Oh the joys of doing some tiny farming in the winter - despite it being bitterly cold it's still fun to be outdoors and watch how everything adapts to the cold weather. With a blanket of snow over all the sheep fields for well over a week now the sheep are eating lots of hay and supplementary food. We make sure that we put plenty out so that they can still choose when to eat.
They seem to be surviving the cold spell really well and are generally covered with a white dusting first thing in the morning. It's easy to see where they have slept the night before as every morning there are small sheep size patches on the fields that are the only places not covered in snow.
One of the big challenges has been water, the water troughs freeze over every night and a really thick layer of ice needs to be cleared every day - bitterly cold on the fingers - and it's not too long before another layer of ice starts appearing.
Also not a good idea to let your gloves fall into the freezing water trough - I can tell you that from experience now.
We are hoping to trim the sheep's feet sometime next week, I guess we'll have to see what the weather does.
The next real big decision is which of the lambs to send to slaughter the following week as we will be having our first batch of Tiny Farmer lamb…but at least that's a week away for now for we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Enjoy the cold & snow, it does produce some really magic moments.
Tiny Farmer out
We are 'tiny farming' indoors at the moment, mostly because we are still at the fencing stage and haven't got any animals on the land yet! Will enjoy being able to stay indoors, or rather in the caravans and 'pig/chick hut come office', knowing that next winter all will be different. Enjoyed catching up with your journey and look forward to keeping you company via your blog during 2010.
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