Hunkering Down & Catching Up

Our first winter storm is rolling over us. We are fortunate that much of it will likely drop north of us. I don't really care for snow. Don't get me wrong it can be lovely, but having it on the ground depresses temperatures a great deal. When you accumulate more then 8 to 10" inches of snow early in winter it usually takes a very long time to melt off and it can hold on all winter (like last winter). I have been racing to get ready for winter. I have cleaned-up the random farming items that littered the yard, dug up the annual bulbs, built most of a sheep shelter (no permanent roof yet), and  hauled in a manure spreader that I purchased a few month back, but never had time to pick-up.

Sheep shelter with temporary roof

Sheep shelter two days ago was just four posts in the ground

I am most happy about getting the sheep shelter functional in time for freezing rain and snow. Jim, from Pella, came out yesterday and we took four posts and got the thing walled up and framed to receive a steel roof. The steel being about the only random farm thing left lying around the yard. If we get a nice day here, we will try to get that steel up on the roof. I would like to build another one of these small loafing sheds yet this year, but with the one, we now have enough space under roof to get all of our sheep some shelter during the worst winter weather.

We dodged a bullet this time, but winter is long and we are bound to have significant snow fall before too long. Thanks for reading. I am going to put up a several farm product reviews for items that we use around the farm, especially fencing items, so look for them in the coming weeks. If you have any farming equipment that you have heard us mention and would like to know how it has worked for us, drop me an email.