Well…… we have managed to get to the end of November without a major snow fall! The different generations on this lovely piece of land are reacting a bit differently to that. Chuck and I are – Whew! Thank goodness….. not yet! Fallon and Darren…… totally bummed! They have visions of snowshoeing dancing in their heads, and they can’t wait to hit the ski hill too!! It is coming though…. any second! And we are all pretty sick of the crazy rain we have had!
For those of you who read the “Farmer To Do List” post – you know that for every action we take on the farm, it spawns another job. Some big jobs and some little chores, and we are all under a teensie bit of pressure to get some of these done before we are buried in snow. So if you were thinking….. what could possibly be 
left to do??…. let me fill you in.
First up? Our lovely ladies need to be looked after so that we continue to get amazing eggs all winter. Last year, we had a total of 10 hens and one rooster. Not too hard – they had their Taj Mahal coop and we had a lovely covered run for them out the back. It worked great, the problem is, we now have 36 hens and 2 roosters. We need to give them some more room to roam outside, opportunities for dust baths, and a way to stop the two roosters from fighting. And since we are somewhat seasoned, farm folks now, we look around the farm to see what we have on hand that will 
do the trick. I swear that country folks don’t throw anything…… nothing…. nada…. zilch away. It gets tucked in some obscure corner of a shed or barn and then hauled out when you have a project such as this. So with Darren – our master wood man, Chuck – our master chicken man, and Fallon and I (our biggest skills in this instance being hauling and holding things) we set about enlarging the outdoor run for them. Old pallets, a few pieces of metal roofing, a couple of ancient metal bed frames, and the plywood sheets from the old run – throw in some twine, a few screws and a few bricks we had laying around, and we have a wonderful, dry, safe run that will keep our ladies healthy and happy!
Now we can’t forget the rabbits! Chuck may have the chickens wrapped 
around his little finger – they follow him everywhere – but the bunnies…. these lovelies are all mine! I just love our rabbits, I talk to them, and cuddle them and sneak them extra treats whenever Chuck isn’t looking! And the babies are so sweet!!! All sweet and soft with silky ears and big round bellies….. sigh! New sets of “kits” are just the best thing! So all that was really needed was to help ensure that we protect them from the wind and the wet, which we did by tarping the entire rabbitry. Then we added some nice festive lights to help make it easier for us to see them and for them to see each other!
Next up was the garlic! This was one of those things that didn’t really work as well as we had hoped last year. The scapes were great, but the garlic never really got any girth – if you understand my meaning. Skinny, wimpy garlic will not cut it. We need us some robust, rubenesque type garlic. All round and plump and lovely (like 
the bunnies!). Now you could drive yourself a little insane with all the “advice” you can find on the internet. Everyone has a “no fail” method that they swear by – seriously – plant after Halloween, use cow manure for best results, till the soil, don’t till the soil, plant before November – plant after a full moon…… on and on and on. My in-laws hooked us up with some amazing looking garlic to use this year (Thanks Nana & Pa!!!) and we planted just the one type, in November, without tilling, after the October full moon….. ya never know! Let’s see how we do this year!
And finally……. a little quiz for the city folks…… what can you do with old hay bales that have gotten wet, some twine, water, used woodchips, organic waste, used rabbit hay, table scraps and a tarp???? Eh fancy city boys…… ??? Take those hay bales and make a frame out of them, twine it all together, fill the frame with all the woodchips, organic 
waste, poopy rabbit hay and table scraps. Hose it all down really well then throw the tarp over the whole works. (Yes my mastery of the water hose comes in handy again!) According to Darren…. this concoction is going to all mix together, heat up ( don’t ask me how….. 
all I can tell you is that it is currently steaming!) and some really complex chemical reaction type stuff with cause it all to break down and become soil!! Who knew you could make dirt!??? I will keep you posted on how this is going. Apparently we already have mushrooms growing… which apparently is a good thing!!?? Come back in 4-5 months and see what happened!
And the reason we are all hopeful for snow……..???? Every one of these chores was done in the rain…. every single one. Snow is easier to clean than mud… just sayin’!!
And the list continues!