Chickens
On November 3rd, we harvested 6 of the cockerels. We worked through the first one together, and it took us about 45 minutes. Then we split into an assembly-line - Jordan got stage one (kill and pluck) and I got stage two (gut and clean). We worked very well together, and I'd definitely call the day a success. on the 10th, I started prepping a stall in the barn for them to move inside for the winter - first I blocked it off from the brooder stall, then I built a roost, followed by the Cadillac of nest boxes. The wall on the aisle-side of the stall was only 4' high, with 3' of open space above it, so I put up some chain-link fence to keep the chickens in and the larger predators out (although it would be difficult for anything bigger than a small cat or an ermine to get in that side of the barn anyway). The chickens moved in around November 17th, and we harvested 5 hens on the 23rd. We sold another 5 live hens to Matt and Tessa to keep their new Buff Orpington rooster company, so that left us with 2 roosters and 8 hens, and they started laying on December 5th. We are currently averaging 4 eggs a day, which is pretty darn good considering they are getting waaaaay less than their preferred 14 hours of light a day. 1 roo (YO) and 3 hens will be off on a road trip soon, and we'll keep the remaining rooster (YR, now named Foghorn) and 5 hens to keep us in eggs and hopefully hatch some chicks in the spring.
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| Clockwise from top left: The new roost; the new awesome nest boxes;the first egg; and, one of the delicious cockerels (Dad named him Crispy). |
House
As I mentioned forever ago, we got a new roof this summer. So far it has been holding up very well. My only complaint is that the snow keeps sliding off the roof, partly due to our wacky weather (more on that later), and it keeps bending the flashing around the chimney. It has already been fixed once, and we had more snow slide yesterday, so it may be due to be fixed again after New Year's. However, that should get sorted out in January, as we just need to get a few snow stoppers installed. So far, there has not been any water in the house (except for a tiny, tiny bit coming down the outside of the chimney, which is likely related to the aforementioned bent flashing). Aside from the chimney issue, the sliding snow has been both a blessing and a curse: the weight doesn't stay up on the roof (yay!) but we have to be super diligent about shovelling off the deck, to avoid the leaky logs issue we had last year (boo!). Plus it's a very noisy process, and it shakes the whole house and wakes me up when it slides at 4 am.
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| Clockwise again: Jordan and Dad working on the roof; the whole crew out, with Dad and Bob on the roof, Jordan rocking the barbeque, Larysa weatherproofing plywood, and Mom had run to town for supplies; closeup of the new roof; and, the back of the house. |
Weather
The snow has been sliding because we got a HUGE amount of snow over the course of 8 days (we had two snowfall warnings, the first dumping 47 cm, and the second depositing just over 15cm. These values, however, are what the airport got - I'm 100% positive we received waaaaaay more - the first snow left enough that it was over my knees!) and we then got rain. Then we got more snow, and it has rained for the last two days. UGH!!!! The driveway is a mess, the snowbanks are gigantic, and the deck is soaked from the rain. It will turn to ice when it freezes again, which should be sometime in the next two days, if the Weather Office is correct. I've heard from multiple people that we've already received 75-80% of our annual snowfall. Nicola at the Rescue gauges snowfall by the distance from the snowbank to the bottom of the barn's eaves. Last year, we had a lot of snow by that standard, because the snowbank was touching the eaves and the snow couldn't slide off the roof any more. This was last March. When I was there Monday, the snow was already touching the eaves in one spot. So yes, we've had a lot of snow.
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| A beautiful sunset from last weekend; heading to work the morning of Dec 24th - it's quite beautiful with fresh snow and no one about; you know it's cold when the kittens are cuddling on top of the fireplace; and, Zim providing a reference for how much snow slid off the roof after the first huge snowstorm - this was after I had tunnelled through to the deck. |
Christmas
Merry Christmas, everyone!!!! I hope you are all healthy and happy, and that you have created some fabulous memories over the last few days. A few days before Christmas, we bought a new truck - Happy HoHo to us!!! Our old truck has become increasingly unreliable - Jordan was on his way to work one morning (the morning of the huge snowstorm, actually) when a brake line blew. He was able to pull into a gas station and call me for a ride, but it set off a chain of horrible events that included the car being temporarily out of commission (popped the belt, again...) and ultimately required me spending the entire day sitting on the bench at the mechanics' and missing work entirely. The dash lights come on when they feel like it, the steering is loose (in my opinion), and it's a good day when she starts. Couple this with the fact that the car has almost 300,000 km on her, and we knew we needed a reliable vehicle to get us through the next few years. Jordan found this truck online, and he'd been drooling over it for a month when we decided "well, let's go see if this is even in the realm of possibility..." and we walked out with a set of keys to a 2011 Ford F-350 gas-fueled 1 ton, crew cab, long box, gigantic truck. I am happy to report that I drove it and both my nerves and the truck came out unscathed, and that involved backing it out of a driveway in a cul-de-sac, and backing it in to our driveway, missing the concrete lion, the carport, AND the car. Win!!! I'm a pretty good driver (one non-fault accident in over 10 years of driving - and the other driver had a suspended license) but I will admit that knowing where my corners are has always been a weak point, so I was tremendously proud of myself to get it in and out of both driveways without touching anything else.
Zim and I had Christmas dinner with David, Kim and her family (and Pongo and Doodle, of course), and it was great food, great people, and a great time all around! Jordan and I had a fancy dinner last night consisting of homemade vegetable-stuffed cannelloni with After 8s for dessert (which I think is our only Christmas tradition).
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| NEW TRUCK!!!! :D |
I've been crocheting dishcloths like a madwoman - it keeps my mind off the snow. Today I pulled out the sewing machine and the serger and fixed up some items for Kim, and I'm going to try making a pair of slippers out of an old sweater as soon as I'm done here. With winter now truly here (we didn't get snow until late November) all I want to do is create cozy things (via crochet and sewing) and bake. I've managed some baking, making my famous oatmeal cookies for the cookie swap at work and contributing mini eggnog cheesecakes to Christmas dinner. I'm confident that there's still at least 2 or 3 months of winter, so I have lots of time yet. A coworker picked me up a pair of snowshoes, but I've barely had time to use them as I've spent some time every day clearing snow (I'm so, so, so sick of snow). I had hoped to get out last weekend and cut a few boughs to make a wreath like I was taught last year, but the snow clearing got in the way of that plan. Zim loves it, of course, and continues to jump and "catch" the snow as we shovel. I've started clicker training Zim in anticipation of an obedience/agility class in January (thanks Kim!!!!!) and for the first few days Zim was terrified of the clicker. I would click, and he'd get all sad and run away. I tried to balance introducing him to a new situation without scaring the wits out of him constantly by clicking once, handing him a piece of food, and letting him eat the rest of his meal once he had that first piece. It's been successful, and in the course of a week we've gone from cowering and running away, to looking at the clicker with interest and responding to requests with minimal nervousness. Gentle persistence has won :) I had previously clicker trained Molly, which worked great until she decided she wasn't food motivated any more. Mander, of course, is incredibly motivated by food, so I started training him this morning. Luckily, I have two different styles of clicker and they make a slightly different sound, so I can train Zim and Mander independently without getting the other confused.
That's about it. It's safe to assume that the Year in Review and Goals for Next Year posts will both be slightly late, but I promise to have them up by the end of January.
