Saturday we had a skiff of snow that stuck to the ground but it was not bad weather wise, and it just got better in some ways, the sun came out Saturday and sunday, the wind was bitter and cold but the storm was moving in and hit late Monday, all Monday night and into today..

It set a new snow record for that day in Nov in our area.. we got a solid 8 inches of snow in about 12 hours give or take..  and the temps dropped down and will keep dropping as a artic cold front moves in..

Honestly, it seems like every time we turn around, we are breaking some kind of record these days!

We are as prepared as can be for it all.. the mains are all working and the back ups are in place and in some cases, the backups to the backups have been given a check as well.

Still it was a long slow weekend in the sense of both being a 3 day weekend but also in the since that we just seemed to never stop..  We just knew in our bones that this WAS the last weekend before the snow and cold came and will stay for months now..

Hubby focused on the yard, the garden and the cleaning of pens..

Lets break that down, posts where placed so we can have snow paths, extra bird feeders where filled and set out.. 30 more loads of soil where taken to Garden Plot 15.  This removes all of the top soil from the driveway for winter snow clearing.

The yard got a final pickup, more wood got moved from the outside wood pile to inside a building and stacked.  Then came the pen cleaning..

This was a two fold focus.. (cleaning out the pen that I just finished the butchering out of) butchering the extra rooster and then totally cleaning the last grow out pen for the new laying hens..  They were moved to the cleaned out turkey pen while their old pen was clean out, new roosts added, a timer and light added, new laying boxes done.

This means that we have two flocks going this winter the older flock that will be taking a natural light break plus molting this winter and will lay the odd egg and the heavy in full production flock.

There are ten new brown egg layers plus one mixed egg layer that was hatched at the same time as them.. I have one younger self-hatched and raised chick/now teen chicken that is also a hen but I am going to leave her in the big pen with her chicken mom and turkey grandmother..  she can use the extra heat from them as she heads into winter as she is still a smaller bird for sure.

The fact that the brown layer hens pullet eggs are as big as my mixed breed eggs is not lost on me, I knew my egg size had really done down with the Icelandic chicken genes mixed in but it was still amazing to see just how small they had gotten in three generations. Time to bred some size back into the eggs and ideally keep a good amount of the things I really like that the smaller hardy breed brought to the flock blend.

My weekend was spent butchering, processing and canning..  All the turkey’s are now freezer camped, the extra rooster’s are done..  (I had hoped to do the last of the ducks) but everything takes time.

I also added in what seemed like never ending baking or cooking..  I made milk oatmeal bread, a blueberry cake, a loaded breakfast Fruit/Bran Muffin and Herbed Crackers.

To this I also added in not just canning plain meat but also canning Turkey veggie soup for hubby’s lunches, a load venison pasta sauce and one meal with homemade alfredo sauce..

All of the ones listed above had photos taken and notes taken and will be turned into single subject blog posts over the coming week.

I was thrilled to have energy to get that push on that butchering and to get the turkey grow out program finished for 2019.  One more thing done and one less thing to feed/water or clean up after over the winter.

I still get tired fast and went to bed each night right after supper and slept for 12 to 14 hours with a few cough wake ups in there..  hubby was the same.. but with less sleep and more drive..  Even so he was more then ready to call it after supper as well.

We took the evenings to rest and recover from the days work.. Still I can honestly say that I can tell I am finally mending, I would say that when well rested and in work mode I am at around 60% of my normal

While that might seem like its not a good number, it really is! and it will get better from there, each day I go a little long, take a shorter rest, sleep better and I have taken 15 pounds off in the past month and I know that helps as well.

Today however I am having a snow day, a rest day.. a healing day.. the hounds are snuggling in and the purrpots are checking in on me.. hubby heated up lunch which was so sweet (he is working from home today, not a true snow day but close enough and I am very happy he is not on the roads today in this mess of a weather)

I will get up and get started again tomorrow.. take care all..