Farm Life: Winter Edition

Happy New Year!  I hope things are going well for all of you; resolutions still intact, or at least were broken for a worthy cause.  Winter on the farm can be a good time to get things back into shape, especially after a long harvest season, but like with our personal resolutions, a lot of things can get in the way.  Last week we experienced 2-3 feet of snowfall in one afternoon, with temperatures dropping to -20 degrees.  That type of weather gets in the way of doing any maintenance and upkeep- putting the whole farm into survival mode.

So what were we doing out on the farm, when everyone else was snowbound?  First we had to plow; farm driveways, areas around the feed bins, and even the roads.  It took a solid three days for the county plows to hit all of the roads, and the pigs needed to eat before that, so the farm tractors joined in to help.  We also would become a towing service for neighbors in the ditch, and even plowed out some of their driveways.  

Another job is bedding.  Bedding is pretty simple on a usual winter day:  we go out to the outside pig pens, open the gate, drive the straw wagon into the pen, take some bales of straw and put them in the hog houses (little huts that hold about 20 pigs each, for sleeping and to escape from the elements), drive back out of the gate and shut it.  With 3-4 foot snow drifts, even opening the gate becomes a big challenge, but the pigs need the new straw bedding most when the temperatures are so frigid.  

Other winter tasks include running the generator, and fixing heaters.  Two years ago, we decided to buy one of those stand-alone generators that starts with the push of a button- no more trying to hook up the tractor to run the generator!  That's really nice for those of us who aren't very good with a tractor, but we still need to make sure this new one works in the worst of conditions, because honestly, the power never goes out when it's 65 degrees and the sun is shining.  This time the generator fired right up, but everyone held their breath until they heard it fall into a natural rhythm.  If it doesn't work in the cold we have to figure out a way to get it to start, because next time we might not be so lucky.  As far as fixing the heaters go, they always seem to work best when you don't need them, so a lot of time went into fixing those during the last cold spell.

After being on the farm a few years, you begin to realize that there isn't a "busy season" and an "off season."  Livestock still needs to be tended, maintenance is a constant battle, and there is always more work than can be accomplished in a day.  Each time of year is filled with it's own challenges and rewards, but all part of the same bigger picture:  we strive to care for our land and our animals better this year than in year's past.