to spin by then and was considering selling my handspun yarn instead. Done!

So back to that crochet cotton. As with almost any project, there are leftovers...little bits, too much to throw away, but not enough to be really useful. So you stuff them in a container and occasionally wonder what to do with them.  So today was that day when I wondered...and there was an idea. So I pulled out the tote full of cotton and sat down at my yarn ball winder (good thing I got the jumbo-size!) and spent most of the morning winding all those bits of brightly colored cotton into this enormous ball.

Next I oiled up my wheel and pulled out some white Shetland wool and whomped out some lumpy, bumpy (really Maggie, it is!) thick and thin singles to ply against the crazy clash of colored cotton. Really, the whole thing was so much more sedate than it sounds...I was listening to Simon & Garfunkel as I was doing it so that tells you something. But now I have this new yarn to take to market on Saturday and I'm calling it "End of an Era" yarn since it wraps up the nearly endless days of crocheting market bags quite nicely. Its fun and fresh and will go with absolutely anything! And given the size of that ball of cotton...there should be plenty to come!

**Added 12/15/10 **
Here's a pic of some of the finished yarn ready to go to market. Its not a great pic, but you get the idea.

Perspective

Last night as we were in town enjoying a movie, our winter chicken coop burned to the ground. The coop housed more than 100 two-month-old pullets (young chickens) that were to become our laying flock for next season. Thanks to the quick response and hard labor of my parents, the fire didn't spread to any other buildings, the closest of which is our house and the small high tunnel.  Blue and Luci are fine, and the current laying flock was unharmed.

So today we filed a claim with the insurance agent and then called the hatchery and ordered replacement chicks. The new babies will arrive around the 17th so we have 2 weeks to rebuild the coop, the plans for which are already on paper.

When something like this happens, it becomes all about perspective.

Its so sad to think of the loss of all those little birds, the waste of time and life, but it could have been so very much worse. My parents could have not seen it, it could have easily spread to the house or someone could have been injured in the fire. Had it happened today, instead of yesterday, the freezing temps would have made it so much harder to fight. In so many ways it could have been worse.