Getting Ready for Winter

It seems that cold weather is upon us this week - I saw a low of 20 in the next couple of days, but I don't think it will get that low.  At any rate, I had some things to do to get ready for it.  The most obvious one was to bring in a few plants - I started by putting my citrus plants in the garage.  They seem to be the most susceptible to the cold and I've taken more of an interest in them, since learning more about fruit gardening.  I have a few random plants in pots that would be affected by the cold.  If they were in the ground, I wouldn't worry about them so much, but since they're in pots, they could be harmed more.  I had a few plants that have been fine during previous winters, but tonight could be a little extreme, so I erred on the side of caution and brought those in as well.  I'll probably keep them in there for a few days, until the temperature returns to normal.

I haven't paid much attention to the pond recently - I'm still deciding what to do with it - redesign it, get rid of it - I still needed to do a little bit for it.  I cleaned it out some and filled it up with water from my rain barrels.  This was also important - emptying the barrels would potentially keep them from freezing and cracking or splitting.  I got the waterfall pump running and the water flowing to ensure that the pond wouldn't freeze completely.  I know it sounds like I'm going to the extreme, but I don't want to take any chances.

My biggest concern in the chickens.  I have been reading about winterizing coops and most people agree that it's not good to shut them up without a lot of ventilation.  Their breath is very humid and their droppings are moist as well, not to mention full of noxious gases which need to be vented.  Shutting them up would be very detrimental to their health.  I've heard of people putting Vaseline on their combs and waddles, to keep them from getting frostbite, but that's not going to happen here - I couldn't catch all of them to do that before dark.  The best advice I found was to make sure they get a lot of corn in the afternoon, before they go to bed.  The extra grain will help them stay warm through the night.  The last thing I'll do is to bring in their water after they go to bed.  It will likely freeze out there and I'll have to dethaw it - I may as well just bring it in and save the trouble later.  I just have to remember to put it back in the coop in the morning.

December Rainfall

0.00 inches during the first week of December - it rained a couple of times, but not enough to register in the rain gauge.
0.00 inches on December 7th
0.10 inches on December 12th
0.10 inches on December 20th/21th
0.10 inches on December 25th
0.75 inches on December 27th

1.05 inches total rainfall for December

Countryside and Small Stock Journal

During the last couple of years, I would pick up issues of farming, chicken, gardening or otherwise "rural living" types of magazines in order to get some ideas about gardening or raising chickens or living a greener life.  One of these magazines initially struck me as odd in their articles and their advertising.  It seemed like a freaky source of information about living off the grid - solar power, composting toilets and the like.  I now think of this magazine, Countryside and Small Stock Journal, as an interesting facet of living the rural life.  Recently I've gotten some good information about raising chickens and growing potatoes in straw.

After looking for some of these articles online, I found a site that seems to have the past eighteen years of this magazine online, free.  It's something I'd like to spend a little time going through during the winter.  Maybe I can learn a little something.

November Rainfall

0.20 inches on November 16/17th

0.30 inches overnight on November 22nd/23rd

1.30 inches on November 27th/28th

1.80 inches total rainfal for November

Really? Another Rooster?

One of our supposed hens started crowing the other day.  It wasn't that much of a surprise - even though he was supposed to be a hen, it was clear for a long time that "she" might be a "he".  What does surprise me is that this rooster came from a batch of sexed day-old chicks.  They were supposed to be hens, but obviously sexing chickens is not an exact science.  Because of that, most chicken breeders have a return policy for roosters.

I say they have a return policy - I went and talked to the neighbor I got him from and found out he ordered them from a hatchery in Ohio - not exactly a returnable rooster.  So, once again, I have to figure out what to do with a rooster.  He's not a problem right now.  I hear him crow early in the morning, but he's pretty quiet - I haven't heard him during the day, but Robin has.

I'm not sure what we're going to do with him.  We'll probably end up putting him on Craigslist like the other roosters, but until then, we have a pretty large chicken running around our yard.