First Snow

   This morning we are having our first snowfall in South Royalton, Vermont. Only up to an inch is predicted, but it is our first honest to goodness snow of the season. Since the date is October 30, old timers would forecast 30 major snowstorms for this winter. I don't know if this "old wives tale" will come true, but that is a lot of snowstorms for the winter of 2013-2014. We only just had our first frost last week on Monday, so after a very mild October we are suddenly plunging head first into winter it seems. Yesterday's morning low was 19 degrees and today's was 24 degrees. Brrrrr.
   Last week we devoted to the delivery and stacking of seven cords of wood to heat our farmhouse for the winter. We are lucky to have a 20x24 1930s garage on our property that we store our firewood in every fall and winter, to keep it dry. Also lucky enough to have it only a few steps from the backdoor of our house, a blessing during frigid Vermont winters. The garage seems to accumulate a lot of gardening equipment and "where do we put this?" items in the summer, but come fall it is cleaned out for only the firewood and storage of our porch and garden furniture.
   We also brought our hay home and stacked it in the barn last weekend, and can now breathe a sigh of relief that all the heavy lifting of wood and hay is complete, we'll be warm this winter, and the sheep will be well fed.
   One of our ewes, Charlotte, will be leaving to go to another farm to be bred in the beginning of November. I know we will miss her, but she will soon be back and hopefully grace our farm with a beautiful lamb (maybe twins) next April. The sheep are being lazy laying outside on the sunny days and still foraging for apples. It seems the pace of all the animals has slowed down and with no gardening chores I finally have time to make Christmas presents. So far I have made 4 1/2 presents,  with a lot more to go. So since the weather is chilly and snowy, I am off to my craft room to create. Enjoy the snow!

Sunrise over the barn last Tuesday am

Millie checking out the first frost

First snow!

A poor "woolly-bear" caterpillar caught in the first snow

 

Getting Ready for Hay

It's time to think about bringing home our winter supply of hay and storing it in the barn. We usually go to pick up the hay from the farm where we buy it the last week in September. The farm is about thirty minutes from our farm, which gives us thirty minutes to rest from loading the hay until unloading and stacking the hay in our barn. A huge job! I try to enlist as many family members with pick-up trucks and strong backs and arms as I can for this tiring feat. Having stacks and stacks of hay in the barn always gives me such a sense of satisfaction and security knowing the sheep will be fed throughout the long Vermont winter. Not to mention the pleasure of smelling the aroma from the fresh hay.
So in anticipation of the arrival of the hay, it was fall cleaning weekend in the barn. Rafters, walls and floors were swept, garden tools put back in their rightful places, and summer items stored away to make room for the hay. My husband and I went out to get wooden pallets to raise the hay up off the brick barn floor to avoid any moldy hay. We were lucky to get huge, sturdy over-sized pallets, just what we needed. It now looks like the boardwalk at Atlantic City in the barn without the hay on the pallets, but soon hay will be stacked on them and the pallets won't be seen until spring.

Why worry about hay ?

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