A Little PNW Winter Farm Life

Well I guess it isn't winter yet just late fall still. But it is pretty chilly, 24 degrees, and dark so I'm guessing no one is going to smack me for calling it winter.

Last week I really scrambled to get some more fall work done outside before winter hit. Funny, no matter how hard and fast I felt I was working there was always another little something that needed doing.


The official weather man from NOAA, who obviously likes snow by the way, was saying very early on that we were going to have lows and sustained lows the likes of which we haven't seen in this area for nearly twenty years. Consequently, Dirt has been doing animal, plumbing and mechanical severe winterizing while all I had to do was the garden stuff. This was all made more difficult by not having all my work done when I should have, but I've already confessed all that to you dear reader so we will move on.


Late Friday and early Saturday we were having some good strong winds, nothing like a couple of years ago but strong none the less, not an everyday occurance but certainly something we are used to at some level in the fall. .

Well we woke up to a break in the fence, no big deal because it isn't a perimeter fence line but a cross fence. But it must be fixed or our lambs will be lambing on their first birthdays, actually a couple of months later as our flock drops lambs in February to the first of March but we are always ready by January. Any who the fence must be fixed before the ram figures out he can have some more fall fun.

In the wagon are the tools for todays job. It is nice to have a wagon to put the tools and the cut up tree in. I love our old wagon.

Dirt and Bet get quick to work to figure out how to salvage as much fence as possible. I think that there are a few traits born into people destined to farm, how to use what you have, save what you aren't using at the moment and above all salvage all usable parts of something broken. The less bought the better doesn't always (hardly ever) makes for a pretty farm but it makes for an effecient farm, okay cheap farm, (oxymoron disregarded).

Anna is taking the pictures but she helped quite a bit and swears that she is very grateful for her fencing lessons that she claims came in very handy. The tree is extracted from the fence and now it is time to stretch and tack.

An actual metal tee post goes in where the dead tree was being a post. So much for cool, picturesque fencing, it is better if you use things that are not suceptible to wind. Notice my Dirt does not use a tee post driver. He is a sledge hammer man. I think he likes the fact that he can drive a tee post in with it and most fellows can't, it doesn't show up in the pecs though, it actually is finesse and strength. The fence is repaired and we moved on to other jobs as we anticipate snow and really cold temperatures.

And sure enough after we went inside Saturday, took our boots off, sup on various left overs it began to snow. We have lots of pics from today and I will be sharing them tomorrow dear reader. I didn't do a whole lot today mostly took care of the wild birds and did windows. Unfortunately this does not make for a very tired Lanny and I am up way too late but I am going to force myself to sleep.

I'm sorry if you are suffering because of winter weather that I delight in but I think I was supposed to live my life in some cold and snowy place instead I got lost inside the PNW and far and few between weather adventures. I don't mean to be insensitive to others plight but I love our snow maybe because we get it so seldom. Have a great morning dear reader.