Around The Farm, Moving Into Winter

This is a random assortment of photos from around the farm at the end of autumn and the beginning of winter. It seems a little out of place now as it shows green leaves on trees, grass and no snow, but really, it wasn't all that long ago! I'll begin with this photo of the aftermath of a mighty windy day. Three Aspens were snapped off and fell across my electric fence. I spent hours cutting them up and getting them off the fence and out of the hay field:

The chickens continued to have their daily freedom except during big wind storms. And now, on days when there's lots of snow, I often keep them locked up. But they do love to hang out inside the barn with the cows. They even eat out of the cows food bowls, head to head with the giant beasts:

My Red Cedar sign arrived from Idaho and I put it up with chains as insurance against the winds. Alas, those three chains were not sufficient and I added two more, one at each side. The first big windstorm ripped the bottom chain right out of the sign, which was only saved because of the four remaining chains. Hey, I didn't call it "Windswept Farm" for nothing:

"Hello, little feathered buddies. Have you come to spend time with us in the barn again?:"

The Canada Geese were numerous, both overhead and in every pond and corn field:

And the sunsets were wonderful. This was the view from my driveway:

The chickens made the most of every sunny day, taking dust baths and rolling around lazily in the sun:

And this is Cow Number One, the big boss lady who gobbles down her own grain and then goes in search of the other cows' grain. She'll knock them right out of the bowl if they try to resist. Notice the drool dripping from her mouth. She truly loves her grain:

I had a lot of old hay in the hayloft. It was most certainly not good for feed, but I thought I could use it for bedding. So I cut a hole in the hay loft floor to use as a delivery system:

The old barn had a frightening array of old wires, useless fixtures and (get this!) live, uncapped wires sticking out all over the place. So I had a local electrician come in and rewire the whole place, adding outlets and GFI outlets to make the barn both efficient and safe:

I'd hoped all five cows would be pregnant, but one morning came out to see this. Cow number three (ear tag number) was in heat. That meant she was not pregnant and would have to be artificially inseminated. But first I have to get her totally tamed and willing to allow the technician to handle her. On the plus side, she was the smallest cow and most in need of nutrition. So a little extra time without a calf inside her, especially as we headed into winter, was a good thing:

Of course the cold and snow did arrive, and there's much more now than when I snapped this photo. The cows learned quickly how to get out of the wind and that the barn was a comfy place to spend the night. That meant I had to clean the manure out every morning, however: