KW Homestead

Pasture Raised Poultry & Edible Landscaping Plants Since 2013

Tag: snow

14 Inches of Snow in Stokes County, NC

This snowstorm was a major one! 14 inches is more that I ever remember seeing as a child, growing up in Greensboro. I’m glad that Uhtred got to see another year of snow before Christmas (that’s the right way to ring in the holiday season!).

He spent part of one day sledding and exploring deep snow, and the next day we threw snowballs and watched the cows. Overall, it was a great few days of rest and relaxation!

Wind and Winter Weather: Repairs and Shocks!

This has been an intense winter, as many of you know from first-hand experience!

We’ve had to make a few fence repairs from the wind, and “pick up the pieces” after winter storms came through and dropped inches of snow.

Here’s our adventure in picture form:

A few weeks ago we had a wind storm that blew gusts around 50 or 60 miles per hour. We never, in our wildest dreams, would have thought that the chicken fence would act like a sail and fold up onto itself like a fan:

fence

Where’d the square-shaped fence go?

fence

An airborne fence? Whoa!

Stupidly, for the most recent winter storm we didn’t prepare for a power outage at all. We over-prepared (is there really such a thing?) for the one before this last one, but not for this one!

Since we get our water from a well, our water doesn’t work when the power doesn’t. We utterly forgot to worry about this, and so when we woke up yesterday to find that our power was out, we realized that we had to find a way to get water for our ducks to drink. We decided that melting snow next to the wood stove was the best bet…

snow

Jason scooping snow into “the bathtub” to put by the wood stove.

And we also forgot to remove the netting from the chicken pen to keep the snow from sticking to it…

snow

The netting became so heavy with snow that it deformed the fence!

Luckily none of the netting ripped!

snow

Yes, that’s a blanket of snow on top of our bird netting!

Even after all the cleanup and repairs we had to do, it still is lovely to have a blanket of snow on the ground. I’m still not sick of winter yet, not when we have views like this…

snow

snow

And of course, the geese were not phased by the situation at all and continued to bathe throughout the freezing temperatures!

geese

geese

They don’t look quite as white as they used to, do they?

.:.

 

Pigs in a Blanket (and Hay)!

Yesterday and today have been pig-filled days… Tonight we ate pigs-in-a-blanket while watching an awesome video about butchering pigs, but not until after we finished creating the wind-and-snow-proof, new pig hideaway. Our original fence was working just fine for mild weather, but we knew that we need something a lot sturdier and weather proof considering the incoming 6+ inches of snow!

The side of the shelter

The side of the shelter. Old doors we found in the barn are lashed down for sturdy wind breaks… Emma’s idea! The 2 perpendicular sides of the shelter are situated like this.

The 3rd side of their shelter... A partial cattle panel with a tarp wrapped around it for blocking the wind.

The 3rd side of their shelter… A partial cattle panel with a tarp wrapped around it for blocking the wind. This side runs diagonally across one corner of their pen… This was Jason’s idea!

The one small opening they have for getting in and out… This minimizes the wind and snow that can fly in!

Hello pigs!!!

pigs

Looking in at the pigs from a little peep hole in the opposite corner from their entrance… We’ve stuffed it with hay so they can fully bury themselves if desired (since they love this so much!).

Pigs in the hay! Stay warm tonight!

.:.

 

 

 

 

 

hibernation vacation: preparing for the winter storm!

currently at our house in stokes county, it is snowing! it has been snowing for the past few hours and we’ve already accumulated 1.5 inches.

our expected snowfall total: 6 to 10 inches, with perhaps a layer of sleet to top it all off. extreme! at least for central north carolina.

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today’s snow storm, in progress

so far this year we’ve gotten a few other small snow storms, but nothing that can compare to what weather sources anticipate we’ll see today and tomorrow.

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emma checking on the chickens after the snow 2 weeks ago

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a few chickens come out to explore the winter wonderland

 

 

 

 

 

 

and while jason and i read, watch the snow, and research more plants that we want to plant in the spring, we’re also preparing in case of a power outage.

what we’ve done so far today:

water

collecting water in tubs and buckets in case of a power outage

  • i filled up a large rubber bathtub with water so that we can flush the toilet if the power goes out. i also filled up a 5-gallon bucket with water to use for chicken and dog water, even though if things become really crazy we can always thaw a bowl of snow for the birds. we’ve done this is because we have a well and the well pump needs electricity to operate.
  • i filled up a few gallons of water and our tea pot for our drinking water. considering that we have juices and milks in the fridge, i imagine we’ll fare just fine even in a worst case scenario.
water

storing drinking water in gallon jars

  • we have plenty of non-perishable food items (such as canned meats and canned vegetables).
  • jason made a venison stew last night that we will enjoy all day today and tomorrow (recipe forthcoming)
  • we have an 800-watt duracell inverter that we can use to charge devices once it stores charge from one of our cars.
  • we have plenty of candles (both real ones and battery powered candles) and many flashlights and extra batteries.
  • we also have headlamps and these amazing, warm hats with a light built in that jason’s mom got us for christmas!

later today we plan on cooking a few more items to have some ready-to-eat things available. some of these include:

  • lots of popcorn for a snack
  • basil beer bread, made with our very own basil and a beer jason brewed (recipe forthcoming)
  • pasta… filling, versatile, and not likely to go bad anytime soon even if it’s unrefrigerated for a day or two.
snow

animal tracks on our frozen pond from our snow 2 weeks ago

otherwise we plan to lay low, watch the olympics, and read. the dogs and cat are spending time with us, sleeping and playing with (or thoroughly annoying) each other. the chickens will be fine in their house and since the wind isn’t blowing as of now, they will remain dry and warm. later today, we plan to go for a walk and check out our snow-covered pond to see which animals may have been walking over it lately.

so, if it’s snowing where you are, think of safety and prepare, but don’t panic (no driving to the store now!) and enjoy your hibernation vacation!

.:.

Snow and a Food Forest in Puerto Rico

Let it snow!

We got our second snow of the winter, and it stuck. It stuck to the chickens, the bird netting, and basically everywhere on the homestead other than the driveway. It looks great to me (as I’m sure Sean Law’s messy lawn looked great to him), but we’ll see about travel conditions tomorrow.

Chickens and Snow

The chickens are Snow excited!

Today we pretty much lazed about, waiting on the snow to start. Emma whipped up some sweet potato ginger soup (Yum.) and I mulled over some seed catalogs that recently came in the mail.

I focused on perennial plants today, and the lists and descriptions of exotic edibles and unusual varieties guided my thoughts to our backyard, and our plans for next year.

I’d like to put in a food forest.

A food forest is basically what it sounds like, a forest of food, and can take many shapes and sizes. Cultures all over the world, and throughout history, have tended forest gardens. Some of these gardens are obvious and some are so embedded in the landscape that they are hardly noticed.

For example, I spent many days wandering my great grandparents’ small lot in Moca, Puerto Rico, walking in the shade of a huge bread fruit tree while picking the sweetest grapefruit, oranges, and bananas I’ve ever tasted. An avocado tree nestled on the sunnier side of the tall tree, and in its shadow was a chicken coop with a small flock of hens and the first rooster to start crowing in the valley.

banana food forest

Bananas in the understory

Also in the shady understory, as almost an afterthought, were a couple dozen coffee plants and a few herbaceous “weeds.” Pigeon peas flowered along the driveway, fixing nitrogen and waiting their turn in the next pot of arroz con gandules, and a tall annatto tree soaked up the sun behind the house while ripening the red colored seeds used in almost every dish Mamá prepared.

Pigeon Pea Food Forest

Pigeon Pea or Gandules

That’s a food forest. Plants occupying every layer and interacting with each other by providing shade or nutrients, chickens foraging beneath and cleaning up fallen fruit, stopping the pest cycle, and fertilizing the entire system all while providing eggs and meat.

Instead of focusing on annual production, row cropping, or cash crops, food forests are small, diverse ecosystems that are greater than the sum of their parts. As self replicating systems, they are the epitome of sustainability, soil building, wealth, and resiliency as they age. There are some food forests that are over 2,000 years old.

So you can see why one would want a food forest on their homestead.

Food Forest Location

Most of the undergrowth at the forest edge has been cleared in preparation for a food forest planting next spring.

I’d like to put the beginnings of one in next year in our backyard. The spot I’m most excited about is the edge of the woodland that surrounds our yard and makes a small southeastern facing glade. I’ve begun clearing the underbrush of small oaks and pines, and would like to integrate our edible forest with the maple and oak regrowth forest surrounding us.

It will probably look nothing like the forest garden in Moca, but it will be built on the same principles and interactions between species, and will hopefully be a place where our great grandchildren will walk through, reach up, and take a bite out of whatever piece of abundance is at peak ripeness that day.

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