Mid January and counting.

It's mid January, there just isn't a lot going on. I'm busy, but its with the mundane. It's the "get through it" mentality right now. Get through the school days, get through the cold weather, get through the chores. It's tough coming off the holidays and visiting family and having days off... and when your sandwiched between that and sheep vaccinations and as you prep for lambing (6 weeks away at this point) the time just isn't all that exciting. Things are coming along just fine. Sometimes "dull" is good though, I guess.

I did have to change a few jacket sizes the other day. The girls have their wool coming in strong, and of course they are putting on the pounds as their bellies widen. I took a picture to show the contrast between the jacketed wool, and their.. er.. unjacketed. Clean wool sells, that is why I have these sheep wearing jackets, it can add 10-14 dollars per pound of wool. People tend to laugh when I describe that my sheep wear jackets. But you cant argue with this:

The chickens have been the talk of the farm these days. Their egg laying has gone up tremendously, honestly you'd think it was mid summer by their production. The hens are averaging about 4.5 eggs per week- each! There are anywhere between 18-22 eggs every day. Luckily through the winter, when the roadside stand isn't an option, the teachers I work with are buying eggs. I have a waiting list if you can believe that. I sell about 10 dozen a week right now. As I look to the spring, I am going to try and breed my own chickens again this year. Last February was the farms first "birth;" where a Hen raised a

clutch of 4 chickens. Of course my luck I had 3 Roosters and 1 hen. The roosters became a bit much, in fact they started hurting the hens, and scratching up their backs pretty good. Its too tight of a space to have 5 roosters in for the winter. I dont know how you may feel and Im sure some of you may disagree, but it's something that every one should do; prepare your own food. And that is just what I did with 2 of the roosters. It is really eye opening to take a life through the stages from "coop" to the dinner table. Its not something I take for granted, and I was confident that I provided one heck of a life for that rooster for 10 months, compared to what many of us buy in the freezer section of our grocery store. I can't describe it, its not "cool" or "neat," I didn't turn all braveheart or anything with war paint on my face; its just a time to reflect on your food, where it came from and what its' life was like. You gain a true appreciation for everything it takes to get a chicken from birth to table.