Running Hen Microfarm » snow

Snow AGAIN… with fowls

Ruth — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:11:39 +0000

OK, this will be the last of the snow pictures this winter!! Any more will have to wait until next winter!!!

This is the super snow-blowing machine that we finally had to hire after 3 other trucks got stuck trying to plow.

This is the view out the front door on Wednesday the 10th…after shoveling the front walk and cleaning the car, it snowed over 10 more inches! And then started to blow around!! We decided to stay home…ha.

The path to the chicken and duck house

Can we stay inside today?

Food! Food! There are no bugs!

Where's our pond? Where's the food?

Potatoes from snow

Ruth — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:38:02 +0000

potatoes are in there somewhere!

Here is Mike’s chronicle of retrieving potatoes from snow. They were originally planted in the large garden, but in the fall he dug them up and buried them 3 to 4 inches deep next to the porch. He then piled straw on top as insulation to keep them from freezing.

a path is dug

a pile of straw!

potatoes!

Enough for dinner!

Snow, worms, potting soil, power outtage

Ruth — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:24:21 +0000

Lots more snow today! We have maybe 3 feet. Also, we woke up this morning to no power…so, first thing, Mike made a fire and brought in some snow to melt on the woodstove to make coffee…after all, no power means no heat (even the geothermal runs on electricity) and no water (electricity needed to run pump) and no cooking on the gas stove (ignition works by electricity)…not very off-the-grid, is it? But at least we have this alternative…thanks be for woodstoves!! Fortunately, the power came back on around noon.

An indoor chore for today was to work on making potting soil, a several step process. Today I removed the middle tier of the worm farm…there is wonderful, dark compost within (see photo)!! However, there were also MANY worms. Ideally the worms were supposed to migrate up into the top bin in search of new food, but most of them hadn’t made it up yet (I gave them at least 3 weeks and tried bribing them with lots of garbage!!). So, I spent about an hour sitting on the floor pulling worms out of the finished bin and putting them into the top bin. Of course I didn’t get them all…sorry, worms, but some of you will have to be sacrificed for the cause of compost…be reassured that most of your relatives will live on for generations…

Megasnow II

Ruth — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:59:11 +0000

Here are two pictures from today…one outside with the deer crossing the yard, and the other inside with a steamed applesauce cake made on top of the woodstove! (I googled “steamed” and “applesauce” to get the recipe which was developed by some Boy Scouts for cooking over a fire.) In the back is some frozen pumpkin I am thawing to make “pumpkin gnocci with sage butter”.

Megasnow of ‘09

Ruth — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:30:18 +0000

Clara dug paths for ducks & chickens

Yesterday we got 20+ inches of snow! Clara is visiting and we worked outside.

Cold frames uncovered

Greens inside!

Ruth and Charlie

Sunday was dig-out day

In the foreground is the fig tree, "packed" for the winter

The fig tree was covered in plastic and then packed with straw. The first year we overpacked the fig tree and unpacked it too late and it got moldy and died (but it grows back from the roots), and the second year we unpacked it too soon in March and it died…but it grew back and produced more than a dozen figs in October. Hopefully, this year we will get it just right!

Solar food dryer (made by Mike) with figs and herbs in October