Winter Farming

Are you wondering what's happening on the farm in the winter? Now that the fruit has been harvested I bet you're thinking it's the life of Riley on the farm?

Au contraire mon frere!

As soon as the last truck load of apples departs, we begin winterizing all of the remaining equipment and finalizing all of the end of the year book work for each of our orchard blocks. We also take some time to prepare around the home place for cold weather.

The end of year book work includes a meeting with each of our landlords with whom we farm (we have four)  and a reflective meeting between Bill and I regarding each of our own properties, p.s. the latter is an ongoing event:) We also meet with our farm lender, Alan, to review our progress and plan for the next year. This year we proposed adding an additional 50 acres in Union Valley to our farming operation. Yesterday Alan approved it, so yee haw after we tie up a few more loose ends we'll be farming 132 acres!

The increased acreage will require detailed planning this winter as we decide what our labor needs will be and the hierarchy of leadership. We had our first meeting today in the shop with a fire in the stove and our top three employees. Using a large visual showing each of the different blocks we're farming including Union Valley, Bill asked everyone to think about what our labor needs will be for 2012. Our guy in the field gave us a report on the remaining Manson Grower employees at Union Valley. We all agreed someone experienced with the Union Valley block in spraying /tractor driving, irrigation and frost protection would be a huge benefit to us during our first year. We finished our meeting with a plan to recruit one of those people.

Meanwhile, back at the home place I wanted to share some of the clean up and winterizing.

We use to have a large cottonwood tree where the guys are working.... You may notice a stack of wood to the left? We hope the lopsided pine tree will grow more evenly without the cottonwood next door.

We're looking inside the Ritz, I mean the chicken coop. Notice the insulated quilted door flaps? Those are added to keep cold winter air from blowing in on a cold winter night.

In addition to the door flaps, I've added a heat lamp. All of the ladies appreciate it and reward us daily with eggs throughout the winter.

Christmas lights are the final touch. Every night it looks like a party in the coop. Of course I'm jealous, so I have to check it out every now and then.

That's Miss Kitty ruling the roost. I think I was witnessing a squawk off but I'm not sure. If you're wondering, that's Big June watching me take the picture. You can't get anything by Big June.

Here's winterized Leo. He gets a heated pad. I've since added another layer of winterization to his bed that I'll show you next time. It includes a protective wind flap. He really approves of the upgrade.

This is winterized Garth and Marlo. They get the heat lamp in the garage. It's a huge hit since they've decided to share the bed. Marlo hangs out there even during the day.

And don't worry I haven't forgotten about the festive winter ale. We should be bottling in the next day or two!