Well, here we are a couple years later and i have been putting a lot of time in the coop lately in order to finally finish it so I can move on to other buildings.  We have insulated the interior and covered it with paneling, and I built some old-fashioned style double-hung windows using old sashes i've salvaged from houses. 

Next step is to put siding on the coop because we're sick of looking at plywood.  I have lots of galvanized steel roofing material, so I think I'll put that on for siding.  It will end up looking quite industrial, but hey, it's free!  Check out the picures of the new windows in the chicken coop, and the chickens in their nice warm house.

We will let everyone know how little Sam-Sam is doing after the vet visits.

Sally

The sustainable and organic farming community is a little more spread out geographically, but we still like to visit (especially in the winter when we actually have time).  It's a time to meet new people, trade ideas and stories, and strenghthen our growing farm community here in Minnesota. 

Sally and I are working with the Land Stewardship Project and a team of farmers to reach out to other farmers in our area to develop communities.  I was happy to visit Marshwatch Farms in Prior Lake today and chat with Joe and Terrie Adams.  They live on an old farm in Scott County and have a CSA business.  The farm is beautiful, they fed me a delicious lunch, and I was happy to get to know another farm couple (and see an old barn too!)

I  decided to do some more visiting and drove to Le Sueur to check out Know-How Brews and Foods and chat with Rusty Rybolt.  He and his wife Ann have opened a homebrew and cheesemaking supply shop in the Le Sueur Mall!  Since we are going to have a lot of goat milk a few months, we have been interested in learning how to make cheese, yogurt, and kefir out of the milk.  Well, now we can drive five miles to get our cultures and utensils.  Amazing.  Plus, the homebrew stuff will come in handy in the fall for hard apple cider!  I bought some culture to make yogurt and kefir, and I'll go out and buy some Cedar Summit milk for the recipe.

What a nice couple of visits for this mid-winter day!

I am also waiting to see if and when I can start yet another project/adventure. I would like to raise two bull calves into oxen. I would use them to help with logging in our woods, pull large drums of maple sap out of the woods to be turned into syrup and to possibly help with field preperation. This great? idea came about because I recently met another farmer who uses oxen for logging. And because he did it, I thought I could too. Josh and I visited A to Z Produce and Bakery (www.atozproduceandbakery.com) in Stockholm, WI early this month. Josh and I had a wonderful lunch at the farm and got to see the two resident oxen do their thing-pulling a sled to pick up fire wood. Cattle are so wonderful - so gentle and calm. I really hope I can find two young calves to make this work. And I hope I have the patience to be a good teamster. 

We are waiting for our hens to pick up with egg laying. The weather has been cold so they refuse to lay. I guess I wouldn't want to either if I had to be outside all day in the cold. Hens will not lay (regularly) if it is too hot or too cold or if they are molting (shedding/get new feathers). They are also particular about the snow. They do not like to walk on it. They all wait at the door in the morning when I go to let them out. They are waiting for me to put down some fresh straw or brush away the snow so they can walk with out being bothered by the snow. They are so particular that way, kind of cute actually. 

I guess I am waiting for the season to "start". I am antsy to get into the green house and be warm and work with soil and plant seeds and to see green again, because this winter just seems to drag on and on.... 

see you soon, with a better attitude! :-)

We realized that we really need to have fence to keep deer out. They wreck too many crops. Since they are browsers, they only take a little bite out of EVERYTHING so it is not able to be sold or added to CSA boxes. They are such stinkers! (and other angry words!)

The fencing is not what most people think it is (a large 10 foot high fence). It is actually a 3 strand wire fence, two wires in one line and a third wire on a second line behind it. Deer have "landing anxiety" and do not like to jump where they can't tell they will land. This wire fencing makes it difficult for them to jump. Plus, you bait the electrified wires so they know not to come close. 

wish us luck!