Farm Report 01/13/07

Twelve Dwarf Gang-Bangers Get Death Sentence



The situation with 13 Brides for 12 Brothers has not worked out well. The large females ignore the small males. As a result, the males now stalk the females as a group, focus on one and isolate her, then badger her and force her to submit.

We're solving the problem by recycling the 12 brothers into dog food:




The dogs are very happy. The 12 brothers are now 10, and counting.

The hens egg production tripled when we started letting them forage outside. But then it began to drop off again. I soon discovered why:




They have begun laying eggs outside in the salal bushes on the edge of the lawn. I discovered this nest by accident. One of the dogs found another one.

The solution for this has been to only let them out in the afternoon, since most of them have laid their eggs by then.

We have had our first big snowstorm here in Robin's Wood. Here I am with one of the dogs on the first snowy morning:




OK, I admit, two inches of snow isn't much of a "storm" for many folks, but it is rather a lot for the Oregon Coast. Pat has more photos on his blog, of the farm that first morning, here and here.

We had no significant snow last year, and just a dusting the year before. Usually it just melts with the afternoon sun, but not this time. We had still more snow in the late morning:






The sun finally came out in the afternoon, and the snow began to melt and fall from the tree branches:




But temperatures were still quite cold, and as the sun set freezing temperatures resumed, so the snow has stayed on the ground.








Welcome to "Cold Comfort" Farm!

I had to break ice for the animals this morning, and it was so thick that I broke a brick on the ice while trying to reopen the duck pool. The ducks aren't happy unless they have some water to swim in, no matter how cold. The weather report says this is arctic air over us now, and it may last a few more days.

The water pressure pump on the well froze again, and Andy had to thaw it out with a blow torch. We've got to work on insulating that today, but right now I have to take the dogs for a walk, before they go stir crazy. The fun never stops! ;-)