What are you all doing to prepare for winter?

[sumi]

We are doing the same, Sumi.

Same as we do every year.... getting wood, canning food, calking, painting and other general maintenance of the buildings and grounds, bedding down the garden with deeper wood chips, changing out bedding in the dog house, adding more in the chicken coop, changing out nesting materials, laying in dry goods, drawing up fresh water into jugs(winter storms take out our power here very frequently), gearing up for hunting season and the deer harvest and canning it up, gathering in chicken and dog food, foraging for apples to can and use for livestock, deer and pet feed, raking and storing leaves for winter bedding needs and also to put on the garden, culling of the flock and canning them up, fall cleaning and clearing out of storage areas and the home.

The usual.

I got tired just reading all that! lol My list is short as I have only the house and as from 2 days ago 2 hens weee) to think about. Next year though...

 

[baymule]

I'm going to plant some apple trees this fall. I don't know how they will for, there is cedar trees like crazy here. I've read about cedar apple disease. (Shrug) nothing ventured nothing gained.

 

[goatgurl]

@frustratedearthmother I'm kind of like you, i feel like a slacker next to these gals. I've gotten the winter hay in for the girls. propane tank is full. steer butchered, last of the rabbit growouts butchered. number of sheep and goats lessened and that's about it. still overrun with chickens and ducks but will be butchering all the biggest part of the ducks and all but a couple of the roosters before snow flies. sil made me a chicken plucker to use will a drill this weekend. i can't wait to try it.
oh, and i have the last of the tomatoes in the dehydrator right now. and the last of the herbs before frost. stevia, oregano, thyme and lemon balm. maybe I'm not such a horrible slacker after all.

 

[sumi]

Thanks @baymule! I'll have some idle time next week, then I'll sit down and read everything

@Beekissed that sounds wonderful...

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I will throw a WELCOME WINTER party!

You and me both, sistah! I'd take a hard freeze right now and run (nekkid) through it if I didn't have to slosh through mud anymore! I'm so stinkin' sick of mud, and humidity, and skeeters, and whining goats, and weeds, and a yard I can't mow cuz I don't have a pontoon mower.... Geeze, can I think of anything else to whine about???

When you live where I live - south of Houston - there's not much winter to prepare for!

'Bout the most I do is get about 5 or 6 big round bales for the critters.

 

[Beekissed]

Girls you won't like those flashing style cones, especially for CX....they just aren't cone shaped and so they don't come down well into the neck of the cone. I was doing a butcher demonstration at a place that had those and all the birds kept flopping out of those cones because they could get their feet into the wide tops and their bodies didn't fit well into the bottoms, not to mention the slick interiors that helped them do the Houdini and kick out of them. What a mess!

I finally whipped out my old 2 gal. bleach jug cone, nailed it to a fence post and proceeded to kill birds without all the drama and mess...cheap, durable, fits large and small and the shoulders cup the birds well, while the legs hang outside the cone, so no using them to kick themselves out of it. That lady's CX were the biggest chickens I've ever butchered as she had held them over to 15 wks...HUGE...but still fit into that cone just fine and, more important, they STAYED in the cone.

 

[Britesea]

I have both- an All American pressure canner, and a small Presto pressure cooker. One of our favorite winter meals is Swiss Steak, and it only takes 30 minutes in the pressure cooker. The crockpot is wonderful, but if you've forgotten to start it early enough in the day, the pressure cooker can be a life saver.

We are trying to finish the greenhouse in between the rainstorms we keep getting. The frame is up, the 2 endwalls are done and the remaining parts have been caulked to keep rain out of the flutes; we just need to do the roof/hoop.
I also still need to harvest the last of the beets, peppers, tomatoes and potatoes so I can put the garden to bed.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Well... I was just going to start a thread then I remembered this one from last year!

What is everyone doing to get ready for winter?

Today we cleaned out coops, replaced nest boxes and started working on a winter turkey coop. LOTS to do before winter here!

 

[sumi]

Right now, my biggest worry is getting enough fuel for the fire. Our local fuel company I saw is selling peat in bulk at a good price and I'm planning to get some if I can. Weather depending I also want to get at least some winter vegetables in the ground soon.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Winter? What is this thing that you speak of?